From the Tulasi plant you can cut off only leaves for offering them to Krishna, never for cutting and planting. That is an offense

Expressions researched:
"From the Tulasi plant you can cut off only leaves for offering them to Krishna, never for cutting and planting. That is an offense"

1972 Correspondence

From the Tulasi plant you can cut off only leaves for offering them to Krishna, never for cutting and planting. That is an offense. The manjaris (seeds) can be offered in water and it makes the water fragrant and tasteful.

Letter to Radhavallabha -- Bombay 6 January, 1972:

In the Nectar of Devotion I have given two verses from the Skanda Purana, one of which is: "Tulasi is auspicious in all respects. Simply by seeing, simply by touching, simply by remembering, simply by praying to, simply by bowing before, simply by hearing about, or simply by sowing the tree, there is always auspiciousness. Anyone who comes in touch with the Tulasi tree in the above mentioned ways lives eternally in the Vaikuntha world." So from this verse we can understand how pure is the service which Tulasi offers to Sri Krishna. So we should always endeavor after becoming servant of Tulasi Devi. I do not know who has taught you that part of a Tulasi plant may be cut off and then replanted? From the Tulasi plant you can cut off only leaves for offering them to Krishna, never for cutting and planting. That is an offense. The manjaris (seeds) can be offered in water and it makes the water fragrant and tasteful. And the manjaris can be planted for growing new Tulasi plants.