Question: We know that Krishna is the supreme personality of Godhead and every soul is His eternal servant. Tilaka is considered to be the footprint of Lord Krishna with a Tulsi leave and therefore every devotee wears Tilaka in his/her forehead.
Why then do we see a Tilaka in the Deity / Picture of Lord Krishna Himself? Could you please give any Shastrik reference to the explanation of the Tilaka on Krishna’s forehead?
Answer by Romapada Swami:
Thank you for your question.
There is nothing sastric that I am aware of to date, but there is tradition.
We traditionally will find that many deities are adorned with the specific style of tilaka of the sampradaya They were installed by. It is understood that the deities are ‘preaching’ on behalf of a specific sampradaya, and thus They are marked with that specific style of tilaka.
There is mention of tilaka in the Hari Bhakti Vilasa, the basis of ISKCON’S deity worship manual, which states the following:
The Hari-bhakti-vilasa mentions that the urdhva-pundra may vary in shape, color, and material according to a devotee’s sampradaya, but other features are shared. It should not be crooked, uneven, uncentered, dirty, or bad-smelling.
On the forehead, the center portion between the two lines should be open from the eyebrows to the hair line, but should be joined at the bottom. The solid portion may extend three quarters of the way down the nose. Lord Visnu is said to reside in the central portion, while Brahma resides on the left and Siva on the right.
