Tapas (Sanskrit) - Famous Ancient Tapasvins

Famous Ancient Tapasvins

• Ravana: according to the Ramayana, as a young man Ravana undertakes a terrible penance, lasting over 1000 days to please Lord Shiva. When Shiva does not appear before him, Ravana begins to cut off his head, wherein a new head takes form out of his yogic power. He continues meditating again for a thousand days, then cutting another. When he is about to cut for a tenth time, Shiva appears. He grants Ravana's request for immeasurable strength and knowledge of weapons.

Ravana then undertakes another penance for 1000 days, endeavoring to please Lord Brahma. Brahma tells Ravana that he cannot grant him the immortality he desires, for none of the created are immortal. But Ravana obtains invulnerability against all celestial beings and living creatures, save man and monkeys.

• Vishwamitra: king Kaushika undertakes a heavy penance, fasting and meditating for thousands of years to become the equal of Guru Vasishta, a Brahmarishi. He steadily rises to become a Rajarshi, or a royal saint after a thousand years, but is not satisfied.

Even harder penance wins him the status of rishi, and rising to the brahmin order from the kshatriya order. But that is not enough for him. He strives harder to control his sensual passions, including the sexual urge which ruined his tapas when he consorted with the apsaras Menaka, and the anger which led him to attack Vasishta and turn another apsaras Rambha into stone.

After over 10,000 years, Lord Brahma rewards Kaushika's fearsome penance with the title of Brahmarishi, the highest of all brahmins and holy men, and equal to Vasishta. However now, Kaushika has dissolved his anger as a result of his tapas, and is named Vishwamitra, meaning Friend of the Universe, prepared to help anybody who sought his help. During his journeys, several times he gives all his TapoShakti (Energy gained after doing severe Tapas) to several people who sought his help and who he deemed as worthwhile. As a result, he earned the name Vishwamitra (Vishwam means Universe and Mitra means Friend)

• Bhagiratha: was an ancient Indian king who brought down the River Ganges to earth.

Bringing Ganges back to Earth was a near impossible task and required many years to be spent in tapas and prayer. The Kosala kings of successive generations could not do this while managing their duties as kings. As a result, the sins of the thousand princes multiplied in their destructive energy, and began resulting in natural disasters. The kingdom began to lose its peace and prosperity, and by the time Bhagiratha ascended the throne, he found it impossible to attempt to govern in this situation, that had only one solution.

Turning over the kingdom to trusted ministers, Bhagiratha set off to the Himalayas to perform an arduous tapas in the extreme climate. For one thousand years, he performed an excruciatingly harsh penance to please Lord Brahma. At the end of the thousand years, Brahma came to him and told him to ask for anything. Bhagiratha asked Brahma to bring down the river Ganges to earth so that he may perform the ceremony for his ancestors.

Brahma asked Bhagiratha to propitiate Lord Shiva, for only He would be able to break the Ganges' fall. It was the largest river, and it would be impossible for anyone save Him to contain the destructive impact of this event.

Bhagiratha performed tapas for Lord Shiva, living only on air. The compassionate Shiva appeared only after a year's penance, and told Bhagiratha he should not have to perform tapas to accomplish a noble goal such as this. He assured Bhagiratha that he would break Ganges' fall.