Tulasi

Bhakta: 'Tulasi is only offered to Krishna's feet because Radhika does not like Tulasi?"

Advaitadas: 'No. The acaryas have prescribed that Tulasi is offered to the feet of Vishnu tattva only. Although Radhika, as Krishna's shakti is non different from Krishna [shakti-shaktimatayor abheda], still She is ashray tattva (subject of love) That counts even for Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, as is narrated in Caitanya Caritamrita [Madhya 15,7-9]:

ghore Asi prabhu kore nAm sankIrtan;
advaita AsiyA kore prabhura pujan
sugandhi salile den pAdya Acaman;
sarvAnge lepaye prabhur sugandhi candan
gole mAlA dey mAthAy tulasI manjarI

“When Prabhu returned to His abode He performed nAm sankIrtan. Advaita then came to offer worship to Him. He offered pAdya and Acaman with scented water and anointed Prabhu’s whole body with fragrant sandal paste. He hung a garland around His neck and placed Tulasi buds on His head.”

Bhakta : 'There is a Vaishnava home guide book which says that Tulasi is offered to the feet of Vishnu tattva like Narayan, Narsimha, Krishna, Rama etc. as well as to Gaura, Nityananda, and Advaita but not to Radharani or Gadadhar Pandit."

Advaitadas: "We agree with all of this except for Gaur, Nityananda and Advaita, on the ground of the above quotation from Caitanya Caritamrita, and another verse [CC Adi 1.14]

pancatattvAtmakam krsnam bhakta rupa svarupakam
bhaktAvatAram bhaktAkhyam namAmi bhakti shaktikam

The panca tattva comes in the form of so many different devotee incarnations though they are Krishna [pancatattvAtmakam krishnam]. So though They are ontologically Vishnu-tattva, they are approached as devotees."

Bhakta: 'But you can put Tulasi-Manjaris on Radha's feet instead of Tulasi leaves?"

Advaitadas: "That does not make any difference. Manjaris should not be separated from the leaves. Sriman Mahaprabhu instructed Raghunath Das Goswami: dui-dike dui-patra madhye komala manjari, 'Offer soft manjaris with 2 Tulasi petals on each side of them' (CC Antya 6.297)

Bhakta: "So Tulasi is not so surrendered to Radha that she will touch her feet?"

Advaitadas: 'No that is not the point. One cannot just draw a link from the goddess Vrinda in the spiritual world to the sacred tree in the world of sadhakas, whose leaves are upacAras [ingredients] of puja. Just as we are male devotees here in this world but female in the perfected state. It does not mean we should dress like girls in this material male body, right? seva sAdhaka rupena siddha rUpena cAtra hi. So the rule of offering Tulasi applies to the sacred tree, not to the goddess above. Also the Tulasi Manjari who is identified as Raghunath Das Goswami in Vilapa Kusumanjali has nothing to do with Vrinda devi, because Vrinda devi is not called Tulasi in Krishna lila but only as she incarnates as the Basilicum species of plants on earth."

Bhakta: "In the Puranas it is said Tulasi is a hair of Laxmi devi and in another Purana she was cursed to come down to the world."

Advaitadas: 'Yes there are so many conceptions, but here we speak just of Tulasi as a pujopacara, as a leaf from a small sacred tree."