Verse 17.18

Verse 17.18: “When, to win reverence, honour, or adoration, austerity is practised, or through ostentation: that (austerity) is here declared as Rajas-dominated (as) being transient and unsteady. (242)

Commentary called Jnaneshwari by Jnaneshwar:

Austerities practised at great hardship and posing one’s superiority (creating duality) are Rajas-dominated for establishing austerity to be able to occupy the top-ranking position, or for securing the first seat of honour in conferences and dinner parties without allowing anyone else to secure it, or (practised) with the motive that one should be qualified for universal praise or that the universe should make his home a place of pilgrimage, or for enabling himself to enjoy, to the exclusion of others, all homage from the people and all ceremonial, or for enhancing his own (market) value by giving his body and speech a coating of austerity, in the way an ugly-looking one should adorn himself with fine dress and ornaments. In short any austerities practised with a longing for riches and honour are called Rajas austerities.

An animal affected with cattle disease (Pahurni—pahuraṇī) yields no milk even after giving birth to its young: or a standing-crop in a field does not come to maturity or yield any grain if allowed to be grazed by cattle in its premature stage. In that way, any austerities practised with great tom-tomming and pomp, become entirely fruitless; and seeing that his austerities are futile, he leaves them incomplete, Oh Son of Pandu; therefore they have no steadfastness about them. Unseasonal clouds, covering a vast area and making a deep and powerful thunder in the sky, disturb the universe; yet do they last long? In that way, the Rajas-austerity turns out fruitless and barren, and is not besides, practised to its completion. And if it is a Tamas activity, it deprives one of fame in this world as well as in the other world (Heaven).