Tapasā means austerity. Austerity. Suppose if you are habituated to some bad habits. Suppose you smoke, and the prescription is, "Don't take intoxicants." Smoking is intoxication. Now if you have to follow the rules—you cannot smoke—it will be troublesome for you. Because you are habituated to smoke, and I say: "You don't smoke," it will be very difficult for you. You are habituated to unrestricted sex life, and if I say that "Don't have illicit sex life," it will be troublesome for you. Similarly, so many things are there, we are habituated, and if they are restricted there will be some trouble.
So voluntarily accepting some trouble is called tapasya, or austerity. Just like a patient, if he wants to be cured, he has to follow the restriction imposed by the physician. And he follows it. Just like doctor says it, "Oh, you cannot get up. You must lie down twenty-four hours." He doesn't like it, but he has to do it. This is called tapasya, austerity. Penance. Austerity. Just like we say that on the ekādaśī day you should fast. So fasting is not very, I mean to say, pleasant, but one has to do. This is called tapasya.
Brahmacaryeṇa. Brahmacaryeṇa means celibacy. The more you restrain your sex life, the more you become strong for spiritual life. Brahmacaryeṇa. Brahma . . . brahmacarya means to restrain, control sex life. Therefore somebody asked me, "Swāmījī, why you are stressing so much on married life?" I have given this answer to many gentleman in the television, that because we have got a demand for sex life, but if we are restricted with married life, then there is no, I mean to say, illicit sex life. At least we refrain from that.
So it is stated here. These are the rules. Tapasā brahmacaryeṇa. Brahmacarya means celibacy; and śamena, control the mind; damena, control the senses. If you can control your mind, then you can control your senses. In the mind is the center of sense activities. If you can control the mind, then easily you can control the senses. And the easiest process of controlling the mind is to fix up your mind in Kṛṣṇa consciousness. If Kṛṣṇa . . . Kṛṣṇa is all-powerful. If He is seated on your mind, there will be no chance for anything nonsense coming into your mind. Śamena ca damena ca, and tyāgena. Tyāgena means by renunciation.
These things are to be practiced. It is not that you can go on doing all nonsense and you become (chuckling) spiritually advanced. If somebody says like that, he is simply cheating. He's cheating. Just like a nonsense doctor may say that, "You simply pay my fees, and you can do all kinds of nonsense and you'll be cured." You see. This sort of doctor nobody consults. You see. He says that, "You come and pay me my fees, and I shall give you a mantra. You'll be cured, and you can do all kinds of nonsense."
Will anybody go to that doctor? Any sane man? Similarly, if somebody says that, "You can do whatever you like. You take this mantra and pay me my fees, and you'll be highly advanced in spiritual consciousness," these things we do not find in the authorized books, or Vedic literature. They're all manufactured just to flatter and just to earn some money.
But actually, if you are serious, then as it is stated, that you have to follow the regulation: austerity, celibacy, controlling the mind, controlling the senses, by renunciation, by truthfulness, by cleanliness and by following the rules and regulation. This is stated.
- deha-vāg-buddhijaṁ dhīrā
- dharmajṣāḥ śraddhayānvitāḥ
- kṣipanty aghaṁ mahad api
- veṇu-gulmam ivānalaḥ
- (SB 6.1.14)
Now he is giving very nice example. Veṇu-gulmam ivānalaḥ. Just like in the dry season there are so many dry grasses from the field, and if you have to clear the field, you simply set fire on the field and everything automatically becomes cleansed, similarly, deha-vāg-buddhijaṁ dhīrā dharmajṣāḥ śraddhayānvitāḥ. Those who are intelligent enough, dharmajṣāḥ, one who knows what is real religious principle, and śraddhayānvitāḥ, and who is faithful, he can get out of all kinds of sinful activities by an intelligent method.