Vrinda
Once, Indra’s arrogance rouses Shiva ire. But Brihaspati intervenes and asks Shiva to forgive him. So, Shiva casts the fire in his brow into Varuna’s lap which instantly transforms it into a boy.
Brahma prophesies that the boy will become the Asura king, Jalandhara and marry Vrinda whose chastity will make him invincible. And soon, Jalandhara conquers the three lokas and goes on to conquer Vaikunta too.
When Vishnu prepares to fight Jalandhara, Lakshmi stops him. But Vishnu says, “Don’t worry O Devi, only Shiva can kill Jalandhara. But I do have to fight him too.” After a prolonged battle Vishnu drops his arms and says, “O Jalandhara, No one has worshipped me with blows, as you have. Ask for any boon and I will grant it to you.” Jalandhara says, “I want my sister Lakshmi and you to live in my house.” Vishnu agrees to do so.
The devas now seek Shiva’s help. And while Shiva is busy battling him, Jalandhara uses his Maya shakti to capture and marry Uma. So, Uma rushes to Vishnu and says, “Vrinda’s chastity makes Jalandhara invincible. O Vishnu, please enable Shiva to kill Jalandhara.” Vishnu nods in assent.
That night when Vrinda goes for a walk, two lion-faced demons spring upon her. Shocked out of her wits, Vrinda runs straight into the arms of a rishi who calmly chases them away.” Vrinda confesses her fears to the rishi and says, “I fear for my husband’s life.”
The rishi summons two monkeys who bring the severed parts of Jalandhara’s body. Vrinda swoons on seeing her husband dead. When she regains consciousness, she finds herself lying in Jalandhara’s lap.
Vrinda assumes the rishi had brought Jalandhara back to life. But when Vrinda is satiating her passion, she notices that the skin of the man she is with was a deep blue. Vrinda realizes what Vishnu was up to and curses him saying, “The lion-faced fiends who chased me on your instructions will abduct your wife in another life. And you will seek the help of monkeys in a forest to find her.”
But when Vrinda sees the crestfallen look on Vishnu’s face she realizes that though Hari had loved her so very briefly His love for her was divine.
Vishnu goes berserk with grief when Vrinda immolates herself with her yogic powers. He smears himself with the ashes of Vrinda’s pyre and wanders through the forest weeping for her.
So, Saraswati, Uma and Lakshmi sow three seeds around Vishnu. Three love plants – the Dhatri, Tulsi and Mallika grow from these seeds, rouse Vishnu’s passion and help Him shake off his grief.
Vishnu helplessly succumbs to the combined ardour of the love plants. But in the midst of their passion, Mallika, Lakshmi’s plant succumbs to envy. For disengaging herself from Vishnu when He needed Her the most, we don’t offer the Mallika for Hari’s worship even today. With the help of the Devis’ love, Vishnu breaks through His Maya and returns to Vaikunta.
But Vishnu knows Vrinda will always have a permanent place in His heart. For though Vrinda had understood His divine love for her, she was firm in her resolve that she would always remain true to Jalandhara alone.
So, Vishnu names the area where He had shared His love with Vrinda as Vrindavana. Yugas later, when He incarnates as Krishna, Vishnu derives immense solace when He experiences Vrinda’s loving embraces when He indulges in His passion with Radha and the gopis.
Tulsi
When Sudama is reborn as Shankhachuda, he performs a tapasya to seek Brahma’s favour. And when Brahma gives him Krishna’s impenetrable feather light Kavacha, asks him to marry Tulsi and says, “Krishna’s Kavacha and Tulsi’s chastity will make you invincible” he does not realize why he is so fortunate.
When Shankhachuda becomes the king of Asuras and terrorizes the devas, Krishna seeks Shiva’s help to liberate Shankhachuda from his mortal body so that he can return as Sudama to Goloka.
Shiva wages a war with Shakhachuda. But during the battle, a Brahmana appears before Shankhachuda and asks for Krishna’s armour. Shankhachuda feels perplexed but gives his armour to the Brahmana knowing full well that Tulsi’s chastity would protect him.
When Tulsi sees Shankhachuda returning victoriously from the battle, she indulges in her passion for her husband. But in their ardour, she realizes that Vishnu has duped her into breaking her chastity. Tulsi curses him saying, “Ruthless Vishnu, turn into a stone for duping me.”
But before she ends her life, Shiva manifests there and says, “O Tulsi, remember – you are an amsa of Lakshmi living through Saraswati’s curse. You will flow as the river Gandaki and be revered as the holiest plant of worship before you return to your rightful place by Vishnu’s side.”
And Vishnu will express his pain for being able to love you only briefly and losing you so quickly by allowing tiny insects to carve slow rings of torture on your mountainous body. And the stones that fall off the mountain into your waters will be revered as holy Shaligramas.”
And as Tulsi immolates herself using her yogic fire, Shiva liberates Shankhachuda from his body and ascends to Goloka as Sudama.
Today, we believe that Shankhachuda’s skeleton fell into the ocean and all holy shells are made from Shankhachuda’s bones. And also that if a woman blows on a Shankha, she will incur Lakshmi’s wrath.
The essence of Tulsi Vivah
We draw a symbolic four-lined rangoli to symbolise Patala, where Jalandhara, the Asura lives, Bhuloka, where Tulsi lives, Vaikunta, the realm of Vishnu and Goloka, the realm of Shankhachuda to reiterate to ourselves that divine love pervades through the cosmos and ushers bliss in our souls.
Then we draw the Shankha, Chakra, Gada and Padma to symbolise Vishnu and Tulsi plants in the eight directions.
The central enclosure symbolizes Vishnu’s divine love for Tulsi which radiates outwards.
The four Tulsi plants that touch the central enclosure of Vishnu symbolize that Tulsi understands Vishnu’s divine love completely.
But the four other Tulsi plants that do not touch the central enclosure symbolize Vrinda’s and Tulsi’s love for their husbands in the mortal realm.
And even today, we worship Tulsi and Vishnu independently before performing the Tulsi Vivah ceremony on the twelfth day of the Shukla Paksha of Kartik.
When we worship Tulsi on this day, we reiterate to ourselves that while we revere divine love and often desperately yearn for it, we cannot spurn, let alone give up the love that we experience in the mortal world – even in exchange for divine love.
Like Tulsi, we too may briefly unknowingly rejoice in the divine love that a higher force showers on us occasionally. But we also quickly sober up to the reality that we belong to a mortal realm and often willingly bind ourselves to our cultural norms. And like Tulsi, only when we shed our bodies can we hope to merge into divinity.
We then perform Tulsi’s Vivah with Vishnu. We create a mandap by tying 4 sets of 4 sugarcane stalks and tying all the leaves together firmly at the top. We adorn our Nidhi Swaroop and a Tulsi plant like a groom and a bride only on this auspicious day. And as Vishnu marries Tulsi in the mortal realm, we reiterate to ourselves, lest we forget, that only occasionally and briefly can we merge completely with divine love in the mortal realm.
Thank you Ranjana bhabhi for all these photos.
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