Penance that is performed with a view to gaining respect, honour and reverence is said to be of the Rajasic type, performed generally by men of “passionate” nature. Self control and self-application pursued not for the purpose of one’s own inner development, but only for hood-winking the world and getting cheap respect, reverence or worship, is indeed, one of the basest deceits that a man of culture can ever practise. Earlier Shri Bhagawan Himself (III-6, 7) called such men hypocrites. Seekers belonging to this group perform austerities mainly for their propaganda value, and hence, Bhagawan says that their tapas is “with ostentation” (Dambhena).
One may wonder what harm is there in practising this type of tapas? After all “tapas,” as we observed, “is economy of thought-forces and the intelligent reinvestment of the economised energy into more creative fields of self-development.” And yet, the Geetacharya condemns those who perform tapas with this wrong motive, and declares that such tapas is “UNSTABLE AND TRANSITORY.” Any intelligent self-effort, ordinarily, has a time-lapse, before it can produce its results. Self-application must be constant and continuous in order that it may produce substantial results. When tapas is performed with such a low motive as of winning respectability in society, it cannot even gather the necessary amount of intensity and thus, tapas of the “passionate” can only end in a lot of unproductive and painful self-denials.
THE DULL-WITTED PURSUE THE TAMASIC TYPE OR TAPAS:
