Tilak-The Mark of spirituality

Tilak is a kind of mark made on forehead. It is a symbol of auspiciousness.
As per Hinduism it is must for every Brahmin to have tilak on his forehead. Similarly for married women it is important to put a red dot (bindi) on her forehead as it is the indication of “Saubhagya”(Good Luck). People belonging to various school of thoughts wear different kind of Tilak. For Example , devotees of Lord Shiva put tripundra(3 horizontal lines ) on their forehead where as deciples of Lord Vishnu wear urdhavpundra(U shape mark). Generally sandalwood paste,sacred ash and red termuric powder is used as tilak. The place where it is applied on the forehead i.e. between eyebrows has “Agya-chakra” . This is a gateway to spirituality. Application of tilak is to activate this zone. Most of the religious ceremonies can not be performed without Tilak. The tilak mark act as connector between human and God. Even in the research it is found that a person who wears Tilak daily on his forehead rarely suffers from head diseases.One should use ring finger to apply tilak. Further, our shaastra says that there are 13 places in our body where one should apply tilak. There is a separate mantra for applying tilak on each part of the body.