Animal, Vegetable, or Mineral: Our Karmic Connection to Those Born from Horizontal Wombs

aho eṣāṃ varaṃ janma sarvaprāṇyupajīvanam |

sujanasyeva yeṣāṃ vai vimukha yānti nārthinaḥ ||

Oh, these trees have the most precious birth –

They give sustenance to all living beings.

Their actions are just like those of a virtuous person,

Those desiring anything never go away disappointed.

- Bhāgavata Purāṇa 10.22.33

According to the c. 400 CE Sāṃkhyakārikā (SK), each individual puruṣa (self) is joined with prakṛti (material nature) for many lifetimes before attaining liberation. These various incarnations, taking form from Brahmā to a blade of grass, are categorized as divine, animal, or human (SK 53). The animal creation (tiryañc, literally “those who go horizontally”) is fivefold, elaborated in the Gauḍapādabhāṣya as domesticated animals such as cattle, wild animals like deer, birds, reptiles, and inanimate objects. Vācaspati Miśra explains in the Tattvakaumudī that even things that do not possess a body, such as a pot, are contained in this latter category and are still considered to have a soul or self. The animal creation is thought to be pervaded by the guṇa (quality) of tamas (inertia), made up of delusion and clouding their consciousness, although the qualities of rajas (activity) and sattva (clarity) are also present (SK 54). 

In all forms of creation, while the body is the receptacle of various kinds of pleasure, the self inevitably obtains the suffering created by old age and death. Even an insect is thought to experience fear of death. In other words, suffering exists through inherent nature regardless of where one falls on the spectrum of births (SK 55). Additionally, all beings seek to increase happiness and avoid suffering. As the 22nd Jina Neminātha profoundly witnessed on his wedding day, compelling him towards renunciation, our pain is reflected in the cries of animals. While a human birth is precious in our ability to recognize our suffering and seek liberation from the cycle of birth and death (saṃsāra), we are also uniquely positioned to help protect and extend compassion to all beings, as perhaps most strongly advocated and practiced in Jainism. Here, there are four birth categories: human, divine, hell, and animal, the latter of which is categorized as moving and fixed, referring mainly to animals and plants respectively. 

However, there is an additional system of categorization, which considers the number of senses utilized. Earth, water, fire, and air bodies, as well as microorganisms (nigoda) and plants all belong to the category of one sense—touch. Worms and shellfish or mollusks have two; ground-based insects, such as ants and beetles have three senses. Flying insects, arachnids, centipedes, and grasshoppers have four. Because of this method of taxonomy, mammals, as well as birds and reptiles, belong to the fifth level, just like humans. The c. fourth-century BCE Jain Ācārāṅgasūtra declares that “all breathing, existing, living, sentient creatures should not be slain, nor treated with violence, nor abused, nor tormented, nor driven away” (1.4.2, Jacobi 1968: 36). This is part of the reason for the strong emphasis in Jainism on vegetarianism, which stems from the primary vow of non-violence (ahiṃsā). This becomes the foundational restraint (yama) in the aṣṭāṅgayoga of Patañjali’s Yogasūtra (c. 400 CE) as well, whose philosophy is tied closely to the Sāṃkhyakārikā. The Pātañjalayogaśāstra (the Yogasūtra together with the commentary attributed to Vyāsa, thought by many scholars to be an auto-commentary) defines ahiṃsā as the non-injury of all beings in every way, at all times. The c. eighth-century Yogasūtrabhāṣyavivaraṇa, attributed to Śaṅkarācārya, emphasizes this idea that ahiṃsā is the most important of the yamas and niyamas (observances), explaining that this non-injury extends to both animate and inanimate beings and is to be enacted by one’s whole self, through body, speech, and mind. While many are unaware of this connection, the emphasis on non-violence in modern yoga has roots in these Jain values.

As Christopher Chapple explains: “the Jaina faith seeks to uphold and respect animals as being fundamentally in reality not different from ourselves” (2006, 248). While animals are generally not oversentimentalized, there is a recognition that we all share the same karmic plight—that we are “fellow sufferers” as Anne Vallely puts it (2020, 556)—and the animal creation has the ability to teach and support us too. In other words, this karma is reciprocal. Animals are often central characters in mythological stories where they help illustrate moral principles and they are frequently thought to embody human qualities. A swan can separate milk from water, epitomizing discernment, and a tortoise draws in its limbs, exemplifying sensory withdrawal. Mountains, rivers, and trees are often considered to possess divine qualities. In our modern world, animal-assisted therapy is increasing in popularity and even inanimate objects are sometimes thought to possess hostile motivation towards humans through the humorous theory of resistentialism. 

According to the Yogasūtra, “as long as the root [of the afflictions] exists, the result of that is births, life spans, and experiences” (2.13). While the word for births (jāti) implies the potential for being incarnated into different species or realms, little explanation is given as to how this works. The Yogasūtrabhāṣyavivaraṇa quotes the Manusmṛti in its commentary on this sūtra to say, “A person becomes an inanimate object through negative karma created by the body, a bird or deer through negative karma produced through speech, and is born to a lower caste through negative karma instigated by the mind.” We all have the possibility to go up the ladder or to slide down the snake (not coincidentally named after an animal, rather than the American chute), depending on the karma we create through our interactions with other beings of all kinds. As this paper will explore, we live in an interconnected karmic web and we have a responsibility to care for our fellow creatures and planet and in turn to learn from them.