Tulasi's Curse

Vyasa said

How did Bhagavan Narayana accomplish this with Tulasi? Please tell me.

Sanatkumara replied

Narayana, refuge of the good, carries out the gods' tasks. Hear how Vishnu acted, in Shankhachuda's form, towards Shankhachuda's wife. Hari was following the instructions of Shiva and the mother of the universe. In the middle of the battle he had heard the voice from the sky, and, sent by Shambhu as well, he had taken Shankhachuda's fine kavacha by quickly assuming the form of a brahmana through his own maya. Then, in Shankhachuda's shape, he went to Tulasi's house. At her door he had drums sounded and shouts of victory raised, so that the lovely woman would wake. Hearing them, the virtuous Tulasi was overjoyed and, full of love, looked through the window toward the royal road. She gave riches to brahmanas and had the auspicious rites performed, and, knowing her husband was coming back, adorned herself. Vishnu stepped down from the chariot and entered the queen's house. To do the gods' work, the master of maya had taken Shankhachuda's form. Seeing her beloved in front of her, she was delighted, washed his feet, bowed and wept. She seated him on a lovely jewelled throne and gave him camphor-scented betel. She said her birth and life were fulfilled that day, since her beloved, dearer than her own life, had gone to war and she now saw him at home. Smiling, she cast happy sidelong glances at him and sweetly asked how the battle had gone.

Tulasi asked about the lord he had fought: the supreme among divinities, who has destroyed countless universes and whose commands Vishnu, Brahma and all the other gods always follow. He is the progenitor of the three divinities, without attributes in himself yet owning the three gunas, taking attributes at his devotees' wish and standing behind the acts of Hari and Brahma. At Kubera's request, she said, Hara had taken a form with attributes and lived on Kailasa as lord of the ganas, the supreme brahman and refuge of the good, who can destroy crores of universes in a moment, and in one of whose moments many Vishnus and Brahmas pass away. She asked what kind of fight it was against someone who had helped the gods, and how he had come home safe and victorious over Parameshvara.

Hearing her, Rama's consort laughed and answered in Shankhachuda's form in nectar-sweet words. He said he loved fighting, so he had gone to the field. A great tumult and battle followed, gods and danavas fighting for victory. The daityas were beaten by the immortals, proud of their strength, and so he fought the insolent devas. When they were defeated they sought refuge with Shankara, who came to fight to help them. Proud of his strength, he had fought Rudra for a long time, and the clash between them lasted a whole year. All the asuras were destroyed. To bring peace between them Brahma himself came, and by Brahma's instruction the gods got their rights back. He went home and Shiva went to his own world, everything returned to its natural state and all troubles went far away. Having said this, the lord of the universe lay down on the bed, and Rama's husband pleased that lovely lady in the way her husband would have.

The virtuous woman noticed that the happiness she was given was not as usual and that the affection was not the same. Thinking it over, she asked who he was. She said that he had used maya to enjoy her and had broken her fidelity, and that she was going to curse him. Hearing this, Hari feared the curse and, in play, took on his own beautiful form. When Tulasi saw the form and the marks she knew it was Vishnu. Since she had been made to give up her loyalty to her husband she grew angry. She said that he had no compassion and a heart of stone, that her husband would now certainly be killed because her dharma as a faithful wife was broken, and that he was deceitful and pitiless, so by her curse he would become stone from now on. Those who call him an ocean of compassion were mistaken, she said, for how could a devotee who had committed no crime be killed for someone else's sake? Shankhachuda's faithful wife said this, grieved, and wept and lamented again and again.

Vishnu Parameshvara saw her weeping and called to mind Shankara, who deludes the world. Kind to devotees, Shankara appeared. Hari bowed humbly. Shankara saw Hari in grief and the lady lamenting, and, full of compassion, used the right method to calm them. He told Tulasi not to weep, since she, like everyone, had reaped the fruit of her karma. Samsara is an ocean of karma, and no one else gives happiness or misery. He would tell both what should be done to end the misery, and asked Hari to listen as well, for it would bring them joy. She had performed austerities and this was their outcome, and it could not be otherwise. She should give up this body and take a divine one and always be with Hari, like Rama. The body she cast off would become a river on earth, sacred in form and famous in Bharata as the Gandaki. By his boon, in a short time she would become the most important plant used in worshipping the gods: the supreme tulasi plant, present before Hari in heaven, earth and the nether regions. As the deity of the plant she would have a divine form in Vaikuntha, where she would always be with Hari in private, and she would preside over that very sacred river in Bharata, being Hari's portion and the wife of the salt ocean. By her curse Hari would take the form of a stone on the banks of the Gandaki and stay there, and crores of fierce, sharp-fanged worms would bite and bore into him and leave marks. This would be the shalagrama stone, which gives great auspiciousness, and according to its rings it would be called Lakshmi-Narayana and other names. The shalagrama would stand for her union with Vishnu, always look like him and increase merit.

Shankara added rules. A person who cuts a tulasi leaf that lies on a shalagrama will, in the next life, be parted from his wife. One who cuts a tulasi leaf without a conch will be parted from his wife for seven lives and be sick. One who keeps a shalagrama, a tulasi leaf and a conch together will have great knowledge and be dear to Hari. She had been Shankhachuda's beloved for a whole manvantara, so separation from a conch would only bring her misery. After telling them the greatness of the shalagrama and the tulasi, both of which bring much merit, Shankara pleased the two of them and vanished, returning to his own abode, for Shambhu always gives peace to the good. Tulasi, glad at his words, gave up her body and took a divine form. Kamala's husband went with her to Vaikuntha. The body she had cast off became the Gandaki river, and Achyuta became a stone on its bank, which brings auspiciousness to people. Worms make many kinds of holes in such stones. Those that fall into the river are very sacred, while those that stay on land are called pingalas and are harmful. Sanatkumara said he had now told everything in the order Vyasa had asked, Shambhu's holy account, which grants every desire and is mixed with the account of Vishnu's greatness, and he asked what Vyasa wished to hear next.