As a new bhaktin I took my new Tulsi pujari service very, very seriously. After all it was I who rescued Tulsi devi from the dark, damp, cold cellar of the Boston Temple on North Beacon Street in 1971. I was convinced the other devotees who had allowed her to be there in the middle of December with no window and no heat were not even capable of taking care of an ordinary house plant what to speak of a Pure Devotee of Krishna. She had one leaf hanging on just barely at the very top of her very long and thin stem.
My heart broke to see Her like that. It was I who arranged to bring Her up into Srila Prabhupada's room which was very sunny and bright. It was I who arranged to have made a very elaborate contraption that filled the entire room made of 2 x 4's and swinging grow lights with pulleys for adjustable heights.
And She bloomed. Beautiful manjaris even in January and February. And more Tulsi trees came. It was Pure Devotee paradise in Srila Prabhupada's room. The best room in the building...beautiful canary blue with crisp white woodwork and clean wooden floors.The room where He actually stayed for 3 days not that long ago... and Tulsi devi was blooming there.
I stayed in that room. All day. Spraying with water, adjusting the lights, transplanting, chanting, collecting manjaris, making Tulsi bouquets for Radha to offer to Gopiballava, Tulsi garlands. making skirts for Her from scraps of material from the Deities clothing. My whole world was in that room.
Oh and the dolly for wheeling Her into the temple room which was directly across the hallway. she was too big now in giant redwood pots to be easily carried and the arotika table with the tiles formed in a heart design. Everything Tulsi devi.
A small plant was placed on the altar for Deity greeting. But there was a problem. The pujaris on the altar were not careful and I noticed she came back to Her room with scorched leaves. The ghee lamp. How could they do that? Offer to Krishna and scorch Her leaves!!! I talked to them about it. But still it was happening regularly. They would place the lit incense in her soil and the smoke and ashes would get all over Her leaves. Leaving a gooey residue. They put the offered flowers in Her soil and She was coming down with spider mites, white flies and mealy bugs. I told them the problem. But still they ignored me and just did the same things over and over again.
I became irate. I stormed into the president's office and before he could say Hari bol, and get up from his seat I screamed in his face... No more ghee lamps for Tulsi devi. No more incense. And no more flowers and stomped out of the room.
I startled myself at what I had just demanded. After all aren't these the very articles of worship She asks for?
I am wondering if something like this might not be going on with ISKCON leadership at least at some level in regard to children, women and cows. Are children, women and cows being seen as detrimental to the preaching movement? As a liability? No more children, no more women and no more cows. We have to serve Srila Prabhupada. They get in the way of preaching Krishna consciousness?
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