On Ayurveda and Ahiṃsā

Sanskrit, from a ‘non-, without’ + hiṃsā ‘violence’.

The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali teach yogis how to live in order to attain freedom. The first thing mentioned is ahimsa, which means abstaining from harming all living beings and striving to cause the least amount of violence and suffering as possible.

The opposite of violence or harming is compassion.  Compassion is essential in order to see that all beings are truly connected to one another. With compassion, we can stare into the eyes of any other creature and recognize that dogs, elephants, cows, pigs and chickens are all actually kindred spirits.  In this moment, it becomes very difficult to harm another creature, no matter what the species because we understand that we are all one.

When we realize that everything is connected, we begin to understand the very essence of Ayurveda,  that any individual entity (microcosm) reflects the whole universe (macrocosm)  and vice versa.  People, rocks, air, water, plants, and animals are all made from the same basic building blocks and return to the same place that they came from after they die. Everything is not only connected, but also interconnected and you cannot adjust one thing without changing the infrastructure of everything. As Newton said, long after the Ayurvedic sages called it, there is always an equal and opposite reaction for every action.  As above, so below. It’s called karma.

Unfortunately, man has wiped out so many species either intentionally or by drastically and unsympathetically obliterating ecosystems, habitats, landscapes and depleting natural resources.  We have mono-cropped and killed the living soil, fished the oceans dry and trashed the waters, created fodder for wildfires and filled the ethers with greenhouse gasses and other pollutants.

This has created untold suffering, much of which we cannot change. But by choosing a vegan lifestyle, we can do our own little bit to prevent any further imbalance and harm. 

By practicing vegan Ayurveda, we move towards living in harmony with all the other animals and all of life. Knives and forks can be used as powerful tools to create a more balanced world, or to continue the mass-destruction of our beautiful planet and all of its inhabitants.  So before we go checking out Mars, I think that spinning Ayurveda through the lens of a permaculture filter offers us all the solutions that we need. Eating compassionately can help to end wars with each other, our own body, with other creatures and bring more harmony to Mother Earth.   At the end of the day, she will restore balance, with or without us. 

Ayurveda and Not Harming Ourselves

As previously mentioned, Ayurveda is all about the microcosm and the macrocosm.  So how you do one thing is how you do everything and the type of food you choose reflects all sorts of other things that you choose in life too.

Yoga and Ayurveda both recommend a vegetarian sattvic diet, and specifically a diet that increases the higher qualities of peace, love and awareness.  Sourcing food that does not have the energy of suffering or injustice attached to it is very difficult since everything is interconnected. Injustice can be in the form of the violation of indigenous land rights, abuse of animals, exploitation of workers, lack of access to healthy foods, environmental devastation, or all of the above.

We just keep asking ourselves: “What is the best food choice that I can make right now with the resources available to me at this time?” With this question in mind, there are a number of things to consider when making choices.

Since eating is our primary interaction with our environment it needs to be based on compassion so that we can create balance inside and harmony with the place that we find ourselves in.  Ayurveda believes that right diet, digestion and elimination are the foundations of good health. Food is therefore the most important form of medicine. Without the correct nutrition, good health is not possible. 

The sattvic diet includes natural foods that have been grown in harmony with nature, grown in good soil, ripened naturally and cooked in the right manor, with the right attitude of love.  Such food is said to be high in energy or prana.

There is also plenty of very clear research from a western perspective that supports a sattvic way of eating too. A diet heavy in dairy and meat increases the risk of obesity, cancer, arthritis, diabetes, osteoporosis, allergies, asthma, and heart disease.

On the other hand, a diet rich in organic fruits and vegetables, grains, nuts and seeds is high in antioxidants, minerals, vitamins, and macronutrients, all of which support excellent health.  A vegan diet is also associated with higher mood, lower stress levels, increased levels of happiness and better sleep.

As we move further away from the food pyramid model towards the food web model, there is more agreement between the ancient wisdom of Ayurveda and the clinical research of modern medicine. It’s nice to see that western thinking is slowly catching up with Ayurveda as it enjoys a huge resurgence in the east and rapid growth in popularity in the west.

Ayurveda and Not Harming Animals

Animals are much more intelligent and complex than most people realize and they are sentient beings with the ability to form friendships and social hierarchies.  Sadly, most animals that are raised for meat spend their lives in dire conditions on factory farms. They are separated from their families, they see their children slaughtered and many end their days being killed and dismembered without any painkillers.  I’m not going to dwell on all the gory details here, because it upsets me and probably you, too much. You can do a
Google search if you want more information. 

I do however, want to discuss the dairy industry and back up why I don’t want to go down the ghee route. 

Cows produce milk for the same reason any animal does, which is to feed their young until they are old enough to sustain themselves.   But like humans, cows don’t keep producing milk unless they get pregnant and give birth, so to keep them producing milk, they are artificially inseminated.  This might also be called rape.   

When their calves are born, Mom and baby form a strong bond with each other, but sadly they don’t get much time to enjoy this bond, usually only up to 3 days.  After this, both mother and baby experience extreme heartbreak and anguish when they are separated and they never see each other again. 

The male calves are sold for veal where they are kept in tiny crates in the dark to keep their flesh soft.  They are given a few months to live. 

The female calves will probably end up with the same fate as their mother.  They will first be de-horned using saws, sharp wires, hot irons, guillotine de-horners, or caustic chemicals. It is excruciating.  Following the de-horning, the cows spend the rest of their days being forced to produce at least 4 times the amount of milk that they would produce for a calf.  They can live for around 20 years, but mostly they will be killed for second rate meat at around 4 or 5 years old. 

Because they are prone to infections, they are pumped with antibiotics and then the drugs and the products of the infection make their way into the milk. 

Not all cows are factory farmed, and there are certainly some that have a much happier life. But there are still animal rights issues and I do not believe that the perfect milk designed for a 65 pound newborn is the perfect milk for a human being. 

Ayurveda and Not Harming the Environment

Eating meat and dairy doesn’t just make animals suffer and people sick, it’s also harming the environment. The majority of scientists agree that the environmental crisis that we are facing as a result of greenhouse gasses is largely human-made. 

The meat and dairy industry has a huge part to play in global warming and the unfolding climate crisis because:

• Animal agriculture generates the same amount of greenhouse gas emissions as all the cars, trucks and automobiles put together. 

• It’s also responsible for the loss of millions of square miles of rainforests that are converted into grazing pastures.  The loss of trees and other vegetation causes climate change, desertification, soil erosion, depletion of crops, flooding, increased greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, and loss of habitat for animals and indigenous people.

• One-third of the world’s water consumption is used to produce animal products and we are rapidly depleting our freshwater supplies. In fact, about 30% of human beings lack access to safe drinking water. A plant-based diet is so much less water intensive, and so much better for you and fairer to everyone.

• We are depleting the oceans of fish and killing the waters with masses of dumped toxic animal waste. 

Global warming is happening and as a result….

-The oceans are warming

-The ice sheets are shrinking

-The glaciers are retreating

-The snow is disappearing

-The sea levels are rising

-The arctic sea ice is disappearing

-Extreme weather events are happening

-The oceans are acidifying and dying. 

Nearly half of the earth’s oxygen supply comes from the oceans.  In Ayurveda, the rivers and oceans are seen as sacred and they are respected. This might be because they play such a big part in regulating temperature, weather patterns and climate.  Sadly, some scientists predict that there will be no fish left by 2050 if we don’t stop depleting the waters.  

Avoiding meat, fish and dairy products is the single biggest way to reduce your environmental impact on the planet . One of the things I love most about Ayurveda is the concept of working with nature to restore balance.  This cannot be just about bringing balance to a few wealthy individuals who can afford to live as though they are on a 5 star retreat all the time, but to bring balance and harmony to the lives of all earth’s creatures and people from all walks of life.