Tapas

(“heat”) Term denoting any physical
asceticism, or what in earlier times was
referred to as mortification of the flesh.
The term tapas encompasses rites of
denial, such as fasting (upavasa) or
celibacy, as well as rites of enduring
physical pain, such as the “five fires”
(panchagni) rite. In this rite a person
sits during the hot season surrounded
by four fires, with the fifth fire being the
sun overhead. Other rites include
enduring cold from bathing (snana) in
snow-fed rivers, and enduring any other
sort of physical discomfort. The word
tapas can also describe bizarre and even
masochistic behaviors, such as remaining standing for years on end; keeping
an arm upraised until the muscles atrophy, and it cannot be lowered; lying on
beds of thorns and nails, and so forth.
The governing assumption behind all of
these practices is that they generate
spiritual power (seen figuratively as
“heat”) and that a person who generates
and amasses enough of this power
will gain supernormal powers or the
ability to demand boons from the
gods themselves. Even though many
contemporary Hindus are skeptical of
the more extreme practices and may
dismiss them, there is still great cultural
respect for ascetic self-control, and
combined with the right personality,
such practices can still confer considerable
religious authority.
In Hindu mythology Indra, king of
the gods, pays close attention to those
amassing such powers to protect himself from being replaced by someone
more powerful. When an ascetic starts to
amass enough power to displace him,
Indra’s heavenly throne becomes hot
through the “heat” generated by the
tapas. Indra must search for the aspirant
and defuse this power in one of two
ways—either by giving the aspirant a
boon, which in many cases is the reason
for performing the tapas in the first
place, or by sending a celestial nymph
(apsara) to seduce the ascetic, whose
power will be discharged along with his
semen. This mythology reflects the
basic Hindu belief that the starting point
for ascetic power is celibacy, which conserves a man’s vital energies by conserving his semen.