Sacred Tulasi and traditional values

           I am a person who gives importance to traditional values and appreciates the ancient style of living. From my childhood days, I was taught, the importance of Tulasi (Holy Basil) by my grandma. I used to sit with my grandma while she offered her prayers to God with Tulasi leaves. After finishing her prayers, she would give me the holy water in which Tulasi was dipped. I would always ask her several questions about why she gave me Tulasi leaves and she would explain me the importance of Tulasi's religious and medicinal values. I still remember the days, my grandma prepared kashayam out of Tulasi and Karpoora Valli leaves, whenever I was suffering from cold and flu. I loved the aroma of the kashayam prepared by her and many times I have pretended to cough for the sake of my grandma's Tulasi kashayam.
            I as a mom, wanted to inculcate the importance of holy Tulasi in my daughter's mind. So I planted Tulasi at my home. I also planted a few more plants along with Tulasi. I watered all the plants every day and was delighted to see them grow. Every morning, I get fresh energy and enthusiasm to start my day, when I see the plants. I keep wondering at God's beautiful creation and new positive energy flows through my body looking at the plants. I have now started to enlarge my balcony garden with many flowering and non-flowering plants. Gardening has become my favorite hobby and it gives me a feeling of immense happiness  that I care so much about the lives of the plants in my garden. I pass on this feeling of pride and satisfaction to my daughter and she waters our garden with her tiny watering can.
            She copies me when I recite Gayathri Mantra to Tulasi Matha. It has become a habit for both of us to start our day after reciting the mantra and this habit makes us feel spiritually refreshed. It helps me get rid of all my negative feelings and move on with a positive attitude. I am now following my grandma’s kashaya recipe whenever my daughter gets infected with cold. It works wonders and I share this recipe with my friends and relatives.

            Many of us do not understand and cherish our traditional believes and values in this fast paced technical world.  I feel that it is extremely important for us to impart the benefits of our traditional style of living to our future generations. It is the need of the hour for the younger generation to realize, treasure and practice our traditional golden customs in today’s stressful life. Let us understand the greatness of our paati’s preaching and vaidyam. Our great grandparents have imparted many good things to us through their learning from experience and let us also do our duty of imparting those valuables to our future generations.

Miles to go…..