Part 4. Cross-Cultural Recognitions Between Vegans & Jains
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Part 4. Cross-Cultural Recognitions Between Vegans & Jains
Letter of the Law Versus Spirit of the Law
05/20/2025
To conclude this four-part blog post (see parts 1, 2, and 3 of Cross-Cultural Recognitions Between Vegans & Jains) we might ask: Are vegans spiritual; and are Jains vegan? Well, strictly speaking, no. But there is still value in asking that question as a thought experiment. Of course, we should be wary of monolithic thinking with both of these categories; some vegans are spiritual, many are not; some Jains are vegan, and most are not. We might even suspect that some vegans have come to identify as Jain for vegan reasons. I have known a number of vegans who were not born Jain or are not even ethnically Indian who have come to identify as Jain. One longtime vegan activist that I know has even changed her name to include “Jain” even though I’m fairly sure she doesn’t actually know any Jains and I don’t believe she has ever read any Jain scriptures or participated in Jain events, etc. I’ve also met Jains who have come to see the reasoning for veganism and have gone vegan for Jain reasons, and I’ve known Jains who are not necessarily pious who follow a vegan lifestyle for non-Jain reasons. The picture is complex, but in all of these instances, there seems to be that shared feature of what I’ve referred to as “mutual recognition” based on the desire to live in a way that causes the least possible harm.
Jain and vegan ethical practices are often very different, such as the abhakṣya and rātri-bhojan food prohibitions that I’ve discussed in previous blog posts (see “Part 1” and “Part 3”) that don’t seem to have any practical analogue in the vegan community, at least that I’ve ever seen. However, while the “letter of the law” may diverge in terms of differing vegan and Jain practices, the “spirit of the law” or the general spiritual-ethical impulse behind these spiritual-ethical lifestyle practices is often strikingly similar, namely, the impulse to reduce the suffering that one causes in even one’s most mundane actions, particularly with regard to how the ways in which we eat may contribute to violence.
Jain and vegan ethical practices are often very different, such as the abhakṣya and rātri-bhojan food prohibitions that I’ve discussed in previous blog posts (see “Part 1” and “Part 3”) that don’t seem to have any practical analogue in the vegan community, at least that I’ve ever seen. However, while the “letter of the law” may diverge in terms of differing vegan and Jain practices, the “spirit of the law” or the general spiritual-ethical impulse behind these spiritual-ethical lifestyle practices is often strikingly similar, namely, the impulse to reduce the suffering that one causes in even one’s most mundane actions, particularly with regard to how the ways in which we eat may contribute to violence.
For vegans, we might observe that there is an emphasis on a macro-awareness about food related violence, such as the systematic violence towards animals in food production, although strict animal “rights” advocates argue, often deontologically, for dismantling systematic animal exploitation by focusing on the inherent value of each individual animal. For Jains, we might say, as evidenced by the abhakṣaya and rātri-bhojana prohibitions, the emphasis seems to be on forms of “micro-violence” towards beings who may be so minuscule as to evade our mundane perceptive capabilities. In part, what I have described as “spiritual veganism” seems to be a movement towards a Jain-like awareness of micro-violence on the part of vegans; and Jain veganism (that is, the increasing movement in the Jain tradition to adopt a vegan diet and lifestyle) might be framed as an increased awareness on the part of the Jain community about the forms of macro-violence, the systematic violence, inherent in modern systems of food production, particularly the production of dairy and other non-meat animal products (since Jains have traditionally always abstained from eating meat).
Clearly, if there is a shared aspiration to mitigate one’s status as a perpetrator of violence, knowingly or unknowingly, then a dialogue between the two communities can yield an expanded awareness about how we contribute to violence. Spiritual (and perhaps other) vegans might be inspired to cultivate a greater micro-awareness; and Jains who might otherwise not be aware of the horrors of modern dairy production might benefit from an expanded awareness into the macro-violence, the systematic violence, of animal agriculture, a topic that has been an almost exclusive focus for both ethical and spiritual vegans for decades. Vegans have contributed a great deal to the discourse on non-violence with experts and often even highly educated intellectuals within the vegan advocacy movement engaged in nuanced scholarship and political strategizing around the issues of structural violence against animals. And for centuries, Jains have focused on how the constant awareness directed towards even our tiniest prosaic actions might reveal an opportunity to become more mindful about the harm that we cause. Cultivating such awareness, the Jain tradition suggests, is a great opportunity for us to develop our own conscious potential and may direct us spiritually as we realize the axiomatic truth expressed ubiquitously by the Jain tradition: to free ourselves from suffering, we must free ourselves from perpetrating even minute levels of violence towards others. There is a mutual relationship, parasparopagraho jīvānām (Tattvārtha-sūtra 5.21, below), between our suffering and that of others, and that also implies that our individual awareness and commitments to nonviolence have the potential to become cultural and effectuate broader social change, what Christopher Miller has coined as “engaged Jainism.” [1]
I believe that the profundity of this truth of Jain mutuality is at least intuited by many spiritual vegans, and many of them that I have known have themselves articulated something very similar to axiomatic statement of Tattvārtha Sūtra 5.21, “All living entities (jīvānām) are bound in a network (parasparograho) of mutuality (upagrahaḥ).” [2] Afterall, if, as many Jains claim, the Jain tradition applies to the universal condition of all embodied souls, why should we be surprised that modern vegans, a movement that largely originated in the West, have discovered a shared universal truth about the human condition? That shared gnosis—arrived at from very different geographical, cultural, and temporal vantage points—accounts for my understanding of spiritual veganism that I, as a vegan for the last twenty-seven years, have largely recognized as having a deep kinship in the Jain tradition. And after operating professionally and personally within the Jain community for many years, the observable corollary of the increasing movement towards Jain veganism seems to underscore that mutual recognition between the kindred spiritual traditions of spiritual veganism and Jainism.
Clearly, if there is a shared aspiration to mitigate one’s status as a perpetrator of violence, knowingly or unknowingly, then a dialogue between the two communities can yield an expanded awareness about how we contribute to violence. Spiritual (and perhaps other) vegans might be inspired to cultivate a greater micro-awareness; and Jains who might otherwise not be aware of the horrors of modern dairy production might benefit from an expanded awareness into the macro-violence, the systematic violence, of animal agriculture, a topic that has been an almost exclusive focus for both ethical and spiritual vegans for decades. Vegans have contributed a great deal to the discourse on non-violence with experts and often even highly educated intellectuals within the vegan advocacy movement engaged in nuanced scholarship and political strategizing around the issues of structural violence against animals. And for centuries, Jains have focused on how the constant awareness directed towards even our tiniest prosaic actions might reveal an opportunity to become more mindful about the harm that we cause. Cultivating such awareness, the Jain tradition suggests, is a great opportunity for us to develop our own conscious potential and may direct us spiritually as we realize the axiomatic truth expressed ubiquitously by the Jain tradition: to free ourselves from suffering, we must free ourselves from perpetrating even minute levels of violence towards others. There is a mutual relationship, parasparopagraho jīvānām (Tattvārtha-sūtra 5.21, below), between our suffering and that of others, and that also implies that our individual awareness and commitments to nonviolence have the potential to become cultural and effectuate broader social change, what Christopher Miller has coined as “engaged Jainism.” [1]
I believe that the profundity of this truth of Jain mutuality is at least intuited by many spiritual vegans, and many of them that I have known have themselves articulated something very similar to axiomatic statement of Tattvārtha Sūtra 5.21, “All living entities (jīvānām) are bound in a network (parasparograho) of mutuality (upagrahaḥ).” [2] Afterall, if, as many Jains claim, the Jain tradition applies to the universal condition of all embodied souls, why should we be surprised that modern vegans, a movement that largely originated in the West, have discovered a shared universal truth about the human condition? That shared gnosis—arrived at from very different geographical, cultural, and temporal vantage points—accounts for my understanding of spiritual veganism that I, as a vegan for the last twenty-seven years, have largely recognized as having a deep kinship in the Jain tradition. And after operating professionally and personally within the Jain community for many years, the observable corollary of the increasing movement towards Jain veganism seems to underscore that mutual recognition between the kindred spiritual traditions of spiritual veganism and Jainism.
[1] See Engaged Jainism. 2025. Edited by Christopher Miller and Cogen Bohanec. New York: State University of New York Press.
[2] Translation by the current author.
[2] Translation by the current author.
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Cogen Bohanec, MA, PhD holds the position of Assistant Professor in Sanskrit and Jain Studies at Arihanta Institute where he teaches various courses on Jain philosophy and its applications. He received his doctorate in Historical and Cultural Studies of Religion from the Graduate Theological Union (GTU) in Berkeley, California where his research emphasized comparative dharmic traditions and the philosophy of religion. He teaches several foundational self-paced, online courses based in Jain philosophy, yoga, ecology, languages, and interfaith peace-building, including: