ਤਪਸੀ (tapsee)
Meaning: noun: one who leads an ascetic life and practises penance.
Quote:
ਸੋ ਤਪਸੀ ਜਿਸੁ ਸਾਧਸੰਗੁ॥
so tapsee jis saadh-saňg.
One who associates with good people (and thus abstains from evil) is a true ascetic.
– Guru Arjan Sahib, Guru Granth Sahib, Page 1180
Message: It is a belief among some people that one can only become spiritual if one leads an ascetic life and practises penance. According to our Gurus, a true spiritual experience, which brings eternal joy and contentment, is attained through the grace and wisdom of the Divine. Such an experience is attained when the essence of divinity comes to dwell in our heart and the melody of divine praises resounds within our being.
Let your love for the Divine translate into knowledge and practice of divine wisdom in daily life. Spiritual wisdom blossoms further in the company or association of humble and devout people. Only such a love can lead us to a state of profound bliss.
A quiet secluded life in the country, with the possibility of being useful to people to whom it is easy to do good, and who are not accustomed to have it done to them; then work which one hopes may be of some use; then rest, nature, books, music, love for one’s neighbor — such is my idea of happiness.
– Leo Tolstoy, novelist and philosopher, 1828-1910
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Etymology: Modified from Sanskrit tapas (religious austerity, heat, pain), which comes from Sanskrit tap (to heat, to shine, to suffer, to strive, to repent) + see (a suffix). Comparable to Russian tap (to warm, to heat, to melt) and Persian tapeedan, from tap (to heat, to writhe).
