Jaya Tulsi Maharani, You gave me mercy when I could find shelter nowhere else. In the early 1970s when Srila Prabhupada was just starting his world wide preaching I was a college dropout in Boston Massachusetts. This was the hippie/Vietnam era and I had dropped out of everything, school, society and practically the human race. I somehow or other found myself in the Boston temple on Janmastami Day 1971. The temple president Satsvarupa (then adhikari) allowed me to stay and move in to study and practice bhakti yoga. I found Tulsi Devi was being kept in the damp, dark, cold basement of the 3 story wooden house. There were no windows! And a solitary 75 watt incandescent light bulb hung from the ceiling several feet over Her. It was a dungeon and Boston gets very cold in the winter. We were heading into fall. She was very frail. There couldnt have been more than one or two leaves left on Her long bare branches. I felt like She looked!!! Immediately I wanted to care for Her and in so doing I knew I would be caring for myself also. That was it. The moment of commitment that will last forever. It was sheer ecstasy taking Her out of the dungeon. I was allowed to set Her up in Srila Prabhupadas room…a very bright and sunny room with southern exposure on the second floor across from the temple room. We purchased several tube grow lights, made a wooden frame structure to support them and even used pulleys to raise and lower the lights to accommodate Her growing. And grow She did. She bloomed all winter and by spring there were eight or nine new Tulsi plants. I practically lived in that room with Tulsi Maharani. She had a vaporizer that made the air so moist and sweet with Her fragrance. She had a dolly (board supported on 4 wheels) She would sit on to be wheeled across the hall into the temple room for Her arotikas. Srila Prabhupada visited Boston and stayed in that room only once but the room had been so sanctified by His presence and now Tulsi was living there. And I was Her attendant. Now She is here. She has come to allow Her old attendant some mercy.
Posted on: Sat, 25 Oct 2014 18:19:16 +0000
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