Shloka : 41
कृष्णदीक्षां गुरो: प्राप्तैस्तुलसीमालिके गले ।
धार्ये नित्यं चोर्ध्वपुंड्रं ललाटादौ द्विजातिभि: ॥ 41 ॥
અને ધર્મવંશી ગુરુ થકી શ્રીકૃષ્ણની દીક્ષાને પામ્યા એવા જે બ્રાહ્મણ, ક્ષત્રિય અને વૈશ્ય એ ત્રણ વર્ણના અમારા સત્સંગી તેમણે, કંઠને વિષે તુળસીની બેવડી માળા નિત્યે ધારવી અને લલાટ, હૃદય અને બે હાથ એ ચારે ઠેકાણે ઊર્ધ્વપુંડ્ર તિલક કરવું. ॥ 41 ॥
And the Brahmin, Kshatriya and Vaishya devotees, who have been initiated as the disciples of Shri Krishna by the religiously appointed Guru, should always wear double-folded Tulsi Mala and Urdhvapundra Tilak on their forehead, chest and arms. || 41 ||
Commentary
The devotees of Shri Hari should be initiated into the discipleship of Shri Swaminarayan Bhagwan by taking sacred hymn from a religiously appointed Guru. He should accept the idol illustration to worship and should follow, with full faith, the principles and teachings given by Guru as a part of initiation. Such initiation enlightens the soul with divine knowledge of Supreme Being and destroys the sins committed during the previous births. One must surrender to a Guru who is fully devoted and follows the code of conduct, who is knowledgeable and detached from the worldly matters and who remains absorbed into the divine form of Shri Hari while practicing the supreme commands and worship.
The groups of saints of Shri Swaminarayan Bhagwan are roaming around the holy places of country for the salvation of the divine souls. The divine souls experience detachment towards worldly matters through their contact. Some people feel detached due to holy deeds of previous births. Such detached person renounces the worldly relations and surrenders to a learned saint. Such person becomes eligible for the Mahadiksha i.e. initiation in the faculty of saints, if his behaviour is good, he follows celibacy and remains detached from the worldly matters. Such person can be initiated by the religiously appointed preceptor of Shri Hari (Dharmvanshi Acharya Maharaj Shri). Any other person cannot initiate, evenif, he is highly attained person. The religiously appointed preceptor (Dharmvanshi Acharya Shri) should determine before initiating a person whether he is fully detached from the worldly matters and follows the proper code of conduct.
Moreover, the devotees of Shri Hari belonging to all the three categories, who have been initiated by a proper Guru, should always wear a double folded Kanthi made of Tulsi beads. Here, Shri Hari has instructed to wear double-folded Kanthi to imply that Shri Hari should be worshipped along with His Muktas. And to indicate the same purpose, Tilak should be worn alongwith a dot inside. The devotees should put on the Urdhvapundra i.e. upward mark of U-shape on the forehead, chest and on both the arms. One should wear the signs of Supreme God Shri Hari.