What is ahimsa?
Ahimsa means not harming: not injuring any living being. It is among the most widely shared values in Hindu teaching. Manu's law book lists it first in its summary of the law for all four varnas, the Mahabharata calls it the highest dharma, and in the Gita Krishna names harmlessness among the states of beings that come from him (10.5). Many Hindus see vegetarian food as an expression of it. The texts also discuss when force is a duty, as for a warrior or a king, so readers weigh ahimsa together with other duties; schools and families do so in different ways.
Written for Pujadeep and checked against the sources listed.
What the schools say
Dharmashastra (Manu)
Manu names non-harm first in his summary of the law for all four varnas: “Abstention from injuring (creatures), veracity, abstention from unlawfully appropriating (the goods of others), purity, and control of the organs, Manu has declared to be the summary of the law for the four castes” (10.63). He also urges giving up meat, since it “can never be obtained without injury to living creatures” (5.48). Yet he holds that injury the Veda prescribes for certain rites “is no injury at all” (5.44), a view other texts question, as the Mahabharata passage below shows. Readings of these verses differ, and quoting them here does not make their wording this page's view.
Sources for this reading
- G. Bühler (tr.), The Laws of Manu (Sacred Books of the East, vol. 25, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1886), 5.44, 5.48 and 10.63. Bühler died 1898: public domain. Quoted verbatim from the OCR of the scan. (5.44 (pp. 175–176) and 5.48 (p. 176, leaf n321); 10.63 (p. 416, leaf n561); checked on the page images)
Mahabharata (Anushasana Parva): Bhishma
In the Mahabharata, Yudhishthira puts a hard question to Bhishma: if non-harm is the highest dharma, how can meat be offered in rites for the ancestors? Bhishma answers at length that abstention from injury is the highest dharma, the highest austerity and the highest truth, and that flesh cannot be had without killing. In another chapter he praises abstention from cruelty as greater than every gift and sacrifice.
Sources for this reading
- Kisari Mohan Ganguli (tr.), The Mahabharata (Calcutta, 1883–1896), Project Gutenberg transcription, vol. 4, Anusasana Parva, sections CXV and CXVI. Ganguli died 1908: public domain in the US; India status not yet confirmed. Summarised, not quoted. (Anusasana Parva, sections CXV–CXVI, in the Gutenberg numbering)
Advaita (Shankara)
The Gita calls the highest yogi the one who sees pleasure and pain in all by comparison with himself (6.32). Shankara explains that such a person sees that whatever is pleasant or painful to himself is so to every creature, and so causes pain to no being. He calls the one who does no harm and is devoted to right knowledge the highest yogi.
Sources for this reading
- The Bhagavad-Gita, with the commentary of Sri Sankaracharya, translated by A. Mahadeva Sastri (2nd ed., Mysore: G. T. A. Printing Works, 1901) (commentary on 6.32, pp. 181–182)
- Bhagavad Gita, 6.32
The Gita and the warrior's duty
The Gita names harmlessness among the qualities that come from God (10.5), yet it is spoken to a warrior on the eve of a war, and tells Arjuna that “there is nothing better for a Kshatriya than a righteous battle” (2.31, Telang). The commentators read the battle teaching through action offered to the Lord without selfish desire (3.30). The tension between non-harm and the duty to protect is one the tradition keeps discussing.
Sources for this reading
Sources
- Bhagavad Gita, 10.5
- Learn pages why-many-hindus-do-not-eat-beef and what-is-dharma in this library.
More questions
Source and licence
- Our explanation
- Written for this site from the sources listed here, and checked against them. Free to quote with credit.
- Checked
- Checked against the sources listed, October 13, 2026.
- Updated
- October 15, 2026