Pundra (referring to urdhva-pundra) means to decorate the body with Vaisnava tilaka. It also means “effulgence.” When we reduce our bodily conception of life by increasing our attachment to the Supreme Lord through hearing and chanting, we become happy, our anxieties diminish, and we develop an effulgence. Those on the bodily platform experience so much anxiety, and sometimes foolish people think that the only way to free themselves from anxiety is to renounce everything. But that is not how to become free of anxiety—especially if one maintains material desires in the heart. We are supposed to have faith in the process of devotional service, which will gradually awaken renunciation in the heart. But if this faith in the devotional process has not yet been awakened, and if we simply renounce whatever troubles us in our life, it will only make our heart hard. Renunciation is something that must awaken in the heart with the dawn of devotional attachment.
(LFD, Vol2, Faith—The Price for the Holy Name, Pg 90 and Pg 91)