The Miraculous Healing Power of Tulasi
S
ince the rise of civilization in this world, humankind has known two words – disease and medicine. When one suffers from some disease, the physician prescribes some medications – tablet, capsule, syrup, injection, etc. But unlike the present-day drugs, in earlier times, some herbs used to be given to the patients, and they would get well soon. Tulasi (Holy Basil, Ocimum Sanctum), too, was one such herb. With continuous use of this herb, when the seers/sages observed that it could cure many ailments and also helped in keeping the ambient atmosphere pure, they started propagating the virtues of this herb. They even called it dharma to plant its saplings in one’s home and take good care of them. Gradually its popularity as a healing herb was increased so much that people began considering it as a divine plant and started worshipping it. Even the present-day herbal specialists and ayurvedic practitioners sing the paeans of praise of this herb. Let us have a look at the healing properties of Tulasi. An ancient and most authentic scripture on Ayurveda, ‘Charaka Samhita,’ describes the medicinal properties of Tulasi as follows: ‘Tulasi helps in hiccups, cough, poisoning, and rib pain. It balances three doshas (Tridoshas: Vata, Pitta, and Kapha) in the body; it also removes bad odor of mouth.’ Another renowned Ayurvedic text, ‘Bhava Prakash,’ mentions Tulasi to be useful in treating the heart and skin diseases, improving digestion, alleviating the pain of dysuria, and balancing Vata and Kapha. The ancient practitioners of Ayurveda wrote ‘Nighantu’
– texts describing the properties of various herbs, including Tulasi. It has been written in ‘Dhanvantari Nighantu’ that Tulasi is lightly hot, dry, and digestive. It removes the worms in the intestines. ‘Rajaballabha Nighantu’ describes that Tulasi is beneficial in removing the foul smell of the mouth, cough, cold, and hiccups. Kaiyadev Nighantu claims it to be effective in curing leprosy and the diseases of the eyes. There two types of Tulasi – Rama and Shyama. Rama variety has light green leaves, and Shyama variety has violet –green leaves. Shyama Tulasi is considered suitable for therapeutic use. Acharya Shriram Sharma has given several home remedies using Tulasi in his book titled ‘Tulasi ke chamatkari guna’ (Miraculous properties of Tulasi). A few of them are mentioned as follows:
1. Cold and cough: (i) To cure fever due to cold and cough, one should take half teaspoonful each of the extract of Tulasi leaves and the extract of ginger with one teaspoonful of
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Akhand Jyoti
22
JULY-AUG. 2020
