Sadhvi Vishrut Vibha
As a man of his times, Acharya Tulsi was well aware of the social trends of the day. Acharya Tulsi observed that women would wear lot of jewellery on a regular basis. Not only in weddings and other celebrations, women would adorn themselves with jewelry at temples, religious festivals and spiritual events also. Extravagant clothing was common trend as well. One day Acharya Tulsi commented on this issue. "Sisters, Is this a religious gathering or a gold show?" He asked, "Why do you come to a sermon wearing so much jewellery?"
The unanimous reply from the women was, "Acharya Shree, where else can we show off our most treasured possessions? We do not have the opportunity to go anywhere else."
The ladies indeed had a point. In those days, women would not leave the home, even to the market. In such a situation, there was no other way to fulfill their desires to look and feel special.
Acharya Shree understood their sentiments, but wanted to provide guidance, so he addressed, "Understand the times we live in and be aware of the issues that such an exhibition of your valuables may bring about. This display of wealth can bring risk to your personal safety and possessions. If you cannot refrain from wearing gold, make a pledge that you will limit the amount of gold you will wear to just under 150 grams or 13 tola (1 tola=11.398 grams). It is best to keep this pledge at all religious gathering."
Women were surprised to hear Acharya Shree putting such a low limit on the amount of jewelry they could wear, and this was contrary to the trends of the day. Still, they chose to abide by the pledge because of their devotion to their Acharya. Coincidentally, within a span of a few months, the Finance Minister, Morarji Desai, enacted the Gold Control Act of 1962, prohibiting Indian citizens from holding pure gold bars and coins. The old holdings in pure gold had to be compulsorily converted into jewelry and that had to be declared. Surprisingly, this bill also had a limit of 13 tolas.
Acharya Shree could gauge the future well in advance. Though he was confined to a single organization, his thoughts were multidimensional, progressive and widely accepted - irrespective of caste, color, creed or nation.
