‘Akalpa refers to the texture of Krsna’s hair, His nicely dressed body anointed with sandalwood pulp and decorated with flower garlands, His tilaka and His chewing pan. Krsna was decorated constantly in this akalpa process. Krsna’s hair was sometimes decorated with flowers placed on the middle of His head, or else it was reaching down to His back. In this way Krsna dressed His hair differently at different times. As for the ointment on His body, the pulp of sandalwood generally appeared to be white, and when it was mixed with saffron dye it appeared to be yellow.

Krsna used to put a vaijayanti garland around His neck. This vaijayanti garland is made of flowers of at least five different colors. Such a garland was always long enough to touch Krsna’s knees or feet. Besides this garland of flowers, there were other kinds of flower garlands too—sometimes decorating His head, sometimes hanging around His neck and chest. Artistic paintings with sandalwood pulp and colored sandalwood were also to be found on the body of Krsna. One gopi addressed her friend and began to praise the bodily features of Krsna. She praised His blackish complexion, the reddish color of chewing pan enhancing His beauty hundreds of times, the curling hair on His head, the kumkum red spots on His body and the tilaka on His forehead.’- Nectar of Devotion 26: Stimulation for Ecstatic Love-Krsna’s Apparel and garlands.

Below pictures are today’s darshan of Sri Sri Radha-Madhava-beautifully decorated with artistic paintings in the forehead, on the auspicious occasion of Return Ratha Festival of Sri Jagannatha.