तपस्या tapasyā is not Penance

यद् दुष्करं यद् दुरापं यद् दुर्गं यच्च दुस्तरम्।

तत् सर्वं तपसा प्राप्यं तपो हि दुरतिक्रमम्।

yad duṣkaraṁ yad durāpaṁ yad durgaṁ yacca dustaram|

tat sarvaṁ tapasā prāpyaṁ tapo hi duratikramam|

The commentator Mallinatha quotes this verse from Manu while explaining the second verse of Kalidasa’s Kumarasambhavam canto five. In this verse Kalidasa says that Parvati wished to embrace the mind-centered meditation by तपस् tapas in order to make her beauty bearing its fruit of love.

While translating the word तपोभिः tapobhiḥ of Kalidasa’s verse, many translators have used the English word ‘penances’. Sri Aurobindo says: To translate this word “penances”, as is frequently done, is altogether improper.”

The word ‘penance’ in English means ‘punishment inflicted on oneself as an outward expression of repentance for wrong doing’ and ‘a sacrament in which a member of the Church confesses sins to a priest and is given absolution’.

Sri Aurobindo further comments saying: “The idea of self-imposed or priest-imposed penalty for sin which the English word contains does not enter even in the slightest degree into the idea of तपस् tapas which implies no more than a fierce and strong effort of all the human powers towards any given end. According to Hindu ideas this could only be done to its best effect by conquering the body for mind.” Hence the word तपस् tapas, along with many other meanings, also contains in it the idea of ascetic practices. But it is much deeper than that in its root sense.

[An important note by Sri Aurobindo (which is mentioned by him), specifically on the history and philosophy of the word तपस् tapas is either missing or it was not was not written.]

Here is my note on what the word तपस् tapas means in its root sense:

The word तपस्या tapasyā is in feminine gender. Religious austerity, bodily mortification, penance, severe meditation, special observance etc. are the usual meanings of this word found in many dictionaries. Therefore, people think that तपस्या tapasyā means to abandon all activities and sit in meditation under a tree in an isolated place or a rigorous practice of austerity by tormenting oneself. This is a very wrong image of तपस्या tapasyā that most people have in their mind. तपस्या tapasyā does not mean this. It has a very deep meaning and it is most relevant to all who aspire to achieve the highest goal of life.

तपस्या tapasyā is derived from the word तपस् tapas which further has its root in the root-sound ‘तप् tap’ meaning ‘to generate heat’, ‘to make warm’, ‘to shine up’ ‘to torment’ etc. तपति tapati is the third person singular form of the root तप् tap in present tense. Of many words derived from this root the words ताप tāpa, ‘heat, glow, pain etc.’, सन्ताप santāpa ‘affliction, pain, sorrow, anguish, distress’, and तपन tapana, ‘sun, warming, shining’ are most popular.

Based on the root-sense, the word तपस् tapas means warmth or heat or any kind of energism, askesis, austerity of conscious force acting upon itself or its object. In a higher sense the self-awareness of the Absolute, the force of the consciousness, when it is concentrated on itself and energized for action, becomes तपस् tapas. It is the warmth of the fire of aspiration that is ever burning within every being. Doing तपस्या tapasyā then is to feel this warmth and to become aware of and intensify that fire of aspiration and act towards and energize oneself for achieving the highest goal of life.

The one who does तपस्या tapasyā is called तपस्वी tapasvī. The feminine form of it is तपस्विनी tapasinvī. The base word for both of these is तपस्विन् tapasvin. The words तपश्चरणम् tapaścaraṇam and तपश्चर्या tapaścaryā are also used for तपस्या tapasyā.

“Life has a purpose.” And the Mother (of Sri Aurobindo Ashram) says, “this purpose is to find and serve the Divine”. This is the true aim of life. If this is the true aim of life then तपस्या tapasyā, the Mother says, is “a discipline with the aim of realizing the divine’, ‘the process leading to the goal’, ‘and the aspiration to know and serve the divine’. One must make sincere efforts to cherish this discipline and dedicate one’s life to work for the Divine.

तपस्या tapasyā is inevitable for everyone to keep the spirit young and alive for ever. The entire life must become a तपस्या tapasyā, a constant churning for a new birth of the soul into a higher consciousness. This truly adds a luminous sense to our existence.