Yoga Sutras, Book II, Sutra 35:

ahimsa-pratistayam tat-samnidhau vaira-tyagah

Hostilities cease in the presence of those established in non-violence

ahimsa = non-violence, non-harming, non-injury
pratishthayam = having firmly established, being well grounded in
tat = that, of his or her
samnidhau = in the presence of
vaira-tyagah = give up hostilities (vaira = hostility, enmity, aggression; tyaga = abandon, give up).

As you can see, Patanjali isn’t very specific. Actually, he rarely is, and therefore different interpretations abound on his work. But this sutra has an incredibly bold statement: if you are firmly established in non-violence, all hostilities around you will cease. He doesn’t say anywhere: “if you eat meat you are a bad person”, or  “if you eat animals you will never attain enlightenment”. Although vague in it’s applications, he is being clear about the outcome– becoming completely non-violent will yield complete peace from the Universe.

The first two examples of great non-violent proponents I could think of were Jesus and Gandhi. However, these are terrible examples to prove Patanjali right, given that the Romans crucified Jesus and an angry Hindu killed Gandhi! I thought of a couple of options that could explain this: either Patanjali was utterly wrong, or he was exaggerating, or neither man was “firmly established” in non-violence. I will let you decide, or perhaps you have a fourth option that I didn’t think of. If that’s the case, email it to me! 

To balance things out however, I also wanted to briefly share with you the inspiring story of Immaculée Ilibagiza, the Rwandan woman that survived the 1994 Rwandan holocaust by sheer faith. Although her story is far more complex and rich than the tidbit I will share, it just felt like the perfect example to balance the previous two. Immaculee hid inside a small bathroom with seven other women for three months. During this period she prayed and connected with God in a very profound way, finding absolute forgiveness for the men that killed her entire family right outside their house. Firmly established in kindness and compassion, she emerged from that bathroom and was found by a man with a machete, ready to kill her. She stared at this man fearlessly and filled with love and forgiveness. The power of her presence made the man drop his machete right in that moment, making it one in the many miracles she witnessed during that civil war.

Patanjali usually presents ethical observances as granting us great gifts, such as the ones Immaculee seems to have been given. You may believe that the ultimate gift of your non-violence will be that no one will ever harm you again. Or you may consider that the laws of Karma don’t always play out as immediately or clearly as we would like to, but that non-violence is at the heart of real, honest spiritual life. In my humble opinion, if we are aware of how we are harming other beings or ourselves, and we continue doing it, then we cannot experience the freedom of actualizing boundless unconditional love in our lives. I certainly aspire to experience that!

Taking that in consideration, if you believe in the “circle of life” theory, and that humans are entitled by nature to consume the flesh of other animals, then in your heart and mind you may not be performing a form of “violence”. One of my favorite Gurus, Sri Nisargadatah Maharaj said in his book I Am That “Your being as a person depends on violence to others. Your very body is a battlefield, full of the dead and dying. Existence implies violence. There is little of non-violence in nature. Do you realize that, as long as you have a self to defend, you must be violent?”. His point was perhaps that violence cannot be avoided, if we consider (in all honesty here!) that even if we are vegan we are still violent to plants, to bacteria and viruses in our bodies, etc. 

I cannot argue this point of what consists of “natural” or “acceptable” violence, because it’s just a matter of belief. But I also want to add that it is one thing to consider eating other animals a natural part of life, and a very different one supporting the contemporary farming techniques that are cruel beyond what any of you would condone if you were actually watching them happen. Furthermore, the repercussions for our environment and our well beings are so vast, that supporting modern farming techniques seems to many as outright silly, and to a degree, as suicidal as smoking cigarettes (or worse!).

If you want to learn more about what modern farming is doing to you and the planet, click here: http://www.hfa.org/factory/index.html

The Yoga Sutras are more of a spiritual/psychological treatise rather than a political book, and they constantly try to point out the way to attain liberation, not self-righteousness. There have been liberated beings in this planet that ate meat. But I don’t think that any liberated being, a person that fully embodies compassion and unconditional love, can support with their money and actions, cruelty that can only come from people that are completely disconnected with the suffering of farm animals and the earth at large. Remember, in today’s day and age you have choices, even when you buy meat. There are places (like Wholefoods), that sell animals that were treated fairly, with no antibiotics, and high ethical standards. May your choices lead you to freedom and well being, for yourself and the rest of the planet.

Namaste,
Michael Brandwajn