Theory of Karman in Indian Thought

Author(s): Koshelya Walli
Publisher: Bharat Manisha

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The ancient Indian materialists referred to above belong to different ways of thinking, though all of them agreed in believing that there is no moral order in the universe and that Karma as a retributive force in nature has no existence. The Syabhāvavadins did not believe in efficient causality. The extremist section of the school rejected at the very outset the possibility of discovering the cause of a thing or of an object and held Svabhāva ( nature ).
The moderate section however, as pointed out by Dr. G. N. Kaviraj admitted the possibility of causal analysis to a certain extent but even they in the last resort had to take resort in the view of Svabhāva. This doctrine was upheld by the Lokāyatika or the Caravāka section of the Indian Materialism. Besides Svabhāvayāda there was a parallel school of Niyativāda in contemporary India. The word Niyati is really no other than dharma, adharma and Karma of a prenatal state of existence. Dullan says in his commentary on Suśruta Sanhita that dharma and adharma earned in previous births is known as Niyatih. According to Niyativādins that alone is the cause of all.1
Yājñavalkya in the Ācāra section of his Smrti refers to the above alternative theories in regard to variation in creation in the following words that some by nature or in time desire welfare 2 The ancient Indian Materialists used to say that there is no Ātmā, no God, no Mokşa, no dharmādharma or Karma and that neither dharma nor adharma (virtue and vice) bears any fruit. They also
Bhawan studies and in his 'Aspects of Ancient Indian Thought', p. 71.. Also sec N. M. Tatia's “Studies in Jaina Philosophy' p. 220, footnote 1. Udayana's Nyāya Kusumuñjali Prakaranam which is a vigorous support of the doctrine of Karma seems 10 attend to some of these in his Karikā 1.3.
and prosc crimmentary. 1. Yajñavalkya's Ācāra section of his Smrti
पूर्वजन्मार्जितौ धर्माधमौं नियतिः।। 2. Yajñavalkya Smsti, Ācāra Smrti, 350, - केचिद्द वात् स्वभावाद् वा कालात् पुरुपकारतः। — संयोगे केचिट् इच्छन्ति फलं कुशलोदयः॥