> So the banning of a person or another is just > all empty drama to allow people doing the banning > to have something to feel powerful and decisive > about, and for those banned to feel wronged and > victimized about, but it is complete illusion on > both sides. > Yeah, but the OldBluIceMan still thinks he's been banned. From what I've heard, he hasn't been banned, it's just that nobody out there likes him anymore because he doesn't do any work - he just lays around all the time sleeping or watching TV. Apparently he can't even make it down the hill for satsang these days.
But he should know, concerning the twelve marks, hand applied, by every bhakta, it would be a cause of concern if any marks were to appear to be 'perfectly applied' by using a mirror. Those marks are applied BEFORE the sanctified prasadam, and must never be applied using a two inch paint brush, with a mirror, or even by looking at hisself in the reflection of his water pot. Also for the sadhus who apply 'ash', who usually claim to be serving a delineation of a rasik attitude, that those marks which appear as one line of white ash can never be 'straight across the forehead horizontally'. If the ash mark appears as one single line, applied with three fingers, then the sadhu is probably an impostor, and should be ignored. Sometimes the actual mark may appear to be some sort of messy smear where a simile of a line appear to be. The vertical 'U-shaped' marks of devotional service vary in a large variety, but they must never have any lower 'stem' to the 'U' such as to make it a 'Y'. It may have a series of marks inside the U, and a dot below the U, as also the ash marks may also have marks centered within it, and a dot below it. It is also permissible for the sadhu to apply such marks with only 'water', and thus nothing would be seen remaining. You can ask those who appear without marks, as to what type, and in what manner they apply their devotional service designations. This seems to be cosmetic, but it is apparently, one of the primary credentials to be validated in a sadhu, that is, a 'good fellow'.
