The greatness of worship with tulsi leaves is borne out by a story, said P.T. Seshadri in a discourse. A king used to worship Lord Padmanabha, the deity in the Tiruvanthapuram temple using gold flowers. A poor man worshipped using tulsi leaves. The king was annoyed with the poor man because the tulsi leaves he used covered up the gold flowers that the king had offered. He scolded the devotee, who said that the king had not realised how important tulsi leaves were in the worship of Lord Vishnu. The king then challenged the devotee and said, “Summon Lord Narayana, if you can. I’m going to try to do so too. Let us see which of us succeeds.”
The king undertook many yagas to make the Lord appear before him. The poor devotee continued to do his worship with tulsi leaves. One day, the rice he had kept for offering to the Lord was stolen. Upset that he had no food to offer to the Lord, the devotee decided to forego his meal. The next day, again the rice intended as offering for the Lord disappeared and so again the devotee went without food. This continued for a week. On the eighth day, the devotee decided to find out who was stealing the rice. He noticed a man stealing the rice and running away. He gave chase and found that the man was skin and bones. The devotee was sorry for him. When he found the man about to eat plain rice, he brought vegetables and ghee for the man. But the hungry man fainted. The bhakta then fanned him and tried to revive him. Suddenly, the man disappeared and the Lord appeared before the devotee. He said to the bhakta, “You have the qualities of patience and kindness, because you used tulsi in your puja.” The king realised that gold flowers and yagas were not equal to tulsi archana.
