tman_and_moksa

SR No.: 020053
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: G N Joshi
Publisher: Gujarat University
Publication Year: 1965
Total Pages: 901
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 12 MB

Page 142

Acharya Shri Kailashsagarsuri Gyanmandir
110
Atman and Mokşa
comes obvious that the Cārvākas or the Lokāyatas were unrefined hedonists and stood for pleasure and pleasure alone, without thinking of any morals, religion, rebirth and the supramundane existence. They exhibit a primitive narrow outlook on life. Their vision was strictly confined to the earth and earthly goods and it could not reach the realms beyond the earth. They could not grasp the transcendental entities. They cultivated a narrow outlook on life and remained stuck to it by theoretically justifying it. They did not believe in any other God but a powerful king supported by the people here on the earth. As against the Upanişads they held that liberation could not be achieved by knowledge; for, according to them the destruction of the body was the only liberation (mukti), No special efforts like austere Yogic practices or the knowledge of Brahman or the performance of rituals and sacrifices are necessary, according to them, for the attainment of liberation. Liberation, according to them is attained by each and every person simply in the form of death. Men should not bother and worry about liberation because one inevitably obtains it in the form of death. Instead of thinking about it, one should strive to enjoy the highest possible happiness on the earth; this was their ideal of life.
The Cārvākas were not only unbelievers in the Vedas, but they strongly criticised the Vedas in the most impolite manner. They not only protested against the Vedic ritualism but even ridiculed it as nonsensical. They condemned the Vedas in the
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