Podcast Summary

Podcast: New Books Network
Episode: Kenneth R. Valpey, "Yoga and Animal Ethics" (Palgrave Macmillan, 2025)
Host: Dr. Raj Balkaran
Guest: Dr. Kenneth R. Valpey
Date: September 25, 2025

Main Theme

This episode dives into Kenneth R. Valpey’s new book Yoga and Animal Ethics, exploring the intersection between the yogic tradition and contemporary animal ethics. The discussion covers the book's genesis, major arguments, historic and philosophical groundings, as well as its practical implications for both scholars and practitioners of yoga. Dr. Valpey and Dr. Balkaran also reflect on the living traditions and the real-world relevance of this topic amidst today’s global yoga movement.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

Genesis of the Book & Series Context

• Backstory:

  • The book grew out of Dr. Valpey’s earlier "Cow Care in Hindu Animal Ethics" (2020), which received significant engagement as an open access publication. (02:07)
  • The new installment shifts focus from the specifically "Hindu" frame to broaden the dialogue, integrating wider yoga traditions and reaching diverse audiences.
  • Editorial encouragement from Andrew Lindsay (Palgrave’s Animal Ethics series) spurred this project.
    • Quote: “The editor of that series…contacted me and said, hey, why don’t you write another book for the series? And I thought, okay. And so this is what, what came out.” — Dr. Kenneth Valpey [02:30]

• Intentions for Impact:

  • Hopes to inspire both scholastic writing and personal, practical transformation towards animal ethics within yoga practice.
  • Emphasizes a gap between textual (scholarly) focus and lived/ethnographic reality, pointing to a need for further study.
    • “I would hope that people would read the book and say, oh yeah, actually I need to do this. …to change my life in a yogic sort of way…recognition…to go from …disregard to the discourse of recognition.” — Dr. Kenneth Valpey [06:29]

The Contemporary Yoga World

• Yogic Culture & Food Ethics:
  • Acknowledges the diversity and complexity in contemporary yoga communities regarding vegetarianism and animal care (09:43)
  • Textual sources such as the Puranas, Mahabharata, and Upanishads deeply inform both the collective imagination and practical ethics of Indian religions, influencing dietary ideals and practices.

Overarching Arguments of the Book

• Four Contributions of Yoga to Animal Ethics:

  1. Attention:
     • The yogic practice of sustained attention, and its implications for caring about non-human animals.
     • “One is the notion of attention, just giving attention, which implies giving care to animals. This is …integral to yoga practice.” — Dr. Kenneth Valpey [14:12]
  2. Discipline:
     • Yoga’s emphasis on self-discipline (Yama, Niyama) as a key to changing behaviors toward animals.
     • “Self discipline is not overly popular in the world today, but…all or a great deal of the tools for self help that you might ever want are already there in these quite early texts.” — Dr. Kenneth Valpey [14:12]
  3. Ontology:
     • The unique ontological views in yoga (especially Patanjali, Bhakti, Buddhist and Jain perspectives) can help redefine “who we are” and “what is an animal.”
     • “Ethical discourse in general and specifically about animals kind of totally sidesteps the issue of who are we and what or who is an animal…yoga ontology can help.” — Dr. Kenneth Valpey [15:19]
  4. Self-transformation:
     • Yoga is fundamentally about transforming oneself, which in turn transforms our ethical relationship to animals.
     • “Self transformation, yoga is very much about really fundamental change of oneself such that one's sense of the world changes…one's experience of other beings in particular nonhuman beings becomes transformed.” — Dr. Kenneth Valpey [16:15]
  • Host Recap:
    • “They were attention … pertain[ing] to concepts such as Dharana, they were discipline such as Yama and Niyama, ontology … thought of Purusha, Atman... orientation towards self transformation of Moksha.” — Dr. Raj Balkaran [17:45]

Historical Antecedents

• From Vedic Sacrifice to Ethical Discomfort:
  • Traces the unease with animal sacrifice in late Vedic India as ritual complexity grew, and the emergence of ascetic challenges.
    • “I try to sketch the history of…the sort of growing discomfort with animal sacrifice…At the same time, more and more questioning is coming of whether this is…bringing what is wanted…It’s a rather complicated story.” — Dr. Kenneth Valpey [18:21]
  • The “double helix” of householder (pravritti) and renouncer (nivritti) traditions as ongoing tension in Indian thought.
    • “At this point, Brahmanical Hinduism and ascetic Hinduism…they’re so integrated. But there is this tacit kind of tension there…” — Dr. Raj Balkaran [23:05]

Confronting Pragmatism, Violence, and Idealism

• Meat-Eating & Modern Industrialization:
  • Questions the current scale of animal consumption compared to ancient patterns and argues for awareness of environmental impact.
    • “Do we have to eat so many animals?...technology made it that…what we may want to agree, we might want to say, yeah, it was natural to now and then have the meat of some animal…All of that disappears by the late 19th century…the meat industrial complex.” — Dr. Kenneth Valpey [24:52]
  • Calls for awareness:
    • “Wherever people are, they could bring more awareness into their diet, whatever that looks like to you…call to awareness of just awareness in general of what you're doing, whether it’s habitual, whether it’s cultural, what is the cost of what you’re doing…” — Dr. Raj Balkaran [29:29]

The Relative Novelty of Indic Animal Ethics in Scholarship

• Endorsements & Gaps:
  • Noted scholars (e.g., Gavin Flood, Rita Sherma) have recognized the importance and novelty of Valpey’s book.
    • “People don’t generally think of Indic thought when they think of the ethics of violence and the ethics of slaughter…but…I’m just so in it in this echo chamber, that it’s…scarcely believable that this isn’t better known…” — Dr. Raj Balkaran [31:37]

Future Directions

• Expanding to Bhakti, Community & Beyond:

  • Exploring the “Hindu Philosophy of Animal Ethics” for a new Oxford volume (ed. Rita Sherma).
  • Interest in “multi-species intentional communities” guided by Bhakti principles.
    • “Bhakti yoga is more of a together, more of a practice in community. So…what about multi species intentional communities with bhakti as a sort of guiding…light?” — Dr. Kenneth Valpey [34:25]

• Personal Synthesis of Bhakti & Jnana:

  • Integrates both intellectual (Jnana) and devotional (Bhakti) strands.
    • “Some might label me a Jnana Mishra bhakta…it's about bringing theism into the discourse…what if we started with animal ethics?” — Dr. Kenneth Valpey [36:33–39:28]

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Practical Change:

  • “What would be interesting, I think, is…explore kind of real yogis and what they do…how they act in relation to…non-human animals.” — Dr. Kenneth Valpey [06:29]

• On Yoga’s Relevance to Animal Ethics:

  • "Yoga is very much about really fundamental change of oneself such that one's. Sense of the world changes... as a result one is freed from all sorts of bondage of limited self perceptions. And this is integral to freeing other beings and non human animals." — Dr. Kenneth Valpey [16:15]

• On Past and Present Animal Consumption:

  • “Does it have to be, do you have to eat so much, considering the environmental costs? I don’t think so…if you could do it properly, in such a way that, ritually speaking, you’re following all the rules, then good…as you’re going through that process of sacrifice, it confronts you with what you’re actually doing.” — Dr. Kenneth Valpey [24:52–28:11]

• Personal Reflection:

  • “If I were to consume meat and be completely squeamish at the sight of an animal, it'd be like…not condoning murder, but hiring a hitman…I'm okay to have someone else to do the work for me. I'd be saying, I'm a little more relaxed. That’ll be probably the phase…” — Dr. Raj Balkaran [29:29]

• On Scholarship:

  • "Somebody has to write it and spell it out." — Dr. Kenneth Valpey [32:20]

Story Highlight: The Tale of Jajali

• The Hermit and the Birds (Mahabharata):
  • Jajali, an ascetic, allows birds to build a nest on his head without moving, believing he’s perfected his asceticism; he’s then sent to learn humility and dharma from Tuladhar, an honest merchant. At the end, the birds return and teach him about faith, closing a circle of non-human agency and ethical transformation. (40:13–42:44)
    • “The fun part, at the very end, they call back the birds…they come back and they speak to Jajali and they give him lessons about faith…in this way, Jajali becomes perfect, actually perfected by learning from the birds whom he had sheltered.” — Dr. Kenneth Valpey [41:21–42:44]

Timestamps for Important Segments

• Genesis and Motivation for Book: [02:07–06:29]
• Yoga World & Real-life Practices: [09:43–12:09]
• Main Arguments: Yoga’s Four Contributions to Animal Ethics: [12:20–17:45]
• Historical Antecedents: Vedic Sacrifice to Ethical Discomfort: [18:21–24:52]
• Debate: Animals Eating Animals / Meat Industry: [24:52–31:36]
• Indic Ethics—Novelty and Reception: [31:36–32:29]
• Future Scholarship and Directions: [32:44–35:55]
• Bhakti and Intellectual Synthesis: [35:55–39:34]
• Mahabharata Narrative (Jajali and the Birds): [40:13–42:44]

Tone & Language

The tone is collegial, thoughtful, and reflective, balancing scholarly rigor with personal engagement and occasional humor. Both host and guest show deep familiarity with Indian religious texts and traditions while remaining accessible and self-aware. The language stays true to academic discourse but is peppered with anecdotes, asides, and personal reflections.

Takeaway

Kenneth Valpey’s Yoga and Animal Ethics is a compelling and innovative exploration of how yogic philosophy and praxis can meaningfully contribute to animal ethics. The conversation highlights yoga’s capacity for fostering attention, self-discipline, ontological reflection, and transformation—qualities urgently needed for reconsidering our relationship with non-human animals. The book stands as a scholarly bridge, but its challenge and invitation are practical, urging both individual and collective re-examination of our roles within the living world.