Date, Rituals and Significant of Tulsi Vivah -Devuthani Ekadashi

As per our holy scripture, Lord Shree Vishnu sleeps on “Shayani Ekadashi” of Ashadh Month and wake up on “Prabodhini Ekadashi”, eleventh day of sukl paksh of kartik month. So this Ekadashi is also known as the Devothhan Ekadashi. In true sense lord is not sleeping for this four month because without god grace nothing can happen in this world. But this festival is planned to awake the human being of entire world. This marks up the end of the “Chaturmas” and our great Rishi – Saints had classically arranged this days in such an organized manner so that marriage and other occasion are prohibited during this four month period. Tulsi Vivah is another important occasion of this day, wedding of Tulsi – incarnation of Ma Devi Laxmi and Lord Shree Vishnu. Tulsi is most sacred plant and found in almost each house in India. Tulsi Vivah signifies the end of the monsoon and the beginning of the Hindu wedding season.

Story and Significance: The story of the "Tulsi Vivah" is mentioned in the Padma Purana. Vrinda was an immense devotee of Lord Vishnu, spiritual woman and wife of Demon King Jalandhar. Jalandhar became very powerful and wanted to defeat all the gods including the Brahma, Vishnu and Mahesh. There was no way to kill Jalandhar as long as his wife Vrinda remained Pativrata. On request of all gods, Lord Shree Vishnu decided to break the devotion and chastity of Vrinda, for this Lord Shree Vishnu took the form of Jalandhar and met her. She was not able to recognize and lost Pativrata – Dharma. Vrinda got extremely disappoint and cursed Lord Shree Vishnu that he would become black stone - "Shaligram". After this Demon king Jalandhar lost the battle against the gods.

Lord Shree Vishnu transformed her soul to the Tulsi plant to compensate. Lord Shree Vishnu also promised to marry with Vrinda in her next birth. Thus, Lord Shree Vishnu in the form of the "Shaligram" stone got married to the Tulsi plant on the day of Prabodhini Ekadashi.

Another story is from the Ramayana time, Lord Shree Ram and King Sugriv was best friend and Lord Shree Ram killed the king Vali to help King Sugriv. After death of Vali, King Sugriv forgot to help Lord Shree Ram in discovery of the Ma Devi Sita and became lazy. So Lord Shree Ram sent Shree Laxmanjee to king Sugriv and asked to remember the promise to help in finding Ma Devi Sita. On Prabodhini Ekadashi, king Sugriv awake from the laziness and enjoyment.

The core idea behind Tulsi Vivah story is, the group of people (Vrunda) who started following demon element (Jalandhar) same like the Pativrata, without their own thought and due to this demon element become very strong. It is necessary to changes the thoughts, remove inertia and loyalty of people from demon to kill devil elements. For this great stuff, group of people needs to follow the thought of Lord and marry with Lord same like the Tulsi the most sacred plant marry with Lord Shree Vishnu.

People across the globe take cares of material objects but they just forgot to develop the spiritual, intellectual and psychologically aspects. Today we all lost awareness about our religion, culture and core rules. We forgot the thoughts of Vedas, Upnishad, Gita and other holy scripture so even after doing lot of activity we have feeling of missing something. Laziness, ignorance, darkness etc evil elements take place in human life, so Prabodhini Ekadashi is the day to awake human being. The famous Sanskrit slok - उत्तिष्ठत जाग्रत प्राप्य वरान्नी बोधत |, means Aries, awake, and don’t stop till the goal is reached. It explain the difference between arise and awake, so human must awake, focus on the goal and work hard without tired.

For every religious act, Tulsi is used in temple and home because Lord Shree Vishnu likes it most. There are lots of other benefits of Tulsi in medicine but Indian culture do not believed in benefits only but we do the Tulsi Pujan and accepted as Tulsi Mata. We all have to be committed to work for our culture same like the Tulsi.

Celebration: People across the nation celebrate Prabodhini Ekadashi in different manner as per their tradition. Tulsi Vival is the common celebration followed in all regions. Fast is observed and the ritual marriage of the Tulsi plant is performed with god Vishnu, in the form of the holy black colored Shaligram stone.

In short Prabodhini Ekadashi is festival to awake from the deadly sleep and eliminate the laziness. We all should start work for God grace and get married to the Lord.