Every Indian Should know this Great Philosopher - Charvaka

My views on Charvaka

    

    Charvakan philosophy is one of the revolutionary philosophy in the history of Hinduism. Charvaka philosophy called as "Lokayata". It emphasis on materialistic school of thoughts meaning only material things sure to exist. It completely disregard the idea of God, Ancient scriptures, Vedas, etc. It seeks for sensual pleasure to achieve happiness. According to Charvaka we can only confirm the existence of materialistic things or anything for that matter through sensory organs. Charvaka believes firmly on senses, perception and experiences. Though it tend to bent towards the subjectivity, because everything that is linked to one's senses and their experience is the result of their bodies chemical composition, mental and physical ability which in turn is subjective to a great extend. Charvaka is brave enough to serve bitter Atheism to people of his time who deeply believes in ancient Vedas, scriptures, sacred books and the holy concepts like Karmic cycle, sins-virtues, Liberation, etc. This might be only reason why this particular philosophy is tremendously criticized. He insisted on living life on its fullest. He often convey to seek pleasures and stay away from pain as much as possible. 

    This philosophy teaches us to live in the present without dwelling past or caring about future. This sounds pretty easy for us right now but at the time of Charvaka where the Religion is the only way to live, his thoughts and believes are highly appreciable. Charvaka was accused to spread to hatred about sacred deities. He brutally criticized throughout his Life. Charavaka condemned the idea of vicious karmic cycle which restrict humans for acting on their own. He believed in cause and effect principle i.e. Every action leads to its consequences and the degree of the consequences depends on nature of action itself. His philosophies also is the origin of early scientific curiosity and Rationalism. In Hinduism we often believe in sins and virtues. And tries to follow the path of spirituality with God at its core, to be more virtuous as possible in order to be reincarnated or to relish the perks of heaven. However Charavaka is completely against it. According to him there is no experience which confirms the existence of things like afterlife, so its better to live Life of pleasure, happiness which ensure no Regrets.

    Though Charvaka philosophy is not completely pertinent. However it provides few solid arguments that are difficult to ignore. The idea of Religion is pretty significant in the Life of human beings if only there are no infatuation in that domain otherwise it would be more of business and less of Religion. The religious believes provides us the motivation to go forward. When following religious path one passes negatives, hurdles, obstacles etc to be taken care to the God and would laserly focused on the things that matters. Religion also teaches us the abstinence from pleasure to follows one's Dharma. Religion seems to provide us the purpose. It makes you see beyond perception. Because Charvaka trusted that pleasure are the way to avoid pain but in reality pleasure is mere superficial layer on top of pain and suffering, seeking more of it only brings more of suffering. Also charvaka never relied on reasoning and Mathematica logic which makes the philosophy a weak link at some point. Charvaka soley depends on idea of perception, and as senses can be fooled then perception can be distort as well. As a result making the whole idea pointless. Charvaka philosophy gives a short term and indualistic solution. But in order to make humans and humanity survive for long we need somthing to bound us like Religion. The rejection of spirituality and consciousness is also something i disagree with. Indian culture considered to be rich in Meditation, yoga, Medical sciences, Astrology, etc. Our ancestors spends their lifetime accumulating several information to passed on to posterity and its only our responsibility to preserve it and to respect their efforts and sacrifice. 

    Besides everything Charvakan philosophy is an example of curious and independent, thoughtful mind which also give rise to philosophical dimension in India and in western regions. This philosophy makes us think out of the box and is relevant in some ways otherwise I wouldn't be writing about it. This great philosopher is alleged of being evil and killed by opposing Brahmins. However no one can't be blamed, the society at that time is oriented in such a way that the end is predictable.

This is tribute and sense of acknowledgement to his bravery work. Even though his teachings most acquired denounce, He inspired a lot of people including me to think independently and to believe whatever seems to prove their individual experience.

That's all there is to it for now. Hope i make you unlatch the doors to philosophy a bit. Thanks for reading it all. Good bye until next time.