Bhagavad Gita · 17.5 · Yoga through Discerning the Three Divisions of Faith·5 of 28
अशास्त्रविहितं घोरं तप्यन्ते ये तपो जनाः।दम्भाहङ्कारसंयुक्ताः कामरागबलान्विताः ॥
aśhāstra-vihitaṁ ghoraṁ tapyante ye tapo
janāḥ dambhāhankāra-sanyuktāḥ kāma-rāga-balānvitāḥ
Sanskrit recitation
Faith has a flavor · 17.1–17.6 · Teaching
Translation
Those men who practice terrific austerities not prescribed by the scriptures, given to hypocrisy and egoism, driven by the force of lust and attachment.
Meaning
There are some who think that the mortification of the body is the proper means to attain the goal of life. They do this in order to attract the people and get money for the gratification of their senses. They stand on one leg with raised hands. This is not real Tapas. This is Tamasic Tapas. Bodily torture will not bring emancipation. These men are not acainted with even the first elements of the scriptures. They mock at the religious practices of the wise, elderly persons and jeer at learned men. They are puffed up with the vanity of their own greatness. They are proud of their wealth. They perform unauthorised austerities. These persons do severe austerities contrary to the scriptures on the strength of desire and attachment.They take even the lives of children to propitiate their deity. Instead of killing their egoism, they kill many innocent animals in the name of sacrifice but in reality they kill them to satisfy their own palate. Most horrible indeed They speak ill of the scriptures and wander about in the forest of delusion and infatuation. They follow the dictates of passion. They inflict pain on themselves and on others. They practise austerities which cause pain to themselves and to other living beings. Pitiable indeed is their lot
After Swami Sivananda
Faith has a flavor· 17.1–17.6→
Teachers usually read this idea across several verses together, one shared reflection covers the whole unit.
- 17.1Arjuna said, "What is the condition of those who, disregarding the injunctions of the scriptures, perform sacrifice with faith—is it Sattva, Rajas, or Tamas, O Krishna?"
- 17.2The Blessed Lord said, "There are threefold faiths inherent in the nature of the embodied: the sattvic (pure), the rajasic (passionate), and the tamasic (dark). Hear of them."
- 17.3The faith of each is in accordance with their nature, O Arjuna. People consist of their faith; as a person's faith is, so are they.
- 17.4The sattvic, or pure, men worship the gods; the rajasic, or passionate, worship the yakshas and rakshasas; the others, the tamasic or deluded people, worship ghosts and hosts of nature-spirits.
17.5Those men who practice terrific austerities not prescribed by the scriptures, given to hypocrisy and egoism, driven by the force of lust and attachment.
- 17.6Know thou these to be of demonical resolves, senselessly torturing all the elements in the body and Me who dwell in the body.
Word-by-word→
- ye
- who
- bala
- force
- kāma
- desire
- rāga
- attachment
- dambha
- hypocrisy
- ghoram
- stern
- tapaḥ
- austerities
- janāḥ
- people
- tapyante
- perform
- ahankāra
- egotism
- anvitāḥ
- impelled by
- sanyuktāḥ
- possessed of
- aśhāstra-vihitam
- not enjoined by the scriptures
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