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Vol. XIX, No. 4
Thus, the extinction of organized body does not prove the extinction of subtle elements and hence, it can't legitimately reject the continuity of existing life principles.
The chārvāk are very much critical of the Nyaya concept of God as creator, sustainer destroyer of the world and also as a custodian of the law of karma (Adrista) which ultimately is the cause of re-birth. The chārvāk argument seems to be correct in the sense that the law of karma and the divine law can't co-exist. If omnipotent and benevolent God is true, the law of karma becomes superflous and also vice-versa. The chārvāk are also correct in holding that worldly human enjoys pleasure and suffer pains due to its own action. It may be argued however, if human's action is the cause of its pleasure and pain-a form of consciousness, how can we deny it as the cause of re-birth-the another form of consciousness? Therefore, it can safely be said that our actions are not only the cause of pleasure and pain but also the cause of our future life.
The other argument of the chārvāk for the negation of re-birth is based on the identical relation between body and soul. For the chārvāk, soul is not a different and independent entity from body rather it is body itself. If body is the soul, the chārvāk argue, it is meaningless to say that the soul goes out from the dead body to another transcendental world. Further, if it is true to say that the soul goes out from the body to another world it should also be true to say that it will come back to this world for the sake of love to the worried relatives and friends. But infact, no souls come back to this earth for consoling the sorry relatives.
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It seems to me, that this argument of the chārvāk proves the hollowness of the expressions involved in the concept of transmigration of souls and hence, the criticism is purely linguistic in nature. It is not a substantive criticism. In place of the expression "soul goes out from the body to the transcendental world" if we use the
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