Book Title: Theory of Karman in Indian Thought
Author(s): Koshelya Walli
Publisher: Bharat Manisha

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Page 315
________________ [303] There are ways of thought which recognize causality but not moral causality and there are other ways of thought which do not recognize causality itself. In India, the stand-point of the Lokāyata philosophers who were divided in their opinions is worthy of special study. The doctrine of Svabhāvarāda is a very old doctrine and is associated with many systems of thought in ancient India. Svabhāvavada implies natural causation. It denies supernatural causation but it affirms the principle of causality within nature itself. It does not mean that things come about at randon. The Cárvāka System which is usually described as supporters of the Svabhāvavāda doctrine do not deny causality altogether but they reject the principal of moral causality which is upheld by all systems of religious speculation. They do not believe in the existence of Ātmā as distinguished from the elements of matter of which the body is composed. What is known as consciousness is supposed to be a by-product of the physical elements when there in specific mutual collocations. The sūtra attributed to Brhaspati which is supposed to be a standard work of the Cárvākas or Indian Materialists readsमदशक्तिवद्विज्ञानम् । This means that Vijnana or consciousness is not an attribute of Ātmā as distinct from body but is a property of the body itself when the elements of the body are in a specific combination. These thinkers known as materialists do not believe in Adrșța i.e. Dharma and Adharma or Apurva as existing as property of the so called eternal human soul. When it is said that Caitanya or consciousness is produced from a peculiar combination of the elements, it does not deny causality as such but only the super physical causality of the moral order. These thinkers have a strong faith in the causal operation of the physical order without an imposition from the moral plane. The realists of the Nyāyavaiseșika schools, Mimāṁsā school and the empirical school of Vedanta are strongly in opposition to the viewpoint of the Svabhāvavāda or natural causation and are inclined to think that without the interposition of moral causes such as Dharma and Adharma or Adrsta or Apūrva, there can be

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