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128
Law of Karma
deed leaves its impressions on man's character. It is this tendency or Saṁskārā that inclines us to repeat the deed we have once done. We cannot escape from the mighty blow of our performed actions. The actions of men are capable of predictions. If rational, they will show certain properties. But it does not mean that the soul is determined. Every living soul is potentially free. Man possesses freedom as the focus of spiritual life. God has not granted him freedom from outside. He possesses freedom because he is rooted in God. The more he realises his true divine nature, the more free he is. And, as a rezult of this belief, Upanişads believe in rebirth. It is said in the Upanisad that "those who have right knowledge and perform their duties are born again and again after death for immortality, while those who do not have such knowledge and neglect their duties are reborn again and again, becoming the prey of God”. 12
But for the Cārvākās all the orthodox systems base their views upon the Law of Karma. For them, perception is the only valid source of knowledge. Nothing is real, which is not perceptible. As soul bas no existence in the Philosophy of Cārvākās, they do not believe in the future life and the Law of Karma. But the Cārvākā's views based upon their epistemology have been refuted by the other thinkers.
Their epistemology dismisses necessarily all beliefs in a supernatural or transcendental being and with it also belief in everything that constitutes the subject matter of religion and Philosophy. It recognises neither a God who controls the universe, nor the conscience which guides man and it does not care for belief in a life after death. It thus draws away man's mind altogether from the thought of a higher life and fixes it upon the world of sense.
The ideal which Ćārvākās present before us is that of hedonism. It lays emphasis on the individual happiness. But contemporary thinkers always stress on the happiness, of all.
The denial of soul is as absurd as to say that “my mother is barren". If there is no soul as a separate entity, then body is the soul, which is contradiction in saying. By rejecting the existence of soul, Cārvākās reject the doctrine of rebirth and
| SR No. | 007009 |
| Book Title | Law of Karma |
| Original Sutra Author | N/A |
| Author | Nirmala Jha |
| Publisher | Capital Pubishing House Delhi |
| Publication Year | 1985 |
| Total Pages | 168 |
| Language | English |
| Classification | Book_English |
| File Size | 9 MB |