Book review reposted with permission by Giselle Mehta. Original post here: Vegan Ramayana — Book Review.
Teja Shankara got in touch with me after reading the chapter I contributed to the volume Vegan Voices edited by my friend Dr Joanne Kong. Not long after, she sent me a copy of her own book Vegan Ramayana, a bold re-imagining of a revered epic for relevance in our own time and age.
Teja Shankara is the adopted name of Rachel Ann, who is steeped in a diversity of spiritual traditions. Born Catholic in the USA, she did not grow up reading the Ramayana but says she felt the epic deep in her soul, a living spiritual phenomenon conducive of high vibrations.
What gave the author courage to re-imagine the hallowed is that there are already 300 recorded versions of the Ramayana, of which she had personally studied over a dozen. Each probably expresses its own focus and flavor to better reflect eras and regions with their own distinctiveness around the unifying thread of the main tale.
Epicists of whatever place or age project their own contexts into timeless tales of the heroic. Teja Shankara’s personal context is amidst the compassionate awakening of our own times, with its assertive activism against the abuse and exploitation of animals for whatever end. The world today terms this sensitivity to fellow beings across species as veganism. Stirred and inspired by the ancient tale, she was nevertheless compelled to elevate it to the next level of the sacred, by infusing it with a still higher aspiration of ahimsa or causing no harm.
The epic’s heroes are constantly drawn into reiterating a compassionate connection with the earth and fellow earthlings as their highest ethic; the earth’s wealth of fruit and vegetables fuels up their bodies and spirits for righteous battle. To surmount the importance of milk and its derivatives in diet and ritual, Teja introduces the coconut as a sacred substitute, which is apt considering the coconut tree is widely regarded as a kalpavriksha, for its numerous utilities and healthful properties.
The narrative altogether dispenses with the bloodshed of war in favor of an elevated consciousness that establishes a kinship of the planet’s beings, rendering violence redundant. Vegan Ramayana isn’t only about the ancient past. It is also a futuristic tale with science fiction elements of high speed space travel and parallel universes. It is animated with emerging ideas of quantum physics about the importance of consciousness in shaping realities, whose philosophical underpinnings may well lie in the meditative musings of the Upanishads.
I resonate with the author’s impulse to work on this epic to convey a non-violent vegan message, considering that animals are important collaborators for good in this battle between conflicting human values. Hanuman, for example, is an enduring figure who embodies loyalty and agility, stepping out of an epic’s pages to being deified with his own temples, invocations (like the Hanuman Chalisa) and legions of devotees.
It is likely that the epic in its entirety would elude most modern readers, even though there exists a broad acquaintance of its prominent characters and key episodes. Teja Shankara’s Vegan Ramayana is a compact and compassionate version that transforms themes of war, conflict and division to peace, compassion and universal family-hood. The book’s vision is both benign and grand, brimming with the passion of one dedicated to seeing the world reach its potential for true kindness and wisdom.
Thank you, Giselle, for this wonderful review! ✨♥️🌞✨
