Tapas
Tapas · tapas, “heat, austerity”
Grammar: neuter noun, from the root tap (to heat, to burn): “heat”, the heat of discipline.
Meaning: austerity; the discipline of body, speech and mind that burns away impurity, by fasting, control of the senses, dhyāna and the giving up of desire. It is one of the four feet of dharma and one of the niyamas of yoga.
In the scriptures: the Bhāgavata Purāṇa tells how creation came from tapas, names tapas among the limbs of dharma and yoga, and sets it below bhakti.
Brahmā‘s tapas. Śuka tells Parīkshit that in the waters of pralaya Brahmā, seated on his lotus, heard close by the word “tapaḥ” spoken twice. It was Śrī Hari himself, unseen, who spoke it. Brahmā decided that tapas would do him good, and as if personally instructed he controlled the senses, conquered breath and mind, and in samādhi performed tapas for a thousand divine years, free of desire. By the power of that tapas the insight to create all the lokas shone in him; Brahmā is the best of all who perform tapas. The mahātmās say that tapas is the one wealth of the poor. Then Śrī Hari said: “Tapas is my very heart, most dear to me; tapas is my own form. By tapas alone I create, sustain and withdraw this world; my śakti is severe tapas alone” (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 2, Chapter 9). Nārada, seeing Brahmā’s intense tapas, doubted that there was an Īśvara higher than him, and Brahmā answered that the purpose of tapas is the grace of Nārāyaṇa (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 2, Chapter 5).
Maitreya tells Vidura that Brahmā had already set out eleven places for Rudra, the heart, the senses, prāṇa, ākāśa, vāyu, agni, water, earth, the sun, the moon and tapas, and told him to perform tapas that brings happiness to all beings, by which he would create as before. Śrī Hari, the consciousness that lights all, found in the cave of the buddhi and beyond the pramāṇas, is seen directly only by tapas (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 3, Chapter 12).
A foot of dharma and a niyama. Brahmā created dharma with four feet, vidyā, dāna, tapas and satya, in the order of his faces (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 3, Chapter 12). Parīkshit tells Dharma, standing in the form of a bull, that the maharshis proclaim dharma’s four feet to be tapas, śauca, dayā and satya, and that sammoha, a portion of adharma, broke the foot of tapas; Parīkshit restored the three lost feet and made them grow (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 1, Chapter 17). Kapila names tapas among the limbs of yoga and among the five niyamas the bhakta keeps: śauca, contentment, tapas, svādhyāya and surrender to Īśvara (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 3, Chapters 28–29). The same niyamas are named in the teaching of the Kumāras to Pṛthu (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 4, Chapter 22) and Śuka tells Parīkshit that sādhakas with viveka and śraddhā destroy even great pāpa by tapas, brahmacarya, control of mind and senses, tyāga, satya, śauca and the yamas and niyamas (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 6, Chapter 1). Ṛshabhadeva tells his sons that the human body is fit not for sense-enjoyment but for divine tapas, which purifies the mind and through ātmajñāna gives endless brahmānanda (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 5, Chapter 5).
Below bhakti. Śuka says that tapasvīs, givers, yogīs and the virtuous gain the supreme fruit only by offering their sādhanas to Śrī Hari, and that tapasvīs worship him as the form of tapas (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 2, Chapter 4). Prahlāda tells the asura boys that learning, dāna, tapas, yajña and vratas are not enough to please Śrī Hari; he is pleased by pure bhakti free of desire (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 7, Chapter 7). The maharshis tell Narasiṃha that he taught them the highest tapas, dhyāna, which is his own tejas, and restored it when Hiraṇyakaśipu had made it lost (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 7, Chapter 8). To Uddhava Śrī Kṛshṇa says that tapas cannot bring him under control as satsaṅga does (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 11, Chapter 12), nor as grown bhakti does (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 11, Chapter 14); the niyamas, tapas among them, are kept only now and then, so as not to obstruct ātma-jñāna (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 11, Chapter 10); tapas, bathing in tīrthas, japa and dāna cannot add to the śreyas that comes from jñāna, and tapas is the giving up of desires, not only fasting (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 11, Chapter 19). Sūta says that great labour in tapas and study gives only fame and wealth, while singing, hearing and remembering the qualities of Śrī Hari keeps his lotus feet in memory (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 12, Chapter 12).
Other uses. Ashamed after his defeat, Jarāsandha resolved to perform tapas, but the kings stopped him on the way (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 10, Chapter 50). In the rainy season the dried earth grew green, as a body lean from tapas grows full when the wish is gained (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 10, Chapter 20). Searching for Śrī Kṛshṇa, the gopīs asked the Earth what tapas she had done (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 10, Chapter 30).
In the Bhavishya Purāṇa: tapas and satya give power to contemplate knowledge of the devatās, and mantra-śakti is open to all (Brahma Parva, Chapter 41). The account of those who became great munis says again and again that by tapas one is a brāhmaṇa, saṃskāra going with it, and it names Parāśara, father of Vyāsa, among them (Chapter 42). Dharma has four pādas: satya, śauca, tapas and dāna (Pratisarga Parva, Khaṇḍa 2, Chapter 24).
In the Brahma Purāṇa. Brahmā tells the munis that the devas came to Devī Pārvatī in her tapas on the Himagiri and told her there was no need of it, for Nīlakaṇṭha would soon be her husband; and she ceased her tapas. Then Bhagavān Śiva, as a boy seized by a crocodile in a lake, tested her. To free the boy she offered the crocodile the fruit of the excellent tapas she had performed on the summit of the Himagiri, and all the puṇya she had made since birth. The crocodile took it and shone like the midday sun, and offered to give it back, saying that tapas is hard to earn; but she answered: “Tapas I can earn again, but a brāhmaṇa cannot be had again. Tapas is not greater than the vipras.” When she resolved to perform tapas again, Śaṅkara told her she need not: all she had done she had offered to him, and it would be akshaya (imperishable) for her (Brahma Purāṇa, Chapter 35).
In the Gautamī Māhātmya, Brahmā tells Nārada of many who performed tapas on the Gautamī. Dadhīci performed tapas regularly together with his wife Gabhastinī, and his son Pippalāda, told by Bhagavān Śiva to perform tapas so that he could look at Śiva’s third eye, meditated on Śiva alone in that place for many years (Brahma Purāṇa, Gautamī Māhātmya, Chapter 40). King Dhanvantari, knowing that tapas, homa or japa on a mountain top, beyond the ocean, on the banks of the Gaṅgā, in the temples of Śiva and Vishṇu, or at a holy confluence bears everlasting fruit, performed a great tapas at the feet of Bhīmeśa where the Gaṅgā joins the ocean; the asura Tamas, by māyā in the form of a maiden, made him abandon it, and Brahmā, coming to grant him varas, found him fallen from the height of his tapas (Brahma Purāṇa, Gautamī Māhātmya, Chapter 52). Svāhā, childless, performed tapas for a son until Agni told her to stop; Śiva said of the river Suvarṇā that she is to be attained in the three worlds by tapas, japa and homa; and the place where Agni performed tapas is the tīrtha Tapovana (Brahma Purāṇa, Gautamī Māhātmya, Chapter 58). By tapas the dānava Hiraṇya became invincible to all the devas, and Indrāṇī told Indra: “There is nothing that cannot be achieved by tapas, by yajñas, or by devotion to Vishṇu and to Śiva.” Śiva said that the practice of mantras, tapas and yoga gives siddhi at any confluence, and far more at the confluence of the Gautamī with the ocean (Brahma Purāṇa, Gautamī Māhātmya, Chapter 59). Viśvāmitra taught Viśvarūpa that tapas, vratas, dāna, japa, yajñas and every holy rite yield fruit according to the bhāva (inner disposition) of the one who performs them, and Viśvarūpa took up a tāmasa bhāva and performed tapas for a long time (Brahma Purāṇa, Gautamī Māhātmya, Chapter 103). At the close, Nārada asks Brahmā which is best among tīrthas, dānas, yajñas, tapas, service to the devas and the practice of mantras; and Gaṇeśa recalls how Gautama brought down the Gaṅgā after propitiating Bhagavān Śiva with tapas and stutis (Brahma Purāṇa, Gautamī Māhātmya, Chapter 105).
Related terms: Tapasvī · Niyama · Vrata · Dharma · Brahmacarya
Sources
- Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 1, Chapter 17; Skandha 2, Chapters 4–5, 9; Skandha 3, Chapters 12, 28–29; Skandha 4, Chapter 22; Skandha 5, Chapter 5; Skandha 6, Chapter 1; Skandha 7, Chapters 7–8; Skandha 10, Chapters 20, 30, 50; Skandha 11, Chapters 10, 12, 14, 19; Skandha 12, Chapter 12
- Bhavishya Purāṇa, Brahma Parva, Chapters 41–42; Pratisarga Parva, Khaṇḍa 2, Chapter 24
- Brahma Purāṇa, Chapter 35; Gautamī Māhātmya, Chapters 40, 52, 58–59, 103, 105