YOGA SHOULD ALSO MAKE YOU THINK

Modern yoga is often associated with physical wellbeing, but classical yoga traditions placed equal emphasis on ethics. Spanning thousands of years, ancient Indian yoga literature presents yoga as more than a system of physical practice; it is also a comprehensive ethical, psychological, and spiritual discipline that often extends ethical concerns beyond human beings to other living creatures. The ancient yoga texts contain many parables that are still useful and relevant today.

In yoga literature and philosophy, transmigration of the “soul” (atma or purusha) is largely a given, as is the notion that how we think and act in this life is setting the stage for our next life. And much as we might like to assume that such a next life will be as a human being, one of my favourite stories (from the Bhagavata Purana) warns that there is no such guarantee.

A king named Bharata, weary from the endless political complexities of royal life, heads off alone to the forest to find peace. While sitting in a classic, cross-legged yoga posture designed for meditation (padmasana), he finds himself called upon to care for an orphaned deer fawn. After tending to the charming baby deer for a few weeks, Bharata unexpectedly dies in the forest and becomes a deer in his next life.

Bharata remembers his previous life as a human trying to practice yoga. Resolving to make the most of his present deer life, Bharata lives it out close to a yoga hermitage, where the peaceful, meditative atmosphere shapes his next life. Once again Bharata is a human being, and he is even more resolved to perfect the yoga practice he had undertaken two lives before.

But now, from personal experience, acutely conscious that nonhuman animals (such as deer) are sentient like himself, Bharata gets in trouble. Now he is a labourer drafted into serving the local chieftain. The latter—a bit full of himself—has no patience for Bharata’s irregular pace as a member of the chieftain’s palanquin carrying team. Ants are the problem: Bharata refuses to step on them as he steps forward, and the result is a shaky ride for the royal passenger. However, Bharata proves to be a sharp and effective teacher, sharing his newfound wisdom so powerfully that the chieftain becomes eager to be enlightened by this unlikely labourer.

Whether or not we believe in reincarnation, stories like Bharata’s can challenge us to consider how humans relate to other sentient beings. I wonder if humans, as a species, have become overly complacent about our place in the world. At a time when industrial farming and environmental crises are forcing societies to rethink humanity’s relationship with animals, perhaps we should not be taking it for granted that animals exist primarily for human consumption.

Regular postural (asana) yoga practice does wonders for our bodies, but equally powerful is yoga’s ability to stretch our imagination, including (or starting with) our moral imagination. This is why I find yoga narratives such as Bharata’s multi-life story—from king to yogi to deer to humble labourer—so compelling. We’re invited to imagine a world shaped by compassion rather than domination. A world in which reducing harm toward animals becomes part of our moral instinct. A world with many more Bharatas: enlightened sages able to capture the imagination of our leaders and inspire more of us to be models of the ahimsa principle (non-harm toward living beings).

Bharata’s journey—and his ability to transform a chieftain through enlightened words—can spark our imaginations to envision non-harm as the default moral code, with animals no longer being treated primarily as a source of nourishment. Such a vision could open the world to real sustenance for the soul, a world of abundance for all beings, in this life and the next.

Increasingly, I find centuries-old yoga texts feel less like ancient stories and more like contemporary moral counselling. Yoga can help humans become healthier, but it can also help humans to become more humane.

 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Dr. Kenneth R. Valpey is a research fellow of the Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies and a fellow of the Oxford Centre for Animal Ethics. He is the author of “Yoga and Animal Ethics” published by Palgrave-Macmillan (Springer Nature).
The Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies is an independent centre which unites rigorous scholarship with meaningful community engagement, fostering understanding and dialogue around Hindu traditions.

The Oxford Centre for Animal Ethics is an independent centre pioneering ethical perspectives on animals through academic research, teaching, and publication. The Centre comprises more than 100 academic Fellows.

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