Here for writing

For the longest time, I was under the impression that "Tapas" means standing on a single leg in the tree pose in front of a roaring pyre, repeating a mantra for years together so that the presiding deity of the mantra appears in front of you and grants you all the boons that you want. Blame it all on the Ramayana and Mahabarata serial played out in the television. I even figured out what boon to ask -I will ask for a boon where everything that I wish for happens. And I even had an inbuilt safety mechanism to that boon -lest I think of something unintentionally and that comes true, causing chaos and sorrow. So, I thought that I will ask God to give me a boon where if I say a particular mantra and whish for something three times, only that should come true. Well, to be honest, this fantasy has played out in my mind even as recently as just a few years back. But now, when I look at this niyama, I see that Tapas is not a special ritual, but that which should be practice