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Austerity performed out of a deluded notion, with torment to oneself, or in order to harm another, is called tamasic.

Austerity is tamasic when it springs from a foolish or deluded fixation, involves torturing oneself, or aims at harming someone else. This is the darkest form, where discipline is either blind or destructive. It recalls the fierce self-torment criticised earlier in the chapter. The verse also hints at practices undertaken to gain power over others. Krishna makes clear that such efforts, however intense, belong to ignorance and lead away from freedom.