Carvaka - the Materialists believes that:

• Aik TC

  1 Sep 14, 20:56

   

  Carvaka - the Materialists believes that:

   

  Only the Material World Exists

  While life is yours live joyously;

  No one can avoid Death's searching eye:

  When this body of ours is burnt,

  How can it ever return again?

   

  Pleasure and Pain

  That the pleasure arising to man

  from contact with sensible objects,

  is to be relinquished because accompanied by pain—

  such is the reasoning of fools.

  The kernels of the paddy, rich with finest white grains,

  What man, seeking his own true interest,

  would fling them away

  because of a covering of husk and dust?

   

  Intelligence Resides in the Body

  Springing forth from these elements itself

  solid knowledge is destroyed

  when they are destroyed—

  after death no intelligence remains.

   

  Spontaneity in Nature

  Fire is hot, water cold,

  refreshingly cool is the breeze of morning;

  By whom came this variety?

  They were born of their own nature.

   

  This also has been said by Brhaspati:

  There is no heaven, no final liberation,

  nor any soul in another world,

  Nor do the actions of the four castes,

  orders, or priesthoods produce any real effect.

   

  If a beast slain as an offering to the dead

  will itself go to heaven,

  why does the sacrificer not straightway offer his father?

   

  If offerings to the dead produce gratification

  to those who have reached the land of the dead,

  why the need to set out provisions

  for travelers starting on this journey?

  If our offering sacrifices here gratify beings in heaven,

  why not make food offerings down below

  to gratify those standing on housetops?

   

  While life remains, let a man live happily,

  let him feed on butter though he runs in debt;

  when once the body becomes ashes,

  how can it ever return again?

   

  If he who departs from the body goes to another world,

  why does he not come back again,

  restless for love of his kinfolk?

  It is only as a means of livelihood

  that brahmins have established here

  abundant ceremonies for the dead—

  there is no other fruit anywhere.

   

  Hence for kindness to the mass of living beings

  we must fly for refuge in the doctrine of Carvaka.

   

  They asserts that there are no gods and no afterlife nor liberation. Heaven and hell does not exist. Gods were invented to prevent people from thinking they could get away with wrongs done. Merit and demerit also do not exist. Nor is there any fruit of virtue and vice. What can be perceived exists; what cannot be perceived does not exist. i.e., there is no logical basis for inference. Only the four elements - earth, water, fire and air exists; there is none other.

   

  If one is to live life in accordance to this philosophy; do you think it would be a meaningful and fruitful life?

   

   

• lce

  1 Sep 14, 22:17

  if u have not live the life , how would u know what is life?

  if u have not seen evils , how do u know what is good?

  living is not about god or logics , its how u perceived n experience it till your last breath

• 2009novice

  1 Sep 14, 22:49

  What is carvaka...?

  this view is not suitable for me lol

• An Eternal Now

  2 Sep 14, 09:43

  Meaningful according to them, not according to Dharma.

• Aik TC

  2 Sep 14, 11:39

   

  On the subject of ‘pleasure and pain’ it is stated that one is a fool not to enjoy the pleasure that may arises when in contact with sense objects, even though pain (suffering) may accompany such actions. To a Buddhist, believing in such teaching would not be too far from what the Buddha said of Gosala the Determinist; that he was like a ‘fisherman who catches man only to destroy them’.

   

  ‘let a man live happily, let him feed on butter though he runs in debt’ I thought this is also a rather bad advice as the consequences of running into debt would mean more suffering for those who are close and dear to him.