Toxic delusion is very intense. Even Sanatani(s) are confused. ‘to do or not to do’ is very healthy confusion – one can at least reach to conclusion with Maa’s will. But there is no solution for ‘To do thoughtlessly’ as it is very toxic delusion and recoverable event.
Like modern medicine, Ayurveda too has become reductionist branch. Or rather, new branch has emerged which uses Ayurvedic knowledge and modern methods/processes.
For example: Tulsi as Medicine
1) One should not pluck Tulsi at all the times. Like how one must follow fasting before doing ‘Glucose-fasting’ test at lab, there are timing when one can pluck Tulsi and one cannot.
One must not pluck anything from any plant during night and SAndhya time. Avoid plucking Tulsi on Dwadashi.
There are many such rules prescribed for each plants. Some generic and some specific.
2) Never we connect with plant as a form of same consciousness and so no respect for it. Like a barbaric thief or a pig who devastate farm without notice, we mindlessly pluck the tulsi leaves.
Will she bestow her blessings under the pain, stress and utter insult?
Pluck it by reciting greatness of Maa Tulsi.
“तुलस्यमृतनामासि सदात्वं केशवप्रिये । केशवार्थ विचिन्वामि वरदाभव शोभने ॥”
Immortal Tulasi thou art always dear to Keshava.
O Great Goddess, purify! Make always auspicious!
Thanks to our ultra-consuming and exploiting societal attitude, we one by one destroy sacredness associated with our dharma-pillars.
First, it was cow, by turning her into milk machine.
Now, it is Tulsi, by turning it into yet another wonder drug!
Society that used to think twice before plucking Tulsi leaves, is now doing commercial farming of Tulsi! 🙂
Do you really think, slave plants carry medicinal properties?
I often tell my family that we really don’t need to pluck tulsi leaves daily unless there is emergency in terms of sickness. And plucking happens with proper ritual and प्रायश्चित! Plucking happens on specific days!
Do you know why? 🙂
Plants are hyper intelligent. They love us more than we care for them. Just worship Tulsi daily and spend at least 15 minutes with her. Observe her and generate thoughts about her glorious form. That’s it. She is intelligent and most caring to cure your unforeseen sickness. Her fragrance is most potent medicine.
Oh…but self-declared social reformers in mass media (news channels, movies etc) will tell you that this Tulsi Worship is blind faith 😀. You don’t need it to reach to God 😀. Wrong number. 😀
Mother Tulsi’s fragrance is real. Her touch is real. Her cure is real. Her medicinal values are real. And now the evidences suggest that she indeed has mind that can take actions!
Draw your own conclusion. Whom to follow? Childish illusion questioning by self-declared reformers or rock solid science? 🙂
Trust your grandmother’s ritual ,Worship Tulsi daily and remain healthy forever or keep questioning fanatically and stay away from real benefits of rituals. (Y) 🙂
Isn’t it our shortsightedness to confine Tulsi pooja in the religious dogmas? Free it from religion. Spending time with mother is a great boon to mankind!
She is mother! Don’t see her as ‘Ocimum tenuiflorum’!
Here is the chapter on Worship of Tulsi Devi from Bhagvatam
http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/db/bk09ch25.htm
“You said, one can pluck Tulsi leaves on specific days only. On specific time of the day only. But can sickness wait for the right time? Should we not treat sick body as soon as we detect the sickness?”
“Go ahead. Do it. By doing it, you invite more complex karmic relations with the plants. Such acts are selfish acts. You want to cure your body so that you are blind and do not realize pain of the plant. Plucking immature leaves from child plant is like doing rape of the children. Do you want to do it? Specific day and time and reverence bhava towards Tulsi maa (and any medicinal plant) frees you from possible karmic bonds. So better to follow right time, right day and right emotions (worship and reverence)”
Let me share my understanding of sickness.
शरीरत्रय – Three divisions of body.
स्थुल शरीर = अन्नमय कोश + प्राणमय कोश
सूक्ष्म शरीर = मनोमय कोश
कारण शरीर = विज्ञानमय कोश + आनन्दमय कोश
If sickness is not carry forward from previous birth, सूक्ष्म शरीर is the epicenter of the sickness which later spreads into स्थुल शरीर based on the intensity of the shock on सूक्ष्म शरीर. Root cause is karma or actions in current life which leaves imprints on मनोमय कोश. Negative imprints make मनोमय कोश sick. This sickness spreads into both direction. It stores karmic accounts in विज्ञानमय कोश and give birth to sickness symptoms into अन्नमय कोश + प्राणमय कोश. When sickness manifests in स्थुल शरीर, we seek help from स्थुल शरीर of plants, metals and mother nature. स्थुल शरीर of Maa will cure स्थुल शरीर of your body but still sickness persists in सूक्ष्म शरीर.
मनोमय कोश can be cured by healthy food for mind. Good thoughts (विचार), and good actions (आचार). To maintain विचार and आचार, good company (सत्संग) and other tools help (पूजा,व्रत,जप,तप).
So in ideal case, we really do not need to pluck leaves of Tulsi maa if we do regular Tulsi pooja without any motive or intention. Tulsi Maa will take care of मनोमय कोश and it will be reflected in your विचार and आचार and due to healthy मनोमय कोश, you will hardly need an occasion to pluck Tulsi leaves. Same is the case in Gau seva. You do Gau seva and done! You do not need to do any mal-practice to increase milk yield. 🙂
Follow rituals and enjoy festivals of the land and you will be fine forever unless there are really bad karma from past life 🙂
This is the reason I am not so excited seeing many Ayurvedic pharma selling Tulsi Ark 🙂 It is no way needed.
If at all, you need to pluck them due to sickness sprouted due to past life karma effect, you have Jyotish shashtra to act proactively. 🙂
Modern medicine? 😀 A big laugh on ignorance of human race 🙂.
Research
Are plants intelligent? New book says yes
Intelligence is the ability to solve problems and plants are amazingly good in solving their problems
For centuries Western philosophy and science largely viewed animals as unthinking automatons, simple slaves to instinct. But research in recent decades has shattered that view. We now know that not only are chimpanzees, dolphins and elephants thinking, feeling and personality-driven beings, but many others are as well. Octopuses can use tools, whales sing, bees can count, crows demonstrate complex reasoning, paper wasps can recognise faces and fish can differentiate types of music. All these examples have one thing in common: they are animals with brains. But plants don’t have a brain. How can they solve problems, act intelligently or respond to stimuli without a brain?
Plants obviously emit odors that animals and human beings are attracted to, but they also sense their own odors and those of neighboring plants.
Yes, plants smell. Our dictionary’s definition of “smell” excludes plants because they lack full fledged nervous system. But this does not mean they cannot smell.
Smells affect plant’s response. How?
Pheromones – A chemical substance secreted externally by some animals and plants that influences the physiology or behavior of other animals/plants of the same species or other species.
This article makes perfect sense to me due to my Sanatana background where I considers organs different from senses.
If you consider organ as a proof of sense ability, you will laugh on this article but if you can differentiate, sense and sense organ, this makes perfect sense.
All plants love Gobar and Urine smell. All insects of local ecosystem where cows reside, love dung odor. Dung is sufficient to trigger laying eggs (Oviposition) by insects.
No wonder why Agnihotra with herbs like turmeric is loved by my home garden. No wonder why we daily do Diya at Tulsi mata. Along with other factors like heat, Prana, odor also play critical role.
Do Plants Smell Other Plants? This One Does, Then Strangles What It Smells
http://www.npr.org/sections/krulwich/2012/05/24/153583873/do-plants-smell-other-plants-this-one-does-then-strangles-what-it-smells
“Plants smell,” says botanist Daniel Chamovitz. Yes, they give off odors, but that’s not what Chamovitz means. He means plants can smell other plants. “Plants know when their fruit is ripe, when their [plant] neighbor has been cut by a gardener’s shears, or when their neighbor is being eaten by a ravenous bug; they smell it,” he writes in his new book, What a Plant Knows. They don’t have noses or a nervous system, but they still have an olfactory sense, and they can differentiate. He says there’s a vine that can smell the difference between a tomato and a stalk of wheat. It will choose one over the other, based on…smell! In a moment I’ll show you how.
