TAP & TAPASSIYA
Tap is a Pali, Apbhransh and Sansrit word which means heat. Tappassiya means generation of heat,
Hinduism and Yogis believe Tappasiya leads to ‘moksha’ (spiritual liberation). In this meaning it involves penance, austerity and/or self-mortification and ascetic practices; it comes to be troubling and torturing one’s body. Conducting this type of tappassiya include: to hang oneself upside down, to walk bare-foot, to remain naked, to stand on one leg for hours/days, to remain silent for months and years etc.
Sikhism rejects all these acts as hypocrisy and these activities promote ego, which is an obstacle on path to spiritualism; and, troubling and torturing one’s body does not lead to union with God:
You may chant and meditate, practice austerities and self-restraint, and dwell at sacred shrines of pilgrimage; you may give donations to charity, and perform good deeds, but without the True One, what is the use of it all
(Guru Granth Sahib, p. 56)
What use is chanting, and what use is penance, fasting or devotional worship, to one whose heart is filled with the love of duality (Guru Granth Sahib, p. 324)
Practicing intensive meditation, chanting and self-discipline, people have grown weary; stubbornly practicing these rituals, they still have not found Him
(Guru Granth Sahib, p. 436)
Service of Guru is the essence of all ‘tappsiya’ (ascetic practices and austerities)
Service to the Guru is the most excellent and sublime penance of penances.
(Guru Granth Sahib, p. 423).
Real Tappasiya is: control over one’s physical body, speech, thoughts and mind, control the ego, and create a disciplined mind that will not accept the desires of the body.
(Dr Harjinder Singh Dilgeer)