Tapas: A Tool for Transformation

Do you follow the inner voice that tells you to get off the bed and onto your yoga mat? If your answer is “yes,” you are doing tapas. Luke describes tapas as actions that push us in the direction of positive change, including actions that perfect the body and senses. Tapas is part of the second limb of yoga—the niyamas (observances). It is literally “heat.”  If we heed the inner voice that urges us forward, our tapas will transform us, just as fire transforms whatever goes into it.