The Kural or the Maxims of Tiruvalluvar/Chapter 27
CHAPTER 27
TAPAS[1]
261. Patient endurance of suffering and non-injuring of life, in these is contained the whole of tapas.
262. Austerities are for the austere of heart: it is profitless for others to take them up.
263. Is it because there should be some people to tend and feed ascetics that all the rest have forgotten tapas ?
264. It thou wouldst destroy thy foes and exalt those that love thee, know that such a power belongeth unto tapas.
265. Tapas fulfilleth all desires even in the very manner that is desired: therefore is it that men endeavour after tapas in this world.
266. It is the men that do tapas that look after their own interests : the rest are caught in the snares of desire and only do themselves harm.
267. The fiercer the fire in which it is melted the more brilliant becometh the lustre of the gold: even so the severer the sufferings endured by the austere, the purer their nature shineth.
268. Behold the man who hath attained mastery over himself: all other men worship him.
269. Behold the men that have acquired power by austerities: they can succeed even in conquering death.
270. If the needy are the many in the world, it is because those that do tapas are few, and those that do not, the larger number.
- ↑ Austerities, self-mortification, and thought-concentration.