2.3 Tapas and Kriya Yoga

Building the Inner Fire of Tapas

Tapas is a term that modern yoga has twisted and simplified to its detriment, equating the building of spiritual fire with the sweat and heat of physical exercise.  In fact, for the traditional Yogin (sometimes called a Tapasa) it is not severe exercise that builds spiritual heat and purifying energy, but solitude, meditation practices, and austerities.

‘Tap’ means ‘to shine, to give out heat, to burn away past karma,’ and even, ‘to mortify the body, to undergo penance.’ The major transitions of life are not gentle and easy but are rather fiery and full of pain.  This includes the two major human transitions of birth and death.  Tapas appears in some of the earliest works, including in the Rigveda, describing just that: the spiritual birth of the sage that includes sexual heat and the heat of the mother undergoing the ‘brooding’ warmth of pregnancy and the heat of labor.

Asceticism and the practice of Tapas go hand in hand in most of the early religions of the East, including in Buddhism, Vedic Yoga, and Jainism.  Just like the Yama Aparigraha ties in to the Niyama Santosha, the Yama Brahmacharya ties in to the Niyama Tapas.  

These ascetic practices were very severe and are still seen today in India: fasting, denying oneself shelter and other basic necessities, or undertaking feats of physical pain like standing on one foot for years at a time or holding vigil in extreme heat or cold.

Kriya Yoga:

Patanjali describes Tapas as one part of Kriya Yoga.  The other two pillars are the last two Niyamas:

The yoga of action (kriyayoga) is comprised of: Tapas (asceticism), Svadyaya (recitation of spiritual texts), and Ishvara Pranidhana (devotion to the lord).

-YSP 2.1

Taken together this Kriya Yoga addresses self-realization through the body in the Tapas practices, the mind and intellect through chanting of hymns in the Svadyaya practices, and the cultivation of devotion in the heart in Ishvara Pranidhana.  One of the more famous spokespersons for Kriya Yoga was Yogananda who wrote Autobiography of a Yogi and travelled in the United States to spread the Kriya Yoga message and practices.

Like Brahamacharya, Tapas is all about building spiritual fire through purification. It requires complete dedication over a long period of time. So if a yoga teacher says in class: “lets hold Utkatasana (fierce pose) in order to build our Tapas,” you might add “…for the next ten years all while chanting sacred texts and channeling your heart directly to God.”  That would definitely elicit change in a person!

Bringing Tapas into the Ordinary Human Life:

So what do those of us who want to live a regular life take away from the Tapas practice?  We must understand that this practice is all about overcoming the deep laziness and dependence that we have toward spiritual practice.  

The laziness, or inertia, of wanting to pigeonhole spiritual pursuit into the convenient hours of the day or week.  

The dependence on others to tell us how to practice in order to deepen our connection to spiritual truths.

Deep patterns will not shift without great effort- that’s the point of this Niyama.  To be able to stay steady in your physical body; to be able to flow with words and not be devastated when someone is unkind, harsh, or deluded; to be serene and peaceful in adverse situations or even in the face of physical danger. In the Bhagavad Gita the practice of Tapas appears in body, speech, and mind this way:

Worship of the gods, the twice-born, the teachers and the wise, purity, straightforwardness, chastity and non-injury – these are called the austerities of the body.

Speech which causes no excitement and is truthful, pleasant and beneficial, the practice of the study of the Vedas – these are called the austerities of speech.

Serenity of mind, good-heartedness, silence, self-restraint, and the purification of inner states – these are called mental austerity.

This threefold austerity practised by steadfast people with the utmost faith, desiring no reward, they call sattvic austerity.

-Bhagavad Gita (17.14-17)

We do not need to be so extreme in our actions to practice Tapas.  We can simply deepen what we’ve been practicing all along: wisdom, honesty, straightforwardness, strong boundaries, self-investigation, and self-compassion.  Commit yourself to your inner practice.  These very extreme teachings show us what commitment looks like when it is undertaken totally.  

In some corner of your heart commit to understanding yourself and the many ways that you get thrown off balance physically, emotionally, and psychologically.  That corner will get bigger over time and the whole heart with reorient toward yourself, the way an anchor gets moved by currents on its way to the ocean floor.  Eventually it will find that steady ground and stick.

It is just that commitment to your self-investigation that matters.  The rest will follow.