Tulasi Jala Dan Begins

What is Tulasi Jala Dan?

Tulasi Jala Dan begins on Thursday, 15 April 2027. Jala dana means giving water, and for a month devotees offer it to Tulasi Devi from a pot hung above her. The water drips slowly over the plant and over the Salagrama Sila. The Salagrama is a sacred stone worshipped as the Lord.

Significance

The month begins as the sun enters Mesha (Aries), and many calendars start the new year then. It is the month of Keshava Vrata, when devotees vow to control the senses, sleep on the ground, bathe twice daily in a river and worship the Lord. Whoever worships Lord Madhusudana during this month gains the benefit of a year's worship.

Tulasi is dear to Lord Krishna, who garlands Himself with her leaves, as the Srimad-Bhagavatam (3.15.19) describes. As the weather turns hot in the northern hemisphere, the dripping water cools the Salagrama and helps Tulasi grow. Of such simple offerings, the Lord says:

If one offers Me with love and devotion a leaf, a flower, a fruit or water, I will accept it.

Bhagavad-gita 9.26

How to observe it

Hang a water pot with a small hole above Tulasi, and above the Salagrama Sila if you worship one. Some devotees build a frame for the pot, and others hang it from a string or chain. Offer the water with devotion, and keep up your hearing and chanting. In 2027 the first day of Jala Dan is also Rama Navami.