Bodily asceticism is said to consist of reverencing the gods, brahmins, teachers, and the wise, and of purity, honesty, continence, and non-violence.Vocal asceticism is said to consist of speech that does not cause distress, is truthful, pleasing, and beneficial, as well as the daily recitation of the sacred texts.Mental asceticism is said to consist of clarity of mind, gentleness, silence, self-control, and purity of disposition.That three-fold asceticism, undertaken with utmost faith by disciplined men who have no desire for reward, is thought of as pure.Asceticism undertaken for the sake of honour, respect, reverence, and merely for show, is here categorized as passionate, unsteady, and impermanent.Asceticism practiced with deluded notions, with self-torture, or with the object of destroying another person, is said to be dark in kind.
—The Bhagavad Gita, 17:14-19 (trans. W.J. Johnson, Oxford University Press, 1994)
