Encyclopedia of animal rights and animal 517

474 | Religion and Animals: Pantheism and Panentheism is identical with that of Brahman Turkey, wombat, human being, Hindu pantheists find “in all creation the presence of God” (Dwivedi, p 5) With Hindu pantheism and panentheism, to understand what it means to be human is also to understand what it is to be a sparrow or a Leghorn chicken For the Hindu, what is important about the existence of coho salmon or black angus cattle, the divine within, is the same in both human and nonhuman The foundation and fundamental core of all beings is Brahman As Brahman is essential to human essence, so this divine force is also essential to a pollywog wiggling in a mud puddle, or a fish struggling to escape the net of a fisherman As a pinch of salt dissolved in a glass of water cannot be seen or touched but turns the contents to salt water, so the subtle essence of Brahman runs through all beings, creating their essential essence, yet this divine element cannot be perceived or touched This subtle essence makes each living being, all that exists, holy As all rivers are temporarily distinct but ultimately join one great sea, so all living beings appear in separate bodies The indigo bunting sitting on your neighbor’s fence, the tuna fish darting through the sea, the sow brimming with piglets, and the blue heron stepping gingerly through shallow pond waters, all are ultimately united by Brahman “[A]s by one clod of clay all that is made of clay is known,” so all things are one in essence, and that essence is sacred (Chandogya, p 92) The Hindu epic the Mahabharata teaches that those who are spiritually learned behold all beings in Self, Self in all beings, and Brahman in both Hindus understand that all living beings have atman (usually translated as “soul”), and that Brahman, or God, is that soul Panentheism is one of the core teachings in the most famous portion of the Mahabharata, the Bhagavad Gita, in which the beloved god Krishna explains what it means to be divine: “I am the life of all living beings All beings have their rest in me In all living beings I am the light of consciousness” (Bhagavad, pp 74, 80, 86) The divine, in this case Krishna, is not only a great deity, but is also indwelling in the cockroach and the elephant The Bhagavad Gita presents the divine as an essential part of who we are, as an essential part of every aspect of every creature, and of nature: “I am not lost to one who sees me in all things and sees all things in me.” Panentheism and pantheism teach that all beings share in the divine What does this mean about the relationship between white-tailed deer and Buff Orpington hens? What does this mean for ethics? The Bhagavad Gita notes that we exist in the heart of all other beings and the heart of all other beings exists within our own self Not only is the divine in all beings, but we, as part of the divine, are also part of all other living beings In this way Hindus come to love all beings, and the pleasure and pain of other creatures becomes personal (Bhagavad, pp 71–72) Those who love God also love the ladybug and the anteater, the tulip and the turkey This rich and pervasive pantheistic and panentheistic vision of the universe affects Hindu ethics, as it does all religions that honor the divine in nature Consequently, ahimsa is central to Hinduism Ahimsa, often translated as nonviolence, is more literally translated as not to harm Practicing contemporary Hindus strive to avoid harming to any creature or to the natural world because the divine is all that exists Devout Hindus must