Arihanta Institute Announces Collaboration with Mercy For Animals
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Arihanta Institute Announces Collaboration with Mercy For Animals
04/08/2026
One of the most cherished stories in the Jain tradition is that of Neminātha, the 22nd Tīrthaṅkara. On the day of his wedding, Prince Neminātha rode at the head of a grand procession toward the home of his bride, Princess Rājīmatī. The air was full of drums and wedding songs. And then, as the procession neared the palace, Neminātha heard something amidst the festivities: the cries of animals, penned in an enclosure, awaiting slaughter for the wedding feast. The sounds of their suffering cut through the pageantry, and Neminātha stopped the procession.
He freed the animals, removed his ornaments, and left behind his royal life entirely, setting out toward Mount Girnar to pursue a path of renunciation that would eventually lead to his liberation. In the Uttarādhyayana Sūtra and other Jain texts, this moment stands as one of the tradition's most vivid illustrations of compassion in action: hearing suffering and responding with direct action. His fiancée, Rājīmatī, who would go on to renounce her own royal life and become a sādhvī, a female monk, is a testament to how compassion, when it is genuine and courageous, tends to move through the people and communities it touches.
I think this story encapsulates the work we do at Arihanta Institute, and it came to mind as we prepared to announce an ongoing collaboration with Mercy For Animals, a leading farmed animal advocacy organization working across the globe.
Shared values, shared work
The Tattvārthasūtra, an authoritative text in Jain philosophy, contains an aphorism that has become a kind of guiding principle for the entire tradition: parasparopagraho jīvānām, "souls render service to one another" (TS 5.21). At Arihanta Institute, that teaching informs everything from our course design to the collaborations we pursue through the Vegan Studies Initiative and beyond. Over the past two years, the Initiative has grown into a robust educational program that brings Jain ethics into conversation with contemporary movements for animal advocacy, environmental protection, and food justice.
Mercy For Animals has been working toward a similar vision since 1999, fighting to end industrial animal agriculture and to create a just and compassionate food system. They operate across six global regions, and their values of compassion, collaboration, integrity, and equity align closely with the principles that guide our own work. Through this collaboration, both organizations will actively promote each other's programs, events, and resources, amplifying our shared mission across two distinct and complementary communities. Mercy For Animals will be sharing Arihanta Institute's educational work, and we will be doing the same for their advocacy initiatives. It is the kind of ongoing, mutually supportive relationship that we believe the movement for nonviolence needs more of.
A relationship that has been growing
Our connection with Mercy For Animals has developed through the Vegan Studies Initiative over the past several years. A Mercy For Animals team member spoke at Arihanta Institute's Ahimsa Vegan Conference: Jain Voices in Animal Advocacy in 2023, and another joined our 2024 panel, Animal Futures: A Roundtable on Contemporary Movement Building. Each of those conversations deepened our understanding of how Jain ethical education and frontline animal advocacy can strengthen each other in practice.
And Mercy For Animals is in excellent company. Over the course of the Vegan Studies Initiative's programming, including our Voices in Vegan Studies speaker series, podcast episodes, courses, conferences, and live events, Arihanta Institute has collaborated with more than a dozen animal advocacy and vegan organizations. Every one of these collaborations brings us closer to a world where animals can live free from exploitation and more communities embrace the ethic of ahiṃsā.
The work we're supporting
As we share Mercy For Animals' work with our community, two of their signature initiatives are worth highlighting.
The Transfarmation Project helps farmers transition away from industrial animal agriculture and toward growing crops for human consumption, building solidarity with farming communities and creating replicable models for a more just food system.
Another of their marquee initiatives, ChooseVeg, offers recipes, nutritional guidance, and encouragement for people at every stage of their plant-based journey, from the newly curious to those who have been living a vegan lifestyle for years.
Looking ahead
Parasparopagraho jīvānām. Souls render service to one another. At Arihanta Institute, we see our collaboration with Mercy For Animals as one living expression of that ancient teaching, two organizations rooted in compassion choosing to uplift each other's work within a growing network of voices committed to nonviolence. We look forward to seeing what becomes possible as our communities learn from and lean on each other in the years ahead.
To learn more about Arihanta Institute's Vegan Studies Initiative, visit arihantainstitute.org/vegan-studies.