Why wearing tilak is so important........

The Padma Purana states:

“O Brahmana! For the sake of My pleasure, My devotee will put on tilak with a steady mind every morning and evening, and during My worhsip and fire sacrifice. Tilak brings auspiciousness, protects one from danger and destroys fear. Therefore one should always wear tilak.”

2. The Skanda Purana says that if one performs sacrifice, offers charity, performs austerities, fire sacrifies or reads the Vedas without wearing tilak, all his activities go in vain.

3. The Padma Purana mentions that one should not see the face of someone who does not wear tilak. If this happens, he should purify himself by looking at the sun.

4. He who wears tilak marked with clay, even a candala, is a pure soul and worshipable; there is no doubt about that. Lord Narayana along with Laxmi Devi is seated in the beautiful space inside the tilak. Therefore, the body of those who wear tilak is the sacred temple of the Lord. When a person performs sacrifice, charity, austerity, japa, etc., all his pious activities become imperishable.

5. The Bramanda Purana says that whether one is impure, devoid of proper etiquette or commiting sinful activities in his mind, if he wears tilak he always remains pure.

6. The Supreme Personality of Godhead said:

“It does not matter where a person who wears tilak dies. Even if he is a candala, he goes to My abode riding on a space ship and becomes worshipped there.”

7. The Lord also said:

“When a person wearing tilak eats in somebody’s house, I deliver twenty generations of his host from hell.”

8. One must apply clay from the base of the nose (between the eyebrows) to the top of the forehead. 3/4 of the upper part of the nose should be covered with tilak in a leaf-like shape and the cavity of the tilak should start from the base of the eyebrows. The Padma Purana says that one should not draw tilak with anything other than the finger.

9. The lowest of the brahmanas who marks the tilak without making a space in the middle drives Visnu and Laxmi away from there.

10. The Padma Purana quotes Maharsi Gautama:

“Oh Maharaja Ambarish! In order to become free from the greatest of sinful activities just behold the person who wears tilak with gopi-chandan.”

11. According to Kashi Kunda, Yamaraja said;

“Oh my messengers! Listen carefully. When you see someone with tilak made of gopi-candan on the forehead, reject him like blazing fire.” === Quotes from the Sri Hari-bhakti-vilasa, written by Srila Gopala Bhatta Goswami and Srila Sanatana Goswami