Spiritual discipline must be guided by wisdom.
Krishna speaks to Arjuna
अशास्त्रविहितं घोरं तप्यन्ते ये तपो जनाः |दम्भाहंकारसंयुक्ताः कामरागबलान्विताः ||१७-५||
aśāstravihitaṃ ghoraṃ tapyante ye tapo janāḥ . dambhāhaṃkārasaṃyuktāḥ kāmarāgabalānvitāḥ ||17-5||
Use this verse before extreme practices.
Meaning
Those people who perform severe austerities not prescribed by scripture, filled with hypocrisy and ego, driven by desire, attachment, and force.
Translation: Gita Guidance (original English rendering).
In plain words
Austerity becomes dangerous when it is ego-driven and not guided by wisdom.
Word-by-word meaning
Tap a word to see its meaning.
Explanation
Krishna warns against harsh spiritual practices that come from pride, display, obsession, or desire for power. Discipline without wisdom can harm rather than purify.
Read the traditional 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.
In daily life
Do not harm yourself to prove spirituality.
A person may take extreme fasting or sleepless practice to look spiritual, but the motive may be ego.
Try this today
Review one hard practice for ego, health, and scriptural guidance.
My discipline is wise, humble, and purifying.Reflect
Is my discipline purification or performance?
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Quick check
What does ‘दम्भ अहंकार संयुक्ताः’ mean in this verse?
Krishna on hypocrisy, in other chapters
- Verse 16.17Ritual performed for show, however grand, is empty — true worship must humble the ego, not flatter it.
- Verse 4.28Generosity, discipline, practice, and study are all sacred offerings — every sincere effort to grow is a form of sacrifice.
- Verse 18.24Action driven by craving, ego, and exhausting strain is restless and binding, not free.
- Verse 3.41Master desire at its earliest stage in the senses, before it captures your mind and reasoning — it is far easier to check an impulse than an obsession.
Swipe left for 17.6 · The body is a sacred field where Krishna dwells.
Questions about Bhagavad Gita 17.5
Who says Bhagavad Gita 17.5, and to whom?
Krishna speaks to Arjuna in verse 17.5, in Chapter 17, Shraddhatraya Vibhaga Yoga (Shraddhatraya Vibhaga Yoga).
What does Bhagavad Gita 17.5 mean?
Those people who perform severe austerities not prescribed by scripture, filled with hypocrisy and ego, driven by desire, attachment, and force. (Translation: Gita Guidance (original English rendering).)
What is the lesson of Bhagavad Gita 17.5 for daily life?
Do not harm yourself to prove spirituality. A person may take extreme fasting or sleepless practice to look spiritual, but the motive may be ego.
What do the Sanskrit words in Bhagavad Gita 17.5 mean?
अशास्त्रविहितम् — not enjoined by scripture; घोरम् — terrible, severe; तप्यन्ते — practise / undergo; ये जनाः तपः — those people, austerity; दम्भ अहंकार संयुक्ताः — joined with hypocrisy and egoism.
Where does verse 17.5 come in the Bhagavad Gita?
It is verse 5 of 28 in Chapter 17, Shraddhatraya Vibhaga Yoga. The next verse is 17.6.