Chapter 17, Verse 5
अशास्त्रविहितं घोरं तप्यन्ते ये तपो जनाः | दम्भाहंकारसंयुक्ताः कामरागबलान्विताः ||१७-५||
aśāstravihitaṃ ghoraṃ tapyante ye tapo janāḥ . dambhāhaṃkārasaṃyuktāḥ kāmarāgabalānvitāḥ ||17-5||
Meaning
17.5 Those men who practise terrific austerities not enjoined by the scriptures, given to hypocrisy and egoism, impelled by the force of lust and attachment.
Word-by-Word Meaning
Explanation & Commentary
Krishna turns to a sobering case: people who undertake severe, even violent, austerities that no scripture sanctions. Their hardship looks impressive, but its roots are corrupt — dambha (hypocrisy or show), ahankara (ego), and the driving pressure of kama (lust) and raga (attachment). Such tapas is not a path to purity but a display of will fuelled by craving.
The warning is timeless. Spiritual effort divorced from humility and right understanding can become a vehicle for the very ego it claims to subdue. Intensity is not the same as holiness. When discipline is performed to impress others or to bend the world to one's desires, the suffering it inflicts on body and mind serves only pride, not the soul. True tapas softens the ego; false tapas inflates it.
💡 Key Takeaway
Intense self-denial driven by ego and desire is not spirituality — discipline must be guided by humility and wisdom to purify rather than inflate.
Related Verses
कर्षयन्तः शरीरस्थं भूतग्राममचेतसः | मां चैवान्तःशरीरस्थं तान्विद्ध्यासुरनिश्चयान् ||१७-६||
karṣayantaḥ śarīrasthaṃ bhūtagrāmamacetasaḥ . māṃ caivāntaḥśarīrasthaṃ tānviddhyāsuraniścayān ||17-6||
17.6 Senseless, torturing all the elements in the body and Me also, Who dwell in the body, know thou these to be of demonical resolves.
अभिसन्धाय तु फलं दम्भार्थमपि चैव यत् | इज्यते भरतश्रेष्ठ तं यज्ञं विद्धि राजसम् ||१७-१२||
abhisandhāya tu phalaṃ dambhārthamapi caiva yat . ijyate bharataśreṣṭha taṃ yajñaṃ viddhi rājasam ||17-12||
17.12 The sacrifice which is offered, O Arjuna, seeking a reward and for ostentation, know thou that to be a Rajasic Yajna.
देवद्विजगुरुप्राज्ञपूजनं शौचमार्जवम् | ब्रह्मचर्यमहिंसा च शारीरं तप उच्यते ||१७-१४||
devadvijaguruprājñapūjanaṃ śaucamārjavam . brahmacaryamahiṃsā ca śārīraṃ tapa ucyate ||17-14||
17.14 Worship of the gods, the twice-born, the teachers and the wise, purity, straightforwardness, celibacy and non-injury are called the austerities of the body.