Tapas

Thanks to Sage Vamadeva.

Kavyakantha [Sri Kavyakantha Ganapati Muni] approached the Virupaksha cave where Brahmana Swami [Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi] was staying, and prostrating himself before him, said in a trembling voice, "All that has to be read I have read. Even Vedanta Sastra I have fully understood. I have performed japa to my heart's content. Yet I have not up to this time understood what tapas is. Hence have I sought refuge at thy feet. Pray, enlighten me about the nature of tapas".

For fifteen minutes Sri Ramana silently gazed at Kavyakantha. He then spoke:

"If one watches whence this notion of 'I' springs, the mind will be absorbed into that. That is tapas. If a mantra is repeated and attention is directed to the source whence the mantra sound is produced, the mind will be absorbed in that. That is tapas."

The scholar was filled with joy and announced that the upadesa was original, and that Brahmana Swami was a Maharshi and should be so called thereafter. He gave the full name of Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi to Brahmana Swami, whose original name had been Venkataraman (named after the Lord of Tirupati). Kavyakantha was now the foremost disciple of Sri Ramana. His disciples also came to the Maharshi. They sought and obtained clarification on many doubtful points. His Sri Ramana Gita recording these questions and answers (between the years 1913 and 1917) is divided into eighteen chapters like the Bhagavad Gita and is a great source of inspiration…

-An excerpt from KAVYAKANTHA: A COLOSSUS OF
LEARNING AND TAPAS (By K. Natesan), 'Ramana Smriti'.