ABSTRACT

This chapter adapts the arguments that have advanced in the contexts of the Manusmrti and the Anusasanaparvan to the Yogasutra. It argues that the Yogasutra also entails that animals and plants have direct moral standing both because they are sentient, and because they are alive. It notes several passages that might raise doubts about the plausibility of this interpretation of the Yogasutra, such as passages that seem to say that pleasure is simply a subspecies of pain. The Yogasutra is more explicit than the other texts that has considered in arguing that pleasure and pain are not reliable means to the attainment and postponement of moksa, or more often, kaivalya in the Yogasutra. The chapter argues that the Yogasutra attributes intrinsic value to additional attributes and abilities that it classifies under birth vipaka, and hence that the Yogasutra also attributes direct moral standing to both animals and plants because they have some of these additional attributes and abilities.