Tulasi-mala Neckbeads for Those not yet Initiated

Question:I am following the four regulative principles for almost a year now, chanting 16 rounds daily, and have been wearing tulasi mala beads since around December. I read in the Vaisnava Etiquette Manual that uninitiated devotees aspiring for initiation may wear tulasi mala. I have been wearing 3 strands and now was told I should only wear one strand until initiation.

I pray I have not created an offense. Thank you for any standards guidance on this matter.

Answer by His Holiness Romapada Swami: It is not an offense, as it is but an oversight of a minor detail only due to lack of information. The principle is: a Vaishnava should adorn his body with Tilaka and Tulasi beads. It is one of the 64 items of devotional service mentioned in Bhakti-rasamrita-sindhu. The purpose of this is to please Krishna, to purify oneself, and to remind oneself and others of Krishna. In what ways this principle is applied is a detail. It is our duty to follow the principle. While the details are not unimportant, they can vary, and are best learned from a Vaishnava whom you look up to and follow.

Far more important are the primary principles of devotional service, particularly the efforts to chant attentively and to thoroughly understand the fundamental teachings of Bhagavad-gita. Please invest your full attention and enthusiasm in these primary angas of bhakti, and the details of sadhana bhakti will fall into place automatically in time.

One need not be in undue anxiety about minor slips in details. Deliberately avoiding or minimizing the details, for the sake of convenience, or due to personal attachment / aversion is what leads to offenses. But if your attitude is one of humility and enthusiasm to learn and be corrected, that attitude is very pleasing to Krishna. What attracts Krishna is a devotee's sincerity of purpose -- which indicates the effort to closely follow all the scriptural principles, not just for the sake of rules but only for the purpose of pleasing the Lord. It is this sincerity of purpose which attracts Krishna's mercy.