A new look for the School of Philosophy
From September 2026, The School will be presenting itself with a new look.
Tapas for a student of Philosophy
‘Tapas’ is a Sanskrit word often translated as ‘austerity’, but also as ‘penance’, ‘asceticism’, ‘concentration’, ‘bodily mortification’, ‘mental attenuation’, ‘devotional fervour’ and all their corresponding synonyms, a wide range of meanings.
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Tapas is a seed-word. The form it takes in time and place depends on the ground in which it is seeded, the cultivation it receives and that towards which it is aimed.
1. Tapas in the Western Tradition
Tapas is a power that can be used for anything, from worldly achievements to knowledge of the Absolute. Anyone who wants to establish a career, start a family, build a business or buy a home needs to practice austerity. Just as an athlete can shape their body through austerity, so can a society be shaped through austerity. In the Aeneid, Virgil describes the austerity that was required to establish Rome. He recounts the sacrifices endured by Aeneas and his fellow Trojans to found a settlement in Italy and establish the ideal of pietas (duty) over individual desire. As he says, ‘So hard and huge a task it was to found the Roman people’.1 Once founded, the Roman ideal lasted a thousand years. A great vision requires great austerity.
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By Anthony Renshaw
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