Sanskrit
अशास्त्रविहितं घोरं तप्यन्ते ये तपो जनाः । दम्भाहङ्कारसंयुक्ताः कामरागबलान्विताः ॥
aśāstravihitaṃ ghoraṃ tapyante ye tapo janāḥ dambhāhaṅkārasaṃyuktāḥ kāmarāgabalānvitāḥ
Translation
The men who perform severe austerities, unenjoined by the Scriptures, wedded to vanity and egoism, impelled by the force of their desires and passions,
Annie Besant · The Bhagavad-Gita, translated by Annie Besant (4th ed., 1922) — Wikisource · Public Domain
Explanation
Before returning to the threefold structure, Krishna inserts a pointed aside about a specific failure mode: severe, scripturally unwarranted austerity (tapas) driven by vanity, ego, and craving rather than discipline. This sentence runs on into verse 6 for its verdict, but note the setup already answers Arjuna’s opening question obliquely — the problem was never “unscriptural” as such, it’s what’s actually motivating the practice underneath. Verses 5–6 are a bridge from chapter 16: aśāstra-vihitam ghoram — “terrible austerity not sanctioned by scripture” — done from hypocrisy and ego. Severe self-punishment is not a shortcut to the divine; performed from these motives it is āsura, and BG 17.19 will classify it as tāmasa.
Study deeper
Word by word
- aśāstravihitaṃ ghoraṃअशास्त्रविहितं घोरं
- not enjoined by scripture, terrible (aśāstra-vihitam + ghoram)
- tapyante ye tapo janāḥतप्यन्ते ये तपो जनाः
- those people who practise austerity (tapyante + ye + tapaḥ + janāḥ)
- dambhāhaṅkārasaṃyuktāḥदंभाहङ्कारसंयुक्ताः
- joined with hypocrisy and egoism (dambha-ahaṅkāra-saṃyuktāḥ)
- kāmarāgabalānvitāḥकामरागबलान्विताः
- impelled by lust, passion, and force (kāma-rāga-bala-anvitāḥ)
Commentary
Site Commentary
The verdict doesn’t arrive until verse 6, but Krishna has already tipped his hand: calling the austerity ghora, terrible or dreadful, before he’s even named what’s wrong with it. The adjective is doing the work a verdict usually does — by the time the actual judgment (“know these as demoniac”) lands in the next verse, the reader has already been told how to feel about it.
Original commentary written for this site · © Amit Singh — original commentary
Concepts
Apply this verse
Lessons
Personal
- Notice when your own word choice about something gives away your verdict before you've actually reasoned it out — if you're already calling a habit 'terrible' in your head, you've probably already judged it; be honest that the reasoning is following the label, not the other way around.
Professional
- Watch for loaded language creeping into a status update before the actual finding is stated — calling a metric 'concerning' in the summary line telegraphs your conclusion before the data supporting it appears, and readers will anchor on the adjective.
Family & Social
- If you catch yourself describing someone's choice with a harsh adjective before you've explained what's actually wrong with it, pause — the word has already delivered your verdict, and saying it out loud without the reasoning behind it yet can land as judgment rather than concern.
Ask yourself
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