Discipline & Moderation

Tapas — measured eating, sleeping, effort — 57 verses, starred ones first.

1. 2.62 ★ Thinking → clinging → craving → anger. The chain of suffering begins in where you let your mind dwell.
2. 2.63 ★ Anger → delusion → memory loss → intellect destroyed → total ruin. Know this chain before it starts.
3. 5.29 ★ Knowing Me as the enjoyer of all sacrifice and austerity, Great Lord of all worlds, Friend of all beings — peace comes.
4. 9.27 ★ Whatever you do, eat, offer, give, or practise as austerity — do it all as mad-arpaṇam, an offering to Me.
5. 16.2 ☆ More daivī qualities: ahiṃsā, satya, akrodha, tyāga, śānti, apaiśuna, dayā, aloluptva, mārdava, hrī, acāpala.
6. 17.23 ☆ OṀ Tat Sat: triple name of Brahman — by which brāhmaṇas, Vedas, and yajñas were ordained in the beginning.
7. 17.28 ☆ Whatever is sacrificed, given, done, or tapas practiced without śraddhā — that is asat: naught here or hereafter.
8. 18.2 ☆ Sannyāsa = abandoning desire-motivated action; tyāga = abandoning fruits of ALL action — say the learned.
9. 18.9 ☆ Sāttvic tyāga: niyata karma done ONLY because 'this must be done,' having abandoned attachment and fruit.
10. 2.58 Like a tortoise draws in its limbs, the wise one withdraws senses from objects. Wisdom stands firm.
11. 2.59 Discipline removes the object but longing persists. Only direct experience of the Supreme removes the longing itself.
12. 2.66 No discipline → no wisdom → no contemplation → no peace → no happiness. The chain is unbroken.
13. 2.67 When mind follows the wandering senses, wisdom is carried away — like wind sweeps a ship off course.
14. 3.6 Sitting still while the mind craves sense-objects is not discipline — the Gita calls it hypocrisy.
15. 3.14 Action → yajna → rain → food → all beings. Human right-action sustains the entire chain of life.
16. 4.10 Many, freed from attachment, fear, and anger, purified by knowledge-austerity — have attained My being.
17. 4.28 Wealth, austerity, yoga, self-study, knowledge — all valid yajna for ascetics with sharpened vows.
18. 4.30 Regulated food, prāṇas offered into prāṇas — ALL these are knowers of yajna; yajna destroys all their impurities.
19. 5.27 Sense contacts excluded, gaze fixed between brows, breath equalized — this is the meditation posture for liberation.
20. 6.16 Yoga fails for those who eat or fast to excess — and equally for those who sleep too much or too little. Regulate.
21. 6.17 Regulate food, recreation, effort and sleep — and yoga becomes the destroyer of all pain.
22. 6.36 Yoga is hard for the uncontrolled self — but for the self-controlled one striving by right means, it is attainable.
23. 7.9 I am the sacred fragrance in earth, the brilliance in fire, the life-force in all beings, and the austerity in ascetics.
24. 8.28 Transcending Vedic merit, sacrifice, austerity, and charity — the yogi knowing this reaches the primordial Supreme.
25. 10.5 Non-injury, equanimity, contentment, austerity, charity, fame and infamy — these varied states arise from Me alone.
26. 11.53 Not by Vedas, not by austerity, not by gifts, not by sacrifice — can I be seen as you have seen Me. Not by any of these.
27. 14.12 Greed, restless activity, and longing surge — know that rajas is predominant and karma-saṅga is binding.
28. 15.14 I am Vaiśvānara — the digestive fire in every living body — digesting all four kinds of food with prāṇa and apāna.
29. 17.2 Śraddhā of the embodied is threefold — born of svabhāva (one's own nature): sāttvikī, rājasī, tāmasī. Hear this.
30. 17.5 Those who practice ghora tapas without śāstric sanction, driven by dambha, ahaṃkāra, kāma and rāga — āsurī tapas.
31. 17.6 They torture their body's elements AND Me who dwell within — know these fools to be of āsurī resolve.
32. 17.7 Even food is threefold in its appeal to each person; so too yajña, tapas, and dāna. Hear their distinctions.
33. 17.8 Sāttvic food enhances life, sattva, strength, health, joy, delight — savoury, oleaginous, substantial, heart-pleasing.
34. 17.9 Rājasic food: bitter, sour, salty, hot, pungent, dry, burning — loved by the rājasic; yields pain, grief, disease.
35. 17.10 Tāmasic food: stale, flavorless, putrid, overnight-old, others' remnants, impure — dear to those immersed in tamas.
36. 17.11 Sāttvic yajña: performed as ordained, without fruit-desire, with the conviction 'this must be done.'
37. 17.13 Tāmasic yajña: against ordinance, no food-sharing, no mantras, no dakṣiṇā, no śraddhā — declared tāmasic.
38. 17.14 Bodily tapas: honouring Devas/dvija/guru/wise; purity, straightforwardness, brahmacarya, non-injury.
39. 17.15 Speech tapas: non-disturbing, true, agreeable, beneficial words — plus daily svādhyāya (sacred study).
40. 17.16 Mental tapas: serenity of mind, kindliness, silence, self-restraint, and purity of motive/bhāva.
41. 17.17 Sāttvic tapas: the three-fold tapas practiced with supreme śraddhā, without fruit-desire, by the disciplined.
42. 17.18 Rājasic tapas: done for reception, honour, worship, and show — unstable and transient.
43. 17.19 Tāmasic tapas: done with foolish delusion, self-torture, or to destroy another — declared tāmasic.
44. 17.20 Sāttvic dāna: given with 'this must be given,' to one expecting no return, at right place, time, and recipient.
45. 17.24 Therefore, Brahman-knowers always begin yajña, dāna, and tapas with 'OṀ' as ordained by scripture.
46. 17.25 Uttering 'Tat,' without fruit-desire, mokṣa-seekers perform yajña, tapas, and various acts of dāna.
47. 17.26 Sat means: being/reality, goodness/virtue, and praiseworthy action — three registers of the one word.
48. 17.27 Steadiness in yajña, tapas, and dāna is called Sat; and even supporting action for their sake is Sat.
49. 18.3 Some say all karma is faulty and should be abandoned; others say yajña-dāna-tapas must not be abandoned.
50. 18.4 Hear My definitive word on tyāga, O best of Bharatas — tyāga has been declared three-fold, O tiger among men.
51. 18.5 Yajña, dāna, and tapas must NOT be abandoned — they must be performed; they are purifiers of the wise.
52. 18.15 Whatever action a person initiates with body, speech, and mind — right or the reverse — these five are its causes.
53. 18.18 Three-fold impulse to action: knowledge, knowable, knower. Three-fold action-structure: organ, act, agent.
54. 18.28 Tāmasic kartā: undisciplined, vulgar, obstinate, deceitful, malicious, lazy, desponding, procrastinating.
55. 18.42 Brāhmaṇa dharma: śama, dama, tapas, purity, forbearance, uprightness, knowledge, wisdom, faith — born of svabhāva.
56. 18.52 Frequenting solitude, eating lightly, restraining speech-body-mind, always in dhyāna-yoga, fully in vairāgya —
57. 18.67 This teaching is never to be given to the non-ascetic, non-devotee, non-service-minded, or one who criticizes Me.