Friday, August 10, 2001


well, i certainly hope the weather breaks as it's supposed to this weekend because i've got cookies to bake!

yes, dear readers, i asked for the definition of tapasya, an undefined sanskrit term plopped in the middle of one of sri aurobindo's essays on the gita. and i got email! it's amazing! thank you all for responding. but please someone tell me where this sanskrit glossary you're using is! i think i need one -- i can't count on this cookie trick forever. . .

anyway, the context of the word was:

For all dynamic action, all kinesis of Nature, involves a voluntary or involuntary tapasya, an energism and concentration of our forces and capacities, which helps us achieve our highest potential in yoga. All action involves a giving of what we have or are, which is the price of that achievement -- an achievement, in yoga, not for ourselves but for others. In the Gita, Krishna insists that we not renounce but rather must altogether do, for action is the work before us, our kartavyam karma, our yoga.

at this point in the essays, sri aurobindo appears to be arguing that a true understanding of the gita forces us to realize that we ought not just meditate in a cave but that we should act boldly in the world and do yoga to benefit the world. that instead of becoming monks who give up everything we should stay where we are and, well, do more yoga. i think. maybe. . .

at first i interpreted tapasya here as force, which works in some sense i guess since hatha yoga is called the yoga of force. but my correpondents point out that the origin of the word is tapas or heat, but has acquired several nuanced meanings, including desire, renunciation, or even mortification.

what's great about this is that first one to write in, frank jude boccio, a yoga teacher, had a quote i have to share:

My Sanskrit teacher says "Tappan Range" ovens (do you remember "Let's Make A Deal?) got its name from Tapas.

i love that! the second person to write in, paula carino, also a yoga teacher, gave us the word's grammar:

My understanding of tapasya, grammatically, is analagous to:

sat = truth
satya = observing the truth as a practice

tapas = heat, austerity
tapasya = observing tapas as a practice.

You know what tapas means, right? That purifying heat of concentration that burnishes you and burns away obstacles and distractions? When you do ashtanga vinyasa, the tapas is the heat of the movement and also the heat of the ujjayyi and holding the bandhas.

although technically frank was first, i find paula's answer closely explains the passage. therefore, it's a double batch of cookies, to be delivered or mailed shortly after the weather improves. i hope you all agree.

anyway, both of these answers lend new meaning to this passage. aurobindo mentions "all kinesis of nature," which sounds to me as if he is talking about physics -- heat as the movement of molecules, heat that shows motion and change. and he is equating this principle with moral and personal action. it is the same heat, i think he means. this energy and change propels to improve our yoga. but improved yoga doesn't come for free -- we must sacrifice something for it -- time, etc. then he somehow relates our willingness to put in the time to do yoga as something that will expand in our lives to benefit others. and finally, i think he concludes that doing yoga is a profound form of human work, it is almost a destiny.

while there's no doubt in my mind that sri aurobindo is mega-hegel -- he's constantly talking about the World-Spirit, Nature, Time, Becoming, synthesis, dialectic, and Heraclitus -- i think i can deal. i mean, i love heraclitus myself. so in some way, reading aurobindo is like taking the old country road that runs roughly parallel to the highway; every now and then through the trees, you see the familiar flow and know you're not as lost as you might feel.

posted by fortune | 12:20 PM | top | link to this | email this: | | | 0 comments