Immortality Marking

Throughout my world travels I am often asked what is the marking on my forehead. I explain to the inquirers, "This is the marking worn by the persons who have conquered over death. If you like, I can teach you how to conquer over death also." This marking, known as "tilaka", is made of sacred clay and immediately applied to the forehead after taking bath. It is the sublime immortality marking of the eternal spirit-soul. It helps the wearer to remember Krishna, and it also knowingly or unknowingly stimulates the dormant Krishna consciousness in the hearts of those who are fortunate enough to notice the tilaka worn by the Krishna conscious devotees.

Sankarshan Das Adhikari
Editor's note: Tilaka is pronounced as "tee-lock."

Srila Prabhupada with Tilaka

Answers According to the Vedic Version:

Question: Faceless God

You mentioned in yesterday's Thought for the Day: "At my lecture last Saturday night in Reno a member of the audience stated that God has no face. When I asked her how she can say that when Krishna clearly reveals Himself as a person with a face, she said that Krishna is just a vessel for the faceless God. Her philosophy does not make any sense."

Generally I can agree with both of you. But why do we need to have a picture of God? Nobody knows for sure how God looks, neither how Krishna looks. Why do we need to have a picture at all? Islam refuses pictures of Allah. Also the Jews were punished by Moses when they started praying to the Golden calve while he was on Mount Sinai in order to receive the 10 commandments. Picturing gods was a very ancient method to make people believe or just to be scared of some invisible power. It was a method of the upper class to keep the lower class under control. Even Jesus himself said: Those are blessed who believe (read the story of St. Thomas)!

There is a certain risk that a particular face or figure becomes more important than the message. And I think in our days with strong scientific backgrounds praying to some fantasy pictures is far from reality. As a child I believed in God as an old man with a long big white beard and angry and powerful eyes (just like the picture in the sixteenth Chapel in the Vatican, Rome). Is that wrong? A picture in the biggest and most absolutistic church? Or is your picture wrong? Finally no one can tell the truth, all is a guess! It is fine if some people need an instrument for their faith, it is also okay if some people don't need anything but the feeling inside.

It will be always difficult for people of a different ethnological background to identify with the religion of a different culture and different time period. We would not pray to the sun anymore, but the Aztecs did. It was okay, but as we know today it was unnecessary cause scientifically the sun is the sun. Not a god. Same we could think about the picture of Krishna. It's a picture, nothing more. We have to see everything in a historical context. Don't you believe that?

My best regards,
Michel

Answer: Facing the Reality of Krishna's Face

You are incorrect in thinking that nobody knows what Krishna looks like. Throughout the ages pure devotees of the Lord have been able to see Him face-to-face. The paintings we have of the Lord have been confirmed as authentic by those who have actually seen the Lord.

As to why we are interested to see the Lord, the reason is that we are trying to develop our love for Him more and more. Everybody keeps photographs of their loved ones to remember and to stimulate their feelings of affection for them. This same thing can be done by keeping photographs of the Lord. By seeing such photos of the Lord we can nurture and increase our feelings of love for the Lord.

In an ordinary photograph of a person, that person is not present in their photograph. But because Krishna or God is Absolute, He is personally present in His photograph. Therefore those who keep and honor such photographs are greatly blessed by the personally present Lord on their pathway of spiritual perfection.

You have stated, "Finally no one can tell the truth, all is a guess!" Thus according to your own philosophy, you are not in a position to judge the legitimacy or illegitimacy of the Lord's photographs. But in spite of your openly stating that no one can tell the truth, you are doing an about face on your own statement by declaring such photographs to be fantasy pictures. If you feel that no one can tell the truth, then you must also feel that you are not qualified to tell the truth. Do you understand this simple logic?

Not everything is seen in an historical context because Lord Krishna exists eternally as an eternal youth in the spiritual world completely outside of the limits of history. If we want to understand the Absolute Truth in full we have to face the reality of Lord Krishna's face.

Sankarshan Das Adhikari