Adi 3.97--Everyone was engaged in material enjoyment, whether sinfully or virtuously. No one was interested in the transcendental service of the Lord, which can give total relief from the repetition of birth and death.
Adi 3.98-Seeing the activities of the world, the Ācārya felt compassion and began to ponder how He could act for the people’s benefit.

PURPORT–This sort of serious interest in the welfare of the public makes one a bona fide ācārya. An ācārya does not exploit his followers. Since the ācārya is a confidential servitor of the Lord, his heart is always full of compassion for humanity in its suffering. He knows that all suffering is due to the absence of devotional service to the Lord, and therefore he always tries to find ways to change people’s activities, making them favorable for the attainment of devotion. That is the qualification of an ācārya. Although Śrī Advaita Prabhu Himself was powerful enough to do the work, as a submissive servitor He thought that without the personal appearance of the Lord, no one could improve the fallen condition of society.In the grim clutches of māyā, the first-class prisoners of this material world wrongly think themselves happy because they are rich, powerful, resourceful and so on. These foolish creatures do not know that they are nothing but play dolls in the hands of material nature and that at any moment material nature’s pitiless intrigues can crush to dust all their plans for godless activities. Such foolish prisoners cannot see that however they improve their position by artificial means, the calamities of repeated birth, death, disease and old age are always beyond the jurisdiction of their control. Foolish as they are, they neglect these major problems of life and busy themselves with false things that cannot help them solve their real problems. They know that they do not want to suffer death or the pangs of disease and old age, but under the influence of the illusory energy, they are grossly negligent and therefore do nothing to solve the problems. This is called māyā. People held in the grip of māyā are thrown into oblivion after death, and as a result of their karma, in the next life they become dogs or gods, although most of them become dogs. To become gods in the next life, they must engage in the devotional service of the Supreme Personality of Godhead; otherwise, they are sure to become dogs or hogs in terms of the laws of nature.The third-class prisoners, being less materially opulent than the first-class prisoners, endeavor to imitate them, for they also have no information of the real nature of their imprisonment. Thus they also are misled by the illusory material nature. The function of the ācārya, however, is to change the activities of both the first-class and third-class prisoners for their real benefit. This endeavor makes him a very dear devotee of the Lord, who says clearly in the Bhagavad-gītā that no one in human society is dearer to Him than a devotee who constantly engages in His service by finding ways to preach the message of Godhead for the real benefit of the world. The so-called ācāryas of the Age of Kali are more concerned with exploiting the resources of their followers than mitigating their miseries; but Śrī Advaita Prabhu, as an ideal ācārya, was concerned with improving the condition of the world situation.

Adi 3.100-“In this Age of Kali there is no religion other than the chanting of the holy name of the Lord, but how in this age will the Lord appear as an incarnation?
Adi 3.101–“I shall worship Kṛṣṇa in a purified state of mind. I shall constantly petition Him in humbleness.
Adi3.104–While He was thinking about how to propitiate Kṛṣṇa by worship, the following verse came to His mind.
Adi 3.104–“Śrī Kṛṣṇa, who is very affectionate toward His devotees, sells Himself to a devotee who offers Him merely a tulasī leaf and a palmful of water.”

Adi 3.105-106--Advaita Ācārya considered the meaning of the verse in this way: Not finding any way to repay the debt He owes to one who offers Him a tulasī leaf and water, Lord Kṛṣṇa thinks, “There is no wealth in My possession that is equal to a tulasī leaf and water.”
Adi 3.107--Thus the Lord liquidates the debt by offering Himself to the devotee. Considering this, the Ācārya began worshiping the Lord.

PURPORT–Through devotional service one can easily please Lord Kṛṣṇa with a leaf of the tulasī plant and a little water. As the Lord says in the Bhagavad-gītā (9.26), a leaf, a flower, a fruit or some water (patraṁ puṣpaṁ phalaṁ toyam), when offered with devotion, very much pleases Him. He universally accepts the services of His devotees. Even the poorest of devotees in any part of the world can secure a small flower, fruit or leaf and a little water, and if these offerings, and especially tulasī leaves and Ganges water, are offered to Kṛṣṇa with devotion, He is very satisfied. It is said that Kṛṣṇa is so pleased by such devotional service that He offers Himself to His devotee in exchange for it. Śrīla Advaita Ācārya knew this fact, and therefore He decided to call for the Personality of Godhead Kṛṣṇa to descend by worshiping the Lord with tulasī leaves and the water of the Ganges.

So how important again is it to have and worship and serve Srimati Tulasi Devi?

Adi 3.104–“Śrī Kṛṣṇa, who is very affectionate toward His devotees, sells Himself to a devotee who offers Him merely a tulasī leaf and a palmful of water.”

—————————————————————-
GLORIFiCATION OF TULASI DEVI
The following quotes from the Padma Purana are taken from the book published by Padma Locana das in 1994 Vrndavana. (Please forgive any typos as I had to hand type this out)
Glories of Tulsi Devi pg 55, from Patalakhanda
Lord Siva said My dear Narada muni, kindly listen how I will relate to you the wonserful glories of Tulasi Devi. One who hears Tulasi Devis glories will have all his sinful reactions , stored from many births, destroyed and very quickly attain the lotus feet of Sri Sri Radha Krsna.
The leaves flowers roots bark branches trunk and the shade of Tulasi Devi are all spiritual.One whose dead body is burnt in a fire which has Tulasi wood as fuel will attain the spiritual world, even if he is the most sinful of sinful persons, and that person who lights up that fire will be freed from all sinful reactions.
One who at the time of death takes the name of Lord Krsna and is touching wood of Tulasi Devi will attain the spiritual world.
When the dead body is burnt even if one small piece of tulasi wood is put in the fire, then that person will attain the spiritual world. By the touch of tulasi all other wood is purified. When the messengers of Lord Visnu see a fire which has tulasi wood burning in it they immediately come and take that person whose body has been burnt to the spiritual world. The messengers of Yamaraja will not come to that place when tulasi wood is burning. That persons body which has been burnt by tulasi wood goes to the spiritual world and on his way all the demigods shower flowers on him. When Lord Visnu and Lord Siva see that person on his way to the spiritual world, they become very happy and bless him and Lord Krsna comes before him and taking his hand He takes him to His own abode.
One who happens to go to a place where tulasi wood has been burnt will become purified of all sinful reactions. That brahmin who is performing a fire sacrifice and places among the other wood tulasi wood, will get the results of one agnihotra yajna fire sacrifice for each grain offered in that fire.
One who offers Lord Krsna incense made of tulasi wood will get the result of one hundred fire sacrifices and of giving one hundred cows in charity.
One who cooks an offering for Lord Krsna on a fire which has tulasi wood in it, will attain the same benefit as one who gives in charity a hill of grains as large as Mt Meru, for each grain of such an offering to Lord Krsna.
One who lights up a lamp to be offered to Lord Krsna with a piece of tulasi wood will attain the same benefit as one who offers ten million lamps to Lord Krsna.
There is no one more dear to Lord Krsna than that person.
One who applies the paste of tulasi wood to the body of the Deity of Lord Krsna with devotion will always live close to Lord Krsna.
That person who puts mud from the base of tulasi devi on his body and worships the deity of Lord Krsna gets the results of one hundred days worship , each day.
One who offers tulasi manjari to Lord Krsna gets the benefit of offering all the varieties of flowers after which he goes to the abode of Lord Krsna.
One who sees or comes near a house or garden where the tulasi plant is present gets rid of all his previous sinful reactions, including that of killing a brahmin. (talk about the lazy man’s way to preach!)
Lord Krsna happily resides in that house town or forest where tulasi devi is present.
That house where tulasi devi is present never falls on bad times and due to tulasi devis presence that place becomes more pure than all the holy places.
One who plants a tulasi tree near the temple of Lord Krsna he will attain the Krsnas abode.
Wherever the smell of tulasi devi is taken by the wind if purifies everyone who comes in contact with it.
In that house where the mud from the base of tulasi devi is kept all the demigods along with Lord Krsna will always reside.
Wherever the shade of tulasi devi falls is purified and is the best place for offering fire sacrifices.
                      FURTHER GLORIFICATION OF TULASI DEVI—SRISTiHKHAND
Karikeya inquired: My dear father Lord Siva,which tree or plant is capable of giving love of God?Lord Siva replied: my dear son of all trees and plants Tulasi devi is topmost She is all auspicious, the fulfiller of all desires completely pure most dear to Lord Krsna and the topmost devotee.
Long ago Lord Krsna for the welfare of all conditioned souls brought Vrndadevi in her form of a plant and planted her in this material world. Tulasi is the essence of all devotional activities. Without tulasi leaves, Lord Krsna does not like to accept flowers, foodstuffs, sandlalwood paste, In fact anything without tulasi leaves is not looked upon by Lord Krsna.One who worships Lord Krsna daily with tulasi leaves attains the results of all kinds of austerities charities and fire sacrifices. In fact he does not have any other duties to perform and he has realized the essence of all scriptures.
Just as the Ganges river is purifying all who bathe in her so tulasi devi is purifying the three worlds.
It is not possible to describe the full benefit of offering tulasi manjaris to Lord Krsna. Lord Krsna along with all the other demigods, lives wherever there is tulasi devi. For this reason one should plant tulasi devi at ones home and offer worship daily. One who sits near tulasi devi and chants or recites prayers will attain the results much faster.
All forms of ghosts and demons run away from that place where tulasi devi is planted. And all kinds of sinful reactions are destroyed when one comes close to tulasi devi. One who makes a garden of tulasi plants gets the results of all charities and one hundred fire sacrifices.
One who puts into his mouth or on his head the tulasi leaves after they have been offered to Lord Krsnaattains the abode of Lord Krsna. In kali yuga one who worships, performs kirtan in front of, remembers, plants or keeps tulasi, burns up all his sinful reactions and attains Lord Krsnas abode very quickly.
One who preaches the glories ot tulasi devi and also practices what he preaches becomes very dear to Lord Krsna.
One who worships tulasi devi has already satisfied his guru, the brahmanas the demigods and all the holy places.
One who offers a tulasi leaf to Lord Krsna becomes a Vaisnava very quickly. What is the need of understanding all the scriptures for one who has offered the wood or leaves to tulasi devi to Lord Krsna, for he will never have to taste the milk from the breast of a mother again and will never take birth again.
One who has worshiped Lord Krsna with the leaves of tulasi devi has already released all his ancestors from this realm of birth and death.
My dear Kartikeya, I have told you many of the glories of tulasi devi. If I was to describe her glories for eternity I still would not be able to reach their conclusion.
One who remembers or tells others these glorifications of tulasi devi will never take birth again.
Tulasi amrita janmasi sada tvam kesava priyakesavartham cinomi tvam varada bhava sobhanetvadang sambhavai aniyam pujayami yatha harimtatha kuru pavitrangi kalou mala vinashine
One who chants this mantra while picking tulasi leaves and then offers them to Lord Krsnas lotus feet the results of that offering is increased millions of times.

Hare Krsna

damaghosa das