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Shri Mahavir Jain Aradhana Kendra
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Acharya Shri Kailashsagarsuri Gyanmandir
102
Atman and Moksa
four elements consciousness could be produced. The body is formed out of the four elements and, consciousness is produced from it as its attribute. Just as the power of intoxication is produced by molasses when allowed to ferment, so the atoms of these four elements, when combined in a particular way, produce consciousness. According to them, consciousness exists as long as the body exists. With the disappearance of the living body consciousness also disappears. Consciousness is not for them a different principle which cannot be reduced to any physical attribute. They held that consciousness is generated by the body to adapt successfully to the nature to fulfil the requirements of the body.
The Dhūrta Cārvākas held that there exists nothing but only the four elements from which the body is formed and that consciousness is produced from the body. They did not believe in anything like a soul, as a distinct entity, different from the body. They held that consciousness is nothing more than the reaction of the physical body to external stimulus in a peculiar way. The Sus'ikșita Cārvākas, on the contrary, believed that the soul exists as a separate entity, over and above the body. They held that the soul is something that perceives, and experiences pleasures and pains, but lasts only as long as the physical body lasts. With the destruction of the physical body the soul also comes to be destroyed,
1 Sāyaṇa Madhava : Sarvadars'anasangraha, p. 2. Edited by Vasudev Shastri Abhyankar.
2 Ibid. p. 3.
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