Tulsi Vivah 2019: Know date, timings, katha & puja vidhi

Tulsi Vivah is a festival celebrated in North India to commemorate the marital union of Lord Vishnu with Devi Tulsi, who is believed to be an incarnation of Goddess Lakshmi. The wedding ceremony is performed on the (Dwadashi) of the Shukla Paksha of the Kartik month, in a time period between Prabodhini Ekadashi and Kartik Purnima. The wedding rituals are performed elaborately according to Hindu dharma with everything from pheras to vidaai. Know in detail the timings, muhurat, puja vidhi and significance of the festival below:

Tulsi Vivah 2019 puja vidhi:

First of all, place the basil plant in the center of the courtyard and decorate a grand pavilion around it. After this, offer things of 'suhag' like Bindi, Bichhiya, Lal Chunri etc. on Devi Tulsi.

After this, keep the Shaligram in the form of Vishnu and offer sesame seeds. Make sure to not offer rice to Shaligram. After this, apply soaked turmeric in milk on basil and shaligram ji. Also, apply turmeric on the sugar cane pavilion and worship it. If Mangalashtak, spoken at the time of marriage, comes in Hinduism then he must do it. After this, perform aarti with both Ghee's deepak and kapoor and make offerings.

Tulsi Vivah 2019 story:

A long time ago there was a demon named Jalandhar who caused a lot of destruction everywhere. He was very brave and mighty. The secret of his heroism was the Pariva Dharma of his wife Vrinda because of which he was always victorious in whatever fight he went on. Devas, troubled by Jalandhar went to Lord Vishnu and requested for protection. After hearing the prayers of the deities, Lord Vishnu decided to dissolve Vrinda's piety. He took the form of Jalandhar and touched Vrinda with deceit due to which Vrinda's paternal religion was dissolved and Jalandhar's head fell in his house. Vrinda became very angry with this and he cursed Lord Vishnu to turn to stone for having destroyed her purity.

The stone form of Lord Vishnu is called Shaligram. Lord Vishnu gave a boon to Vrinda saying that she will always be with him as a basil leaf. He also said that devotees who will get Shaligram married to a basil plant on Kartik's Ekadashi will have all his wishes fulfilled.