Kenneth Valpey

This first chapter of Yoga and Animal Ethics begins with a brief explanation of why animal ethics discourse is appropriately coupled with a discussion of yoga. Yoga philosophy is becoming a subject of increasing interest among yoga practitioners, many of whom readily pursue ethical practices that resonate with those stipulated in yoga texts. This book is largely text-based, focusing mainly on two widely known works—the Yoga Sūtra of Patañjali and the Bhagavadgītā, the former representing “classical” Yoga and the latter the early expression of devotional (bhakti) yoga, which is in turn elaborated in the Bhāgavata Purāṇa. Yoga is in all cases a process of self-transformation, in this book argued to be a necessary foundation for setting human relationality with nonhuman animals on enduring and all-beneficial ethical grounds.

The early historical context out of which Yoga emerged is the Vedic universe of ritual practices that included animal sacrifice. Here I show how both ritual and social expressions of anxieties over these practices eventually led, through substitutional steps, to reconceptualization of sacrifice as yogic “internal sacrifice.” This reconceptualized, reconfigured praxis had a radically different aim than the earlier ritual forms, reflecting a profound shift in understanding of the human condition and ultimate reality. Here I suggest that this new understanding at the root of yoga is promising ground for rethinking animal ethics in a register of yoga philosophy and—importantly—practice.

The aim of this chapter is to sketch the contours of yoga as ethical deliberation in the epic Mahābhārata (with an excursus into the Mānava-Dharmaśāstra) as an important precursor to the formulation of “classical” Yoga in the Yoga Sūtra of Patañjali. I discuss two important narratives in which animals are represented as reflective and articulate moral agents, as well as an account of Vyāsa teaching his son Śuka principles of yogic dharma. The “dharma king’s”—Yudhiṣṭhira’s—successfully passed test of dharma disguised as a dog further serves to contextualize a brief account of yoga in the Bhagavadgītā which, in turn, provides a Sāṃkhya-inflected background for considering the Mānava-Dharmaśāstra’s apparently mixed message on alimentary regulation.

The Bhagavadgītā, as a foundational presentation of bhakti-yoga, the yoga of devotion, articulates three main dimensions of divinity, namely, as brahman, paramātman, and bhagavān. In this chapter, I suggest a correlation and enrichment—from a devotional theistic perspective—of these three dimensions with three broad approaches to animal ethics following Matthew Calarco’s typology. Thus, realization of brahman affirms metaphysical grounding to the identity approach; realization of paramātman engages with the difference approach, and realization of bhagavān gives space in the indistinction approach for shifting away from anthropocentric thinking while validating a divine basis in care ethics.

This chapter focuses on selected passages in the Bhāgavata Purāṇa, complementing the previous chapter’s focus on the nature of divinity as it relates to ways of approaching animal ethics. Here the attention is on the process of bhakti-yoga as “fashioning a devotional body” from an ascribed, to an inscribed, to a re-membered body (Holdrege Bhakti and Embodiment: Fashioning Divine Bodies and Devotional Bodies in Kṛṣṇa Bhakti. London: Routledge, 2015) relating with the divine body constituted of saccidānanda—atemporality, consciousness, and bliss. The Bhāgavata Purāṇa offers visions of divine-human-animal interactions along with specific guidelines for the practicing bhakti-yogin to conscientiously develop the qualities (or virtues) from which cultures of care can unfold and thrive, providing the basis for developing and sustaining “anticipatory communities” able to expand a bhakti-centered “universe of feelings” that is inclusive of all beings—human and nonhuman.

I conclude this—more generative than conclusive—study, drawing together the themes discussed in previous chapters to consider how yoga thought and practice can contribute to environmental ethics, as inseparable from yoga-related animal ethics. From a devotional (bhakti) yoga perspective, I consider the Bhagavadgītā’s “sacrificial wheel” as a model for appropriate human engagement with the environment when performed in a yogic—and hence nonviolent—manner. Then, returning to the narrative teaching approach of the Bhāgavata Purāṇa, I consider Krishna’s famous Govardhan līlā as a modeling of “servant-leadership,” necessary for meaningful positive change in human culture for the sake of the environment. I then reflect on yoga as cultural renewal, available for everyone to deepen anticipatory community life. Finally, I revisit the three approaches to animal ethics outlined by Matthew Calarco, all perceivable in aesthetic terms from a yoga perspective, inspiring “beautiful action” that serves the well-being of all beings.

In this chapter, I focus on the three limbs of classical aṣṭāṅga-yoga that are most concerned with the physicality of the yoga practitioner—āsana, prāṇāyāma, and pratyāhāra. After a preliminary overview of the Bhagavadgītā’s description of meditational yoga and its perfection, we consider the notion of animal imitation in the practice of certain yoga postures (āsana) as a means to revision human-nonhuman animal relationality. We then turn to breath regulation (prāṇāyāma) as an avenue to yogic awareness of all living beings’ respiratory commonality. In turn, sense withdrawal (pratyāhāra)—essential for effective meditation—can be learned from the tortoise. All these practices, I suggest, may be supported with guidance and inspiration from the famous elephant-headed divinity, Gaṇeśa.

The first and second limbs of the classical eight-limbed Yoga system constitute essential elements for application in the ethical treatment of animals as enacted in the practice of yoga. The first part of this chapter provides a brief introduction to the first two (of five) principles of “restraint” (yama), namely, non-harm (ahiṃsā) and truth (satya). In the second part of the chapter we consider the last two (of five) types of “observance” (niyama), namely, self-study/recitation or study of scripture (svādhyāya) and devotion to God (īśvara-praṇidhāna). The aim is to show how these restraints and observances serve individually and collectively to radically reduce if not eliminate the practicing yogin’s imposition on animals and, positively, to bring awareness of animals as conscious beings (puruṣa), non different in essence from human beings.

In this chapter, we explore aspects of meditational practice as ways of comprehending our relations with nonhuman animals in terms of three animal ethics theories, namely, identity theory, difference theory, and indistinction theory, as identified by Matthew Calarco. Concerned less with isolating and analyzing the three final limbs of aṣṭāṅga-yoga according to Patañjali, here we consider Jain and Buddhist forms of meditation as they bear on our theme of animal ethics and as they serve to expand ideas briefly mentioned in the Yoga Sūtra. Particularly, the brahmavihāra practice of infinitely expanding felicitous relationality with other living beings leads toward an indistinction orientation, which we explore in relation to a narrative of “becoming animal” from the Bhāgavata Purāṇa.

This open access book offers a comprehensive understanding of yoga theory and practice as it bears on several dimensions of animal-related ethical reflection and action. "Yoga" has become a household word in recent decades and, increasingly, has drawn physical yoga practitioners to explore its philosophy; significantly, classical yoga philosophy and praxis are deeply grounded in realizing the self in relation with all beings as non-material selves. Therefore yoga provides an ideal entry-way into contemporary animal ethics discourse, contributing particularly in its appeal to the experiential dimension of human self-understanding in relation to nonhuman animals.

To examine broadly Hindu ethics with respect to animals, this chapter considers how the dharma-bhakti polarity of values might be constructively applied. The key aim is to suggest a complementarity between bhakti and the contemporary (Western) “ethics of care” thought stream applied to animal ethics. Further, the practical application of ethics of care in bhakti calls for a consideration of an expanded understanding of “citizenship,” as proposed by Sue Donaldson and Will Kymlicka, rooted in a non-exploitative pursuit of ahimsa—nonviolence—as an ideal toward which human society must purposefully aim. The political framework in which such citizenship might function is “dharma-based communitarian” in character, currently being implemented (in very small scale) in “anticipatory communities” in which cow care is a key element.

Seeing a utopia/dystopia binary emerging from the previous chapters, here the author discusses the Hindu notion of progressive cultural and environmental degradation characterizing the present age, kali-yuga. Does human nature’s apparent refusal to change condemn us and the planet to ever further degradation? Hinduism’s bhakti tradition shows a transformative process by which destructive habits—not least our dietary habits—can be reformed in a joyful way, by care-full, wise practices that affirm positive relationality with divinity. Such practices recover the aesthetic sense of wonder (adbhuta-rasa) essential to environmental care (including animals) and lead to the realization of Vraja-Vrindavan, as the realm of right and good interaction between humans and nonhuman animals.

Three thousand years of India’s Sanskrit—and later Hindi—literature reveal persistent themes and motifs with respect to cows and the humans who engage with cows. From the Rigvedic hymns and the Upanishads, to the Bhagavata Purana and later bhakti poetry, emerge two polarities—one of value (between dharma and bhakti sensibilities) and the other of meaning (between literal and figurative senses of language). These two polarities converge in the Sanskrit term artha, which indicates both value and meaning. Thus cows as living beings and “cow” as a concept converge as a central locus of thought and action that strives for ethical integrity in all aspects of human life.

The Introduction to Cow Care in Hindu Animal Ethics serves as an overview of the book, initially identifying three attitudes toward cows as essentially objectifying them. The starting point for an ethics of cow care that follows Hindu tradition wherein the subjective personhood of cows (and all living beings, as non-temporal beings–atman) is valued, is indicated in a key stanza of the teaching on bhakti, the Bhagavad Gita. In this text, “equal vision” points the way toward ethical reflection and practice that is identified with “Hinduism” and yet, simultaneously, this vision subverts identification of persons with any temporal designations such as “Hindu.” The remainder of the Introduction provides brief overviews of each of the five chapters, with their varying literary, historical, ethnographic, and philosophical concerns.

This chapter examines current cow care practices in India, providing an overview of issues that concern persons—in particular persons who identify more or less as Hindus—who are directly or indirectly engaged with cow care. By the expression “cow care” is meant, minimally, intentional arrangements for bovines to be protected for the duration of their natural lives. What makes this practice different, or similar, to practices of agribusiness dairy farming or ranching? What are the special challenges of Hindu cow care, what are its rewards, and what claims do cow carers make about the benefits of cows maintained for their entire natural lives? Some specific cow care projects show a cross section of mainly Vaishnava Hindu practice, especially in northern and western India.

Turning the focus again to cow care, this chapter’s aim is to imagine a positive future for cows whereby principles outlined in Chapter 10.1007/978-3-030-28408-4_4 are applied, at least initially, in anticipatory communities. The author examines two existing such communities, one in India and one in central Europe, both affiliated with Swami Prabhupada’s institution (introduced in Chapter 10.1007/978-3-030-28408-4_2). Also two problematic cases and one satisfactory case of individual cow deaths are considered, in the context of “futures” for cows. A third register of future-thinking is activism in the public sphere, here analyzed in terms of the Indic thought system of Sankhya, concluding with a sixfold series of “affirmations on the dharma of cow care” to illustrate what a “luminous” (sattva-guna) future for cows could look like.

This chapter considers the problem of divine hiddenness as an issue potentially if not explicitly addressed by the prominent 20th century proponent of Gauḍīya Vaiṣṇavism, A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda (1896-1977). In a four-part argument, Prabhupāda’s identifying Kṛṣṇa as the perfect teacher, particularly in his role as Arjuna’s teacher in the Bhagavad-Gītā, enables consideration of how the divine hiddenness issue is resolvable, particularly by framing awareness of God’s existence and understanding of divine attributes as an educational process encapsulated by the word “yoga”. This approach further enables appreciation of the bhakti-yoga perspective—in its celebration of divine absence—as an inversion of divine hiddenness as a philosophical problem into a theological solution to the adept’s acute sense of divine absence, even while perceiving evidence of God’s existence at every turn.

This Open Access book provides both a broad perspective and a focused examination of cow care as a subject of widespread ethical concern in India, and increasingly in other parts of the world. In the face of what has persisted as a highly charged political issue over cow protection in India, intellectual space must be made to bring the wealth of Indian traditional ethical discourse to bear on the realities of current human-animal relationships, particularly those of humans with cows. Dharma, yoga, and bhakti paradigms serve as starting points for bringing Hindu--particularly Vaishnava Hindu--animal ethics into conversation with contemporary Western animal ethics. The author argues that a culture of bhakti--the inclusive, empathetic practice of spirituality centered in Krishna as the beloved cowherd of Vraja--can complement recently developed ethics-of-care thinking to create a solid basis for sustaining all kinds of cow care communities.

Contemporary Indian identification with Hindu traditions (whether more narrowly or broadly conceived) among champions of animal protection often invokes the well-known concept of ahiṁṣā—nonviolence, as the moral basis for the position against violence toward non-human animals. To foster a more informed comprehension of this notion, this paper sets out the complex character of religious practice as presented in the Hindu scripture Bhagavad-gītā, to explore how its tenets might meaningfully apply to the practice of animal experimentation.

Formalized by the tenth century, the expansive Bhāgavata Purāṇa resists easy categorization. While the narrative holds together as a coherent literary work, its language and expression compete with the best of Sanskrit poetry. The text's theological message focuses on devotion to Krishna or Vishnu, and its philosophical outlook is grounded in the classical traditions of Vedānta and Sāmkhya. This translation and detailed analysis of the Bhāgavata Purāṇa includes endnotes that explain unfamiliar concepts and essays that elucidate the rich debates found in the Sanskrit commentaries. The book makes a central Hindu masterpiece more accessible to English-speaking audiences and more meaningful to scholars of Indian literature, philosophy, and religion.

A vibrant example of living literature, the Bhagavata Purana is a versatile Hindu sacred text written in Sanskrit verse. Finding its present form by the tenth century C.E., the work inspired several major north Indian devotional (bhakti) traditions as well as schools of dance and drama, and continues to permeate popular Hindu art and ritual in both India and the diaspora. Introducing the Bhagavata Purana's key themes while also examining its extensive influence on Hindu thought and practice, this collection conducts the first multidimensional reading of the entire text. Each essay focuses on a key theme of the Bhagavata Purana and its subsequent presence in Hindu theology, performing arts, ritual recitation, and commentary. The authors consider the relationship between the sacred text and the divine image, the text's metaphysical and cosmological underpinnings, its shaping of Indian culture, and its ongoing relevance to contemporary Indian concerns.