Please Accept My Humble Obeisances & Dandavat Pranams.
All Glories to Sri Guru & Gauranga.
All Glories to Srila Prabhupada & Vaisnava's World-Wide.
Hare Krishna
I have a question about Tulasi Tea.
Tea and coffee are prohibited in our Gaudiya Vaisnava tradition. Tulasi Maharani is a great devotee of Lord Krishna. Why is she mixed to make tea? Isn't this offensive?
And I have also seen some incense products of Tulasi & Rudraksha as well. Both of those plants are holy in Hindu Traditions in general. Isn't this also an offense to burn incense made of those divine products?
Please forgive me if I have made any offenses in asking this question.
Your Most Low Servant,
David
Replies
Hare Krishna dear Devotees, please accept my humble obeisances! All glories to Srila Prabhupada!
Dear Claire Mataji, i have to put some opposite answer to Your answer. We can not use things contained Tulasi which we can not offer to Krishna. For example, body lotions, lipstick or something like that within Tulasi inside. But tea we can offer. Insects made of Tulasi also we can offer to Krishna and please Him and have that Tulasi tea or smell Tulasi insects as Maha Prasad. It is ok, and it is recommended. because Krishna loves Tulasi.
i took tea with Tulasi leaves which was made in Bhaktivedanta Goshala in Vrindavan.
Your servant,
Thank you for the clarifications Mataji! I asked myself the question too, and found some contradictory answers online. Not that I was absolutely convinced by them, but to stay on the side of caution, I stayed with the articles saying that it wasn't ok to make tea out of her. Wouldn't want to be committing an offense! :-) But I gladely take the Bhaktivedanta Goshala as a sure reference! YS.
Hare Krishna! I read that you can not have Tulsi tea. But you can pluck the leaves on certain days and you can have the fallen leaves. Eat them raw, put them on offerings, but don't blend them or anything like that. Tulsi tea is not ok. The people who make Tulsi tea aren't Vaishnavas, so they don't know that they shouldn't make tea from Tulsi. YS.