the luminous field | consciousness across all forms
Author :: Jess Marie, CVC, CAHC, INHC, E-RYT 🌻
There exists a truth that modern conditioning has obscured: animals are not separate from our awareness; they are woven into the same luminous field of consciousness that sustains all life. What one does to another sentient Being, one does to one's Self.
The first chain of human enslavement was never forged by money, kings, or crowns. It was bound the moment we made the blood-soaked meal acceptable. When humanity transformed living, aware Beings into consumable matter, the vibration of freedom collapsed within the collective field. This act became the template, the original fracture, from which all subsequent systems of domination emerged.
To understand this deeply, we must recognize what the Vedic tradition calls prāṇa: the vital life force flowing through all forms. When one spills this life current outside the context of love & reverence, one fractures the field that sustains existence itself. Every act of slaughter echoes through what ancient wisdom keepers understood as ṛta: the cosmic order, the sacred pattern that holds creation in balance.
From that first rupture arose hierarchy, commerce, war, and every system built on the premise of "feed or be fed upon." The origin of tyranny was the dinner table. The moment we accepted that some lives exist merely to sustain others, we authored the script for all forms of oppression.
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The Vedic principle of ahiṃsā (non-violence in thought, word, and deed) stands as perhaps the most radical invitation to Self-realization. This principle doesn't ask us to be "kind" in a superficial sense. It calls us to recognize the unity of all consciousness, the truth that harming another Being is harming the Self.
Veganism, from this lens, is not a diet. It’s the remembrance of unity. It’s the restoration of the original covenant where no sentient life is taken to sustain another. It’s ātma-jñāna (Self-knowledge) made manifest in the most fundamental choice we make multiple times daily: what we eat.
Here, I must address something that distinguishes my practice as an Ayurvedic Health Counselor: I work exclusively within a vegan framework, which stands in contrast to traditional Ayurvedic teachings that often classify vegetarianism as sattvic (pure, harmonious).
This distinction matters. While vegetarianism abstains from meat, it still participates in the commodification of animal bodies: the extraction of milk meant for calves, the taking of eggs, the treatment of sentient Beings as production units. The conditioning runs deep here, because dairy especially has been woven into spiritual traditions as "acceptable," even "pure."
But when one truly examines the modern dairy industry through the lens of ahiṃsā, the dissonance becomes clear.
How can we call something sattvic when it requires the systematic separation of mothers from their young, the perpetual cycle of forced pregnancy, the ultimate slaughter when production wanes?
Ayurveda's wisdom lies in its understanding of how food affects consciousness. The question becomes: What consciousness are we ingesting when we consume products born of suffering?
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I share this not as moral superiority, but as lived testimony: I have been vegan for years, aligning both ethical & Ayurvedic nutritional standards.
I rarely experience illness.
My mental & emotional equilibrium is profoundly supported by my physical & nutritional choices.
This is the agni (digestive fire) & ojas (vital essence) that Earth provides when we eat in alignment with ṛta.
The foods Gaia offers of fruits, vegetables, grains, legumes, nuts, and seeds contain everything one needs not just to survive, but to thrive. One doesn't need to sacrifice another living Being to nourish one's Self. This isn't deprivation; it's liberation.
When I work with clients on vegan Ayurvedic nutrition, we're not simply creating & adjusting to a meal plan. We're recalibrating their relationship with the source of life itself. We're asking: What does it mean to eat in a way that honors both the body's constitution (prakṛti) and the Soul's knowing?
If you've read this far, something within you recognizes this truth, even if the mind immediately offers objections. That's the conditioning speaking: generations of programming that normalized the harvest of sentient Beings.
I invite you to sit with one question: What would change in your awareness if you truly saw animals as expressions of the same consciousness that animates you?
This isn't about perfection or overnight transformation. It's about willingness to examine what we've accepted without question. It's about recognizing that when we end the harvest of their bodies, we end the harvest of our own Souls.
The spiritual path and the dinner plate are not separate. Every choice to honor life is a choice to honor the Self. Every act of ahiṃsā is an act of remembering who we truly are.
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Paramahansa Yogananda once offered a powerful metaphor: imagine living in a single room your entire life, having no contact with or knowledge of what lies beyond those walls. You would naturally assume that this room is the entirety of your world. But the moment someone opens the door and takes you outside, you would realize how infinitesimal your "world" truly was.
This is precisely where most of humanity exists regarding food. We have lived in the "room" of accepted animal consumption for so long, generations upon generations, that we believe it represents the whole truth about nourishment. We've been conditioned to see this room as inevitable, natural, necessary.
The invitation of veganism is to step through that door to see the vastness we've been missing, to recognize that what we thought was the entirety of possibility was merely a fraction of what becomes available when we align our eating with consciousness itself.
As Yogananda taught, the scope of mortal consciousness by comparison to Christ Consciousness is like observing only the area of a tiny mustard seed to the exclusion of the rest of the cosmos.
What if our conventional relationship with food is that mustard seed, and a universe of awareness awaits beyond it?
I want to explore why this matters by examining how consciousness itself manifests across all forms of life.
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To understand why consuming animals affects our awareness, we must first recognize a fundamental Vedic truth: consciousness (caitanya) exists on a spectrum. All of creation, from the mineral kingdom to humanity, participates in the universal field of awareness, but manifests it in varying degrees.
The ancient rishis understood what we might call the progression of jīva: the individual soul's journey through increasingly complex forms ::
Minerals hold the most dormant expression of consciousness: present, but largely inert in its manifestation.
Plants demonstrate responsiveness, growth toward light, adaptation to environment—a more active participation in the life force.
Insects & simpler creatures exhibit instinct, basic survival intelligence, patterns of behavior that show rudimentary awareness.
Animals possess clear sentience: emotion, memory, social bonds, the capacity for suffering and joy, individual personality. Their consciousness is unmistakable to anyone willing to truly observe.
Humans carry the potential for Self-reflective awareness: the ability to not only experience consciousness but to become aware of awareness itself.
Maharishi Mahesh Yogi described human consciousness as unfolding through seven sequential states, from waking consciousness through Cosmic Consciousness to Unity Consciousness: complete experiential identification with the universal unified field, where all sense of separation between self and universe dissolves.
Here is what matters: this spectrum is not a hierarchy of value ::
A cow is not "less than" a human.
An insect is not expendable because its consciousness expresses differently.
Unity consciousness, the goal of all Yogic practice, recognizes that the same luminous field animates all forms.
Consciousness binds us, no matter how "small" a Being may seem, whether fully embodied with individual Soul or expressing as part of the collective awareness.
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Paramahansa Yogananda offered profound insight into why our food choices matter spiritually. He taught that what the Hindu scriptures call Kutastha Chaitanya (Krishna Consciousness) and what Christian mystics call Christ Consciousness is the same omnipresent intelligence present in all creation: "the only pure Reflection of Spirit in the created realm."
This wasn't abstract philosophy for Yogananda. He described a precise understanding of how Spirit manifests through evolutionary forms, each expressing increasing measures of divine consciousness.
In his teaching, "the entirety of vibratory creation is an externalization of Spirit." Think of it this way: Omnipresent Spirit secretes Itself in vibratory matter just as oil is hidden within an olive. When the olive is squeezed, tiny drops of oil appear on its surface. Similarly, Spirit (as individual souls) gradually emerges from matter through the process of evolution.
Yogananda mapped this emergence with exquisite clarity ::
In minerals & gems, Spirit expresses Itself as beauty, magnetic power, and chemical properties; the most condensed form of divine presence.
In plants, Spirit adds life force to beauty: the capacity to grow, respond to light, participate more actively in the dance of existence.
In animals, Spirit manifests as beauty, life, power, motion, and consciousness. Here is the critical threshold: animals possess sentient awareness. They experience. They feel. They know joy & suffering. As Yogananda taught, an ant's consciousness is limited to the sensations of its little body, while an elephant's consciousness extends throughout its massive frame; ten people touching ten different parts of its body would awaken simultaneous awareness in that Being.
In humans, Spirit expands into comprehension and Self-reflective power. We can contemplate the thoughts of others, project our minds into star-studded space through imagination, and ask the question: "Who am I?"
In the fully realized Being, omnipresence is regained. Consciousness expands from the circumference of the body "into all space, actually feeling as his own self the presence of all universes in the vast cosmos as well as every minute atom of the earth."
Each phase, Yogananda taught, manifests a fuller measure of Spirit.
Now, here is where this understanding becomes crucial to our inquiry about food: animals are not merely "less conscious" than humans, for they express a fuller measure of Spirit than plants. They possess sentient consciousness, locomotion, emotional experience, social bonds, individual personality. They experience a greater portion of creation.
To consume their bodies is to participate in the violation of Beings who carry more of Spirit's conscious expression than the plant kingdom. It is to move against the direction of evolution, which seeks ever-greater manifestation of consciousness, not its destruction for temporary sensory pleasure.
Yogananda was unequivocal in his guidance: those seeking to expand consciousness toward Christ Consciousness (toward the omnipresent awareness where one feels all creation as one's own Self) must align their actions with this understanding.
How can one expand awareness to encompass all life while simultaneously participating in the suffering of sentient portions of that very creation?
The spiritual aspirant, Yogananda taught, naturally gravitates away from foods that require killing. This isn't forced morality or arbitrary restriction; it is the organic unfoldment of refined awareness. As consciousness expands, it naturally rejects what creates suffering, because at higher levels of realization, there is no "other" to harm. There is only the Self, expressing through myriad forms.
Jesus, Yogananda explained, transferred his consciousness "from the circumference of the body to the boundary of all finite creation." He became one with the Christ Consciousness that pervades every atom. This is the goal of all spiritual practice; not as distant abstraction, but as lived reality.
And it begins with recognizing Spirit secreted in every form. The cow. The chicken. The fish. Each carries consciousness. Each expresses a measure of divine presence. Each deserves reverence, not consumption.
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Paramahansa Yogananda understood something that modern conditioning has obscured: the body of a spiritual aspirant is a temple, and what enters that temple either supports or obstructs the journey toward Self-realization (ātma-jñāna).
His teaching was clear and uncompromising: consuming animals creates density in the subtle body (sūkṣma śarīra), making dhyāna (meditation) more difficult, intuition less clear, and the heart less open to the omnipresent love that is our true nature.
But Yogananda went further. He taught that refined awareness doesn't avoid animal products out of rigid moral superiority, for it naturally rejects them because expanded consciousness recognizes itself in all forms. When one begins to feel, even slightly, the Christ Consciousness or Krishna Consciousness that pervades creation, the thought of consuming a sentient Being becomes as unthinkable as consuming one's own child.
This is why he emphasized that the spiritual path naturally leads toward ahiṃsā in diet. It's not about following rules; it's about alignment with the expanding awareness that sees Spirit in all things.
The Yogi seeks to transfer consciousness "from the circumference of the body to the boundary of all finite creation," as Yogananda described Jesus' realization. Every choice we make either moves us toward or away from this expansion. Consuming sentient Beings who already possess consciousness, emotion, and awareness is a choice that contracts rather than expands our field of identification.
How can we claim to seek unity with all creation while our daily meals require the suffering & death of conscious Beings?
This is the question Yogananda's teaching poses to every sincere spiritual aspirant.
The Yogic path has always honored this truth. While modern practitioners may struggle with attachment to taste or cultural conditioning, the tradition itself, and masters like Yogananda, have been unwavering: ahiṃsā in diet is not optional for those who genuinely seek higher consciousness. It is foundational.
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When one consumes the flesh of a sentient Being, one is not merely ingesting protein or calories. One is taking into one's own field the energetic imprint of that animal's experience: the fear, the trauma, the violation of its natural life cycle.
Ayurveda teaches that food carries not just nutritional properties (guṇas) but saṃskāras: subtle impressions that shape consciousness. The violent end of an animal's life leaves an energetic residue that becomes part of the one who consumes it. This isn't metaphor or superstition; it's the recognition that everything carries vibration, and we become what we regularly ingest.
Contrast this with plant-based foods, which carry the vibration of growth, sunlight, earth, and the natural completion of their life cycle. When one eats in alignment with ahiṃsā (non-violence), the body receives nourishment without the energetic burden of suffering.
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This brings me to an important distinction that often confuses Western students of Yoga: the veneration of cows in Yogic culture.
Yogis honor the cow as a sacred Being: gentle, nurturing, connected to the earth, embodying maternal qualities. The cow represents abundance, sustenance, and the generosity of nature. But this veneration was never meant to justify consuming her body or her milk meant for her young.
Traditional Yogis revered the cow precisely because they recognized her consciousness, her sentience, her place in the web of life. Yet even within Yogic traditions, dairy consumption became normalized: the milk meant for a mother's calf redirected for human use. The modern commodification of cows, whether for meat or dairy, represents a profound departure from this sacred recognition.
When one truly sees an animal as sacred, consumption becomes unthinkable. The veneration teaches us to witness, to honor, to protect; not to extract or exploit.
Those who transition to a truly compassionate diet—one that honors all sentient life, often report a phenomenon that surprises them: their awareness shifts.
Meditation deepens.
Intuition sharpens.
Emotional reactivity softens.
Dreams become more vivid.
The subtle body (sūkṣma śarīra) begins to clear of the dense saṃskāras accumulated from lifetimes of consuming suffering.
This is not in any way about becoming "pure" or "better than." It's about removing obstacles to the natural unfoldment of consciousness. When the body is no longer processing the energetic weight of violence, the mind becomes more sattvic: clear, peaceful, luminous.
Think of it this way: every choice we make either contracts or expands our field of awareness. Consuming sentient Beings contracts consciousness because it requires us to suppress empathy, to disconnect from the reality of suffering, to maintain separation between "us" & "them."
Choosing ahiṃsā expands consciousness because it aligns action with the deepest truth: all life is one. What we do to another, we do to our Self.
Yogananda's framework deepens this understanding. When we consume animals, we're not just ingesting Beings at a "lower" level of evolution, we're consuming forms that express a fuller measure of Spirit than plants. Animals possess sentient consciousness: they experience the world, they form bonds, they feel pain & joy. They are, in Yogananda's teaching, closer to expressing the divine omnipresence than the plant kingdom.
To consume them is to take into one's system not just the trauma of their death, but the energetic reality of destroying a more conscious expression of Spirit for one's own pleasure. This creates a profound dissonance in the subtle body.
How can the soul expand toward Christ Consciousness (toward feeling all creation as one's own Self) while simultaneously participating in the violation of conscious Beings who are also expressions of that same infinite Spirit?
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Unity Consciousness, what the Vedic texts call advaita (non-duality), is the recognition that separation is illusion. The ant, the elephant, the human, the tree: all are expressions of the same infinite awareness, dancing in different forms. 🐮
When one lives from this understanding, the question "What should I eat?" transforms entirely. It's no longer about rules or restrictions. It becomes a natural expression of love.
How could one knowingly cause suffering to another expression of the Self?
This is the consciousness that veganism cultivates, not as moral superiority, but as lived recognition of what has always been true: we are not separate from anything. The cow, the chicken, the fish, they are our relatives in consciousness. To end their lives for our temporary pleasure is to fragment the very field we claim to seek in meditation.
Yogananda's vision of the “superman” (one who "expands his life energy & consciousness from his body into all space, actually feeling as his own self the presence of all universes in the vast cosmos as well as every minute atom of the earth") is not distant fantasy; it’s the natural destination of consciousness when obstacles are removed.
Jesus demonstrated this when he transferred his awareness "from the circumference of the body to the boundary of all finite creation," becoming one with the Christ Consciousness that pervades every atom. This same realization, Yogananda taught, is available to all who align their lives with the principles that support such expansion.
The question becomes unavoidable ::
If we seek this unity consciousness, if we aspire to feel all creation as our own Self, how can we justify participating in the suffering of sentient portions of that creation?
The answer lives in the choice we make three times each day, every day, for the rest of our lives.
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If you've read this far and feel something stirring, perhaps discomfort, perhaps recognition, know that this is the beginning of inquiry, not the demand for perfection.
The conditioning around food runs deeper than almost any other pattern in human culture. Generations of programming have taught us that consuming animals is necessary, natural, inevitable. Questioning this can feel like questioning reality itself.
But that's precisely what the spiritual path asks of us: to question everything we've accepted without examination.
I invite you to sit with these questions ::
What would become possible in your awareness if you aligned every meal with the principle of ahiṃsā?
How might your consciousness shift if you released the energetic weight of consuming suffering?
What would it feel like to eat in a way that honors all expressions of life as sacred?
This inquiry is itself a form of Self Work. It asks us to examine not just what we eat, but who we believe our Self to be and how we want to move through the world.
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Christ Consciousness, Krishna Consciousness, ātma-jñāna is not abstract or distant. It is present in every atom, as Yogananda taught, waiting to be recognized. When we honor all life through ahiṃsā, when we refuse to participate in the suffering of sentient Beings, we practice expanding our consciousness from what Yogananda called "the tiny mustard seed of mortal awareness" toward the omnipresence that is our birthright and true nature.
The path begins with a single choice.
And then another.
And another.
Each aligned meal is a step toward the realization of who you have always been beneath the conditioning.
If you feel called to explore what vegan Ayurvedic nutrition might look like for your unique constitution and life circumstances, I offer complimentary consultations and donation-based counseling. Together, we can to explore your goals and discuss how my practice supports a transformation of your entire relationship with nourishment, consciousness, and freedom.
This is an invitation to reclaim the original covenant: where love, not domination, guides every choice we make.
📧 Subscribe to my newsletter for insights on Self Work, Vedic wisdom & consciousness-based healing.
Jess Marie 🌻
CVC, CAHC, INHC, e-RYT
Jess is a multi-certified, multi-faceted Vedic professional & business consultant. She offers wellness offerings to support those seeking a more holistic & integrative approach to healing, as well as business support services for professionals in the health, wellness & spirituality fields.
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