Further reading: Guru Chetanshakti, Guru Pushpanjali
(Calcutta: Yogashakti Mission Trust, 1977); Ma Yoga
Shakti, Prayers and Poems from Mother’s Heart (Melbourne,
Fla.: Yogashakti Mission, 1976; ———, Yoga Syzygy, 2d
ed. (Melbourne, Fla.: Yogashakti Mission, 1982); ———,
Yoog Vashishtha (Gondia: Yogashakti Mission, 1970).
meat-eating
Meat-eating was apparently well established for all
classes and castes in very ancient India. The VEDAS
show BRAHMINS and others eating beef as well as
an assortment of other meats. With the rise of the
notion of AHIMSA (nonharm), first introduced by
the Jains (see JAINISM) and Buddhists, meat-eating
became less sanctioned.
In the Manu Smriti or Manavadharma Shastra
(LAW S OF MANU) (c. 400 B.C.E.), a transitional stage
can be seen; meat, including beef, that is killed
as part of a Vedic ritual is allowed for Brahmins.
However, non–ritually killed meat was not to be
eaten by them. Eventually orthodox Brahmins
adopted a Jain-like scrupulous VEGETARIANISM that
became a cultural ideal of the faith.
However, many sectors of society in India still
eat meat and fish. The most common meat eaten
in India by Hindus is chicken, followed by lamb
and goat. Water buffalo meat is also sometimes
eaten. Only the lowest sectors of Hindu society eat
pork or beef. Pork is raised by Dalit (untouchable)
communities as a regular food source. Dalits also
eat beef, taken as carrion.
Under British rule, tensions arose between
Muslims and Hindus over the issue of beef. Mus-
lims do not eat pork but do eat beef. Tensions
have persisted into postindependence India. Par-
ticular offense can be taken if Muslims cook beef
on a Hindu holiday, or in an area where Hindus
can smell the process. Some cities, such as Delhi,
have simply banned the slaughter of cows entirely.
McDonalds, Wimpy’s, and other international
hamburger outlets have been open in India for a
long time, but they never serve beef, usually sub-
stituting the meat of water buffalo.
Further reading: Sandria Freitag, Collective Action and
Community: Public Arenas and the Emergence of Commu-
nalism in North India (Berkeley: University of California
Press, 1989); D. N. Jha, The Myth of the Holy Cow
(London: Verso, 2002); Brian K. Smith, “Eaters, Food
and Social Hierarchy in Ancient India.” Journal of the
Academy of Religion 58, no. 2 (1990): 177–205; Francis
Zimmerman, The Jungle and the Aroma of Meats (Berke-
ley: University of California Press, 1987).meditation
The term dhyana (meditation) is used by Jains (see
JAINISM), Buddhists, and Hindus, with somewhat
different technical meanings.
The Jains may very well have been the first
to practice meditation. Their tradition does not
preserve a great deal of information about the
early practice; there is no mention of PRANAYAMA
or breath control, but dharana (focus), as known
to the PATANJALI Yoga tradition, was apparently
included.
Jain tradition has four types of dhyana: artad-
hyana (focus on things unpleasant or sorrow-
ful), raudradhyana (focus on cruel and perverse
things), dharmyadhyana (virtuous concentration),
and shukladhyana (pure concentration). Most
literature on the SIDDHA (perfected beings) and
TIRTHANKARAS (most exalted personages) refers
to the shukladhyana state, which involves intense
concentration.
In the Hindu tradition, the term dhyana first
appears in the Upanishads, in a handful of places,
used as a rather generic term. By the time of the
epics (c. seventh century B.C.E. to third century
C.E.), dhyana was a well-established practice. Most
later Hindu YOGA traditions derive from raja yoga
or Patanjali Yoga, where dhyana is a refined medi-
tative practice that is taken up after one has mas-
tered pranayama, or breath control, and dharana,
“mental focus.” It is a deeper concentration of
the mind, eventually leading to the SAMADHI state,
which involves highly concentrated focus on the
highest reality (or realities).meditation 283 J