page_title: Penance
section_title: Penance in Indian beliefs
hierarchical_section_title: Penance / Penance in Indian beliefs
caption_attribution_description: This selection is from stories of wise and virtuous women This print illustrates Hatsuhana (初花) doing penance under the Tonozawa waterfall for the cure of her son's knee, until the authorities killed her. Miraculously cured, Hatsuhana's son seeks revenge--killing his arc-enemy near the waterfall. 日本語: 賢女烈婦伝 初花。初花は浄瑠璃『箱根霊験躄仇討』に登場する飯沼勝五郎（躄勝五郎）の妻。足が不自由になった夫の仇討ちを叶えるため箱根権現に願掛けする
context_page_description: Penance is repentance of sins as well as an alternate name for the Catholic, Lutheran, Eastern Orthodox, and Oriental Orthodox sacrament of Reconciliation or Confession. It also plays a part in confession among Anglicans and Methodists, in which it is a rite, as well as among other Protestants. The word penance derives from Old French and Latin paenitentia, both of which derive from the same root meaning repentance, the desire to be forgiven. Penance and repentance, similar in their derivation and original sense, have come to symbolize conflicting views of the essence of repentance, arising from the controversy as to the respective merits of "faith" and "good works". Word derivations occur in many languages.
  According to dictionary definitions, the primary meaning of penance is the deeds done out of penitence, which also focuses more on the external actions than does repentance which refers to the true, interior sorrow for one's hurtful words or actions. Only repentance implies a purpose of amendment which means the resolve to avoid such hurtful behavior in the future.
context_section_description: In some religions of Indian origin, acts of hardship committed on oneself (fasting, lying on rocks heated by the Sun, etc.), especially as part of an ascetic way of life (as monk or 'wise man') in order to attain a higher form of mental awareness (through detachment from the earthly, not punishing guilt) or favours from god(s) are considered penance. In Hinduism penance is widely discussed in Dharmasastra literature. In the Gita, there is a warning against excessive "penance" of a merely physical nature. There is the special term "Tapas", for intense concentration that is like a powerful fire, and this used to be sometimes translated as "penance", although the connotations are different.
  The Indian spiritual teacher Meher Baba stated that "When penance is carefully nourished and practiced, it inevitably results in the mental revocation of undesirable modes of thought and conduct, and makes one amenable to a life of purity and service."
caption: Hatsuhana doing penance under the Tonosawa waterfall (woodblock print by Utagawa Kuniyoshi, 1798–1861).
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