Development of Hinduism

SR No.: 007303
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: M M Ninan
Publisher: M M Ninan
Total Pages: 582
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 45 MB

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8. AGE OF REASON
Emperor Bidusara the father of Emperor Asoka was an Ajivika. The movement died out eventually but lived until 140 AD. There were probably large numbers of ascetic groups into Mauryan times who lived as far as Karnataka. (Basham, A.L. (2002). History and Doctrines of the Ājivikas. Delhi, India: Moltilal Banarsidass Publications. ISBN 81-208-1204-2.)
4. The materialists of Ajita Kesa Kambalin
Ajita Kesa Kambalin, another contemporary of Buddha went further and taught complete materialism. He did not believe in the afterlife and considered death as the final phase of all souls, fools as well as the wise.
"Ajita Kesakambali, who wore the garment of human hair, said:
"There is no such thing, 0 King, as alms or sacrifice or offering. There is neither fruit nor result of good or evil deeds. There is neither father nor mother, nor beings springing into life without them. There are in the world no recluses or Brahmans who have reached the highest point, who walk perfectly, and who having understood and realized, by themselves alone, both this world and the next, make their wisdom known to others. A human being is built up of the four elements, and when he dies the earthly in him, returns and relapses to the earth, the fluid to the water, the heat to the fire, the windy to the air, and his faculties pass into space. The four, bearers of the bier take his dead body away to the burning ground. The talk of offerings, this talk of gifts is a doctrine of fools. It is in empty lie, mere idle talk. Fools and wise alike on the dissolution of the body, are cut off, annihilated, and after death they are not." (Maha Bodhi Journal, Vol. 36, Jan. 1928)
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5. The skeptics of Sanjaya Belattiputta - the Agnostics
Sanjaya Belattiputta said :
If you ask me whether there is another world - well, if 1 thought there were, I would say so. But I don't say so. And I don't think it is thus or thus. And I don't think it is otherwise. And I don't deny it. And 1 don't say there neither is, nor is not, another world. And if you ask me about the beings produced by chance or whether there is any fruit, any result, of good or bad actions or whether a man who has won the truth continues, or not, after death-to each or any of these questions do 1 give the same reply.
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