Bhagavad Gītā · Chapter 17, Verse 19
मूढग्राहेणात्मनो यत्पीडया क्रियते तपः।परस्योत्सादनार्थं वा तत्तामसमुदाहृतम्।।
mūḍha-grāheṇātmano yat pīḍayā kriyate tapaḥ
parasyotsādanārthaṁ vā tat tāmasam udāhṛtam
also searched as "Mudha grahenatmano yat pidaya kriyate tapah"
Translation
That austerity which is practised from deluded notions by means of self-torture or to injure another is said to be Tamasika.
Vāṇi's rendering
Austerity done in stubborn delusion, torturing oneself — or done to bring another down — that is called dark.
Word by word
| Sanskrit & transliteration | Meaning |
|---|---|
| मूढग्राहेणmūḍha-grāheṇa | with a deluded, stubborn notion — a grip taken in confusion |
| आत्मनःātmanaḥ | of oneself (joined in sandhi as -grāheṇātmano) |
| यत्yat | which |
| पीडयाpīḍayā | by torment, by inflicting pain |
| क्रियतेkriyate | is done, is performed |
| तपःtapaḥ | austerity, hard practice |
| परस्यparasya | of another person (joined in sandhi as parasyotsādana-) |
| उत्सादनार्थम्utsādana-artham | for the purpose of ruining or destroying |
| वाvā | or |
| तत्tat | that |
| तामसम्tāmasam | of darkness, dull and blind |
| उदाहृतम्udāhṛtam | is declared, is called |
Frequently asked
What does Bhagavad Gita Chapter 17 Verse 19 mean?
Krishna describes the lowest kind of austerity: hard practice taken up in blind stubbornness, damaging the body that carries it, or aimed at bringing someone else down. The severity is real; the understanding behind it is not. Such tapas is called tāmasa — dark — because it burns without lighting anything.
What does mudha grahenatmano yat pidaya kriyate tapah mean?
Mūḍha-grāha is a grip taken in confusion — you have seized an idea and will not open your hand. Practised that way, tapas turns on the practitioner as pīḍā, torment. Krishna is not praising endurance here. He is naming the moment when endurance stops serving anything but itself.
Is all difficult spiritual practice tamasic then?
No. Difficulty is not the marker; motive is. The verse condemns two roots — deluded stubbornness and the wish to harm — not effort. A hard discipline undertaken clearly, without hatred and without a point to prove, belongs to the sāttvika kind Krishna praises in the verses just before this one.
Why is harming another counted as austerity at all?
Because it often wears the same clothes. Vows, fasts and vigils have long been turned into weapons — endured so that someone else pays. Krishna refuses the disguise. The form is austerity; the substance is aggression. He calls it dark not for its severity but for what it is quietly serving.
Themes in this verse
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Commentary
Two kinds of ruin are named in one breath: the one you inflict on yourself, and the one you aim at someone else. Krishna puts them in the same category. The fasting that becomes starvation, the vow held past all sense because letting go would feel like failure — that is not discipline, it is stubbornness wearing discipline's clothes. And the practice undertaken so a rival will suffer for it is darker still, though from outside the two look identical. Ask what your hardness is for. If the answer is proving something, or punishing someone, the austerity is feeding the very thing it claims to burn.