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Ahimsa

Ahimsa is one of the rules of ashtanga yoga. The word ahimsa means non-harming. This means trying not to harm, as possible, any living being in deeds, words, thoughts, or emotions.

This also includes the principles of ethically correct nutrition and, which is no less important, getting rid of coarse emotions, which are the result of ill thoughts and often lead to rude words and actions.

One can make ethical mistakes, including crimes, as a result of either ignorance, lack of understanding of the universal order and of one’s own place and role in it, or out of indulging in the emotions of spite, condemnation, resentment, anxiety, fear, etc., which are vicious manifestations of the lower self.
 

See also:

Ashtanga Yoga