Link to purport by A C Bhaktivedanta Swami Srila Prabhupada

Transcript of Bhakti-Shastri class on this verse by Chaitanya Charan

After this we will discuss demonic way of worship.  

5-6: Demoniac austerity

We should not just mislead by externals and certain austerity can be demoniac also

And then Krishna talks about four behavioral characteristics which can help us understand the mode in which a person is doing food sacrifice, austerity and charity in the three modes.

Bg 17.5-6

aśāstra-vihitaṁ ghoraṁ
tapyante ye tapo janāḥ
dambhāhaṅkāra-saṁyuktāḥ
kāma-rāga-balānvitāḥ

karṣayantaḥ śarīra-sthaṁ
bhūta-grāmam acetasaḥ
māṁ caivāntaḥ śarīra-sthaṁ
tān viddhy āsura-niścayān

Synonyms: 

aśāstra — not in the scriptures; vihitam — directed; ghoram — harmful to others; tapyante — undergo; ye — those who; tapaḥ — austerities; janāḥ — persons; dambha — with pride; ahaṅkāra — and egoism; saṁyuktāḥ — engaged; kāma — of lust; rāga — and attachment; bala — by the force; anvitāḥ — impelled; karṣayantaḥ — tormenting; śarīra–stham — situated within the body; bhūta–grāmam — the combination of material elements; acetasaḥ — having a misled mentality; mām — Me; ca — also; eva — certainly; antaḥ — within; śarīra–stham — situated in the body; tān — them; viddhi — understand; āsura–niścayān — demons.

Translation: 

Those who undergo severe austerities and penances not recommended in the scriptures, performing them out of pride and egoism, who are impelled by lust and attachment, who are foolish and who torture the material elements of the body as well as the Supersoul dwelling within, are to be known as demons.

So aśāstra-vihitaṁ ghoraṁ, 

aśāstra-vihitaṁ, that which is not talked about in scriptures, ghoraṁ that which is dreadful, harmful to others, Srila Prabhupada translates.

tapyante ye tapo janāḥ, those people who do austerity of this kind

dambhāhaṅkāra-saṁyuktāḥ, and what is the nature of their austerity? That is filled with arrogance and pride. 

And they are motivated by kāma-rāga-balānvitāḥ, by desire and attachment, 

karṣayantaḥ śarīra-sthaṁ, karṣayantaḥ, they torcher themselves 

bhūta-grāmam acetasaḥ, bhūta-grāmam, the body which is made up of material elements.

acetasaḥ, their consciousness is misdirected, it is not directed to spiritual reality, it is misdirected. 

And whom do they trouble? karṣayantaḥ, 

māṁ caivāntaḥ śarīra-sthaṁ, so they not only torment themselves but they torment Me also Krishna says.

tān viddhy āsura-niścayān, they are definitely asuras.

Why Krishna is talking about demons in this chapter which is not about demoniac nature? Krishna has already talked about demoniac nature in the previous chapter. So He is giving the context for the discussion.

So Arjuna’s question was those who have faith but not in scripture. What happens to them? Krishna describes that we have to understand that their faith level based on three modes. They are in one of the three modes. Now Krishna is going in this discussion at the bottom of the scale of reference. So with the scale at the bottom are people who are completely misdirected in their thought process in their lifestyle, even at the conception of religion. Rather than understanding religion as an approach to God they think of religion as an approach to their own ego. Of course everyone has ego in this world and most people are not even trying to purify their ego but these people are extreme even in their obsession with their ego, for the sake of their ego they are ready to even torment / torcher themselves. māṁ caivāntaḥ śarīra-sthaṁ.

So what does self-torcher refer here to? Sometime some people think that any type of self-control are self-torcher. For example if somebody is abstaining food for the sake of fasting some people think that, that itself is self-torcher. It may be self-torcher if there is no positive purpose to it, if it is meant for spiritual realization that is not self-torcher, that is the way to self-transcendence. When we make a choice for spiritual understanding for a higher spiritual purpose that choice and sacrifice are auspicious for us, if someone is not choosing that that is also a sacrifice but it is not good for him.

When a person is doing aśāstra-vihitaṁ ghoraṁ, when a person does not follow Shashtra and acts in a way that is harmful to others, then such sacrifices is not glorious,  such sacrifice is unfortunate, such sacrifice back fires on the person, why backfires because such sacrifice doesn’t lead to a person’s spiritual advancement. Such sacrifice lead to entanglement of the person in further bodily consciousness and further self-centeredness which is even self-defeating and self-destructing so for example some people do self-flagellation, means beating one-self with wipes, that is extreme form of austerity, some people when they have to shave they pluck out the hair form their body, so even if they are doing it for spiritual purpose that is misconception about how to make spiritual advancement, and some people are not doing it for spiritual purpose at all, so that can even be demoniac, what do we think about demoniac generally we don’t think about austerity as demoniac, we think about austerity as positive it requires self-control it requires self-discipline and the person who does it, we think that, that person is glorious, 

Now Krishna is saying, tān viddhy āsura-niścayān, these are definitely demoniac, in 16th chapter also Krishna described these qualities as demoniac.

Example in Ramayana there is story that Lord Ram killed a sudra who was doing austerity and because of which normal order of life in kingdom is altered, A Brahmana son dies before death of his father, and Narad Muni tells Lord Ram that there is some adharmic activity happening in your kingdom and Lord Ram finds that a Sudra (Shambuka) is hanging upside down from a tree desiring to go to heaven. When Lord Ram killed the sudra the Brahaman son got he life.

Now we have to understand the context, either we have to understand the full story as truth or full story as false. 

In modern time if a scientist’s son dies and he goes to PM and complains this first of all PM will not believe it and even if the PM kills someone and scientist son gets back his life we will not believe it. 

The above story of Ramayana explains that there are forces involved which are incomprehensible to us, killing of one, other gets life, so what are these forces? These forces are, there are certain laws of Dharma and Karma applies which we don’t know about. Within Vedic system every Varna has to do its own activity, as Krishna also said Sreyan Sva Dharmo Viguna, Perdharmat sva anusthithat, it is better to do one’s own dharma and die then to do someone else dharma perfectly also, so the idea is this world is like a hospital and different people are effected by different deceases and everybody needs to take a treatment by which they will be cured, that treatment varies from person to person but that treatment has to be taken whoever the person may be, so the program of different duties to different varnas are meant as treatment, at spiritual level it is treatment that gradually elevates everyone but at material level it is engagement for everyone as per their propensity so that they are able to satisfy themselves and also able to contribute to society, so both ways it is auspicious, it is like patient in one ward goes to another ward and start taking treatment of that ward. So Lord Ram was not castist otherwise how can He be having loving relationship with Guha and Sabari, Vibhisan so Lord Ram is accepting anyone and everyone who has a devotional disposition and someone has power hungry disposition Lord Ram punishes them. So Acharyas explained that Sambhyak was doing austerity so that he can displace Indira and he takes over Sachi and enjoys her. So that was a demoniac mentality. And Lord Ram recognizes this demoniac mentality. So for a sudra to perform austerity with

dambhāhaṅkāra-saṁyuktāḥ
kāma-rāga-balānvitāḥ

that is severely disruptive of the vedic order. 

So we cannot judge actions by their externals. Austerity may seems to be very Nobel but it need not necessarily be like that.

End of transcription.