Charvaka.. school..
Can it be really included within the six more or less theistic schools of Hindu Philosophy.. Sankhya, Nyaya, Vaiseshika, Yoga, Poorvameemamsa of Jaimini, and Uttara meemamsa of Vedanta of Badarayana.. is a debatable issue..
Even the apparently atheistic Buddhistic and Jain Philosophies would fall short of the expectations of Charvaka School..
Sankhya, Nyaya and Vaiseshika or even Yoga schools do not stress much on a superior and controlling deity but still do not challenge God or the Praamanic Nature of Vedas..
But Charvaka school would more or less confine to Hedonism.. Just live happily whatever may come later ..
and more or less like decalring "Eat, Drink and be merry for tomorrow we die",
Charvaka philosophy is rather a philosophy of stark realism and of course we can see a lot of permissiveness.. No fear of God, no fear of anything, no fear of consequences, and in a way indicative of fatalism too for ultimately what is to happen tomorrow will happen and you or your god is not going to control it..
Funnily, many of the self help and management texts and theories have an element of Charvakanism in them..
But I feel that Charvakanism,, or "no holds barred" approach to life either as Individuals or as a society or as a nation can pose a lot of challenge to the sense of Order and fair-play..
If you can remain as a good man even without the disciplinary presence of God, then Charvakanism can be okay.. But is that the case in real life?
And I am sure what is happening in Facebook is just a practice of Charvakanism.. albeit not fully..
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Freedom offered by Charvaka philosophy.. the defect does not exactly lie there.. but cannot help stating that it is a philosophy of negation, reaction.. rather too much of counter reaction to the theistic tenets.. Maybe the hardliners of theism have made the religion too straight jacketed and sometimes people who strive to get release from there land up ina terrain too wide and free and too undefined and where there are no bars.. For a newly liberated mind, which is like the stomach of a hungry man, the appetite for indulgence is uncontrollable, and that creates all the problems.
Carvakas rejected the need for ethics or morals, and suggested that "while life remains, let a man live happily, let him feed on ghee even though he runs in debt"
The Charvaka System with commentary by Madhava Acharya, Translators: Cowell and Gough (1882), page 10
The enjoyment of heaven lies in eating delicious food, keeping company of young women, using fine clothes, perfumes, garlands, sandal paste... while moksha is death which is cessation of life-breath... the wise therefore ought not to take pains on account of moksha.
A fool wears himself out by penances and fasts. Chastity and other such ordinances are laid down by clever weaklings.
—Sarvasiddhanta Samgraha, Verses 9-12
Ray Billington (1997), Understanding Eastern Philosophy, Routledge, ISBN 978-0415129640, page 44-45
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two of the references to Charvaka philosophy... I have this time copied from Wikipedia..|
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Cowell and Gough translation of Sarvasidhatha Samgraha and the Sanskrit verses are available with me.. I could not get hold of Ray Billingtoms Book Understanding Eastern Philosophy..
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And the free nature of life propounded by Charvaka philosophy in works like Banabhattas Kadambari are also well know
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The metaphysical part of the Philosophy which stresses on acceptance of things only on visual and intellectual validation is of great value.. no doubt.. but that is canvassed by Nyaya, Sankhya and Vaiseshika philosophies too..
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DRINK GHEE EVEN IF YOU HAVE TO INCUR DEBTS
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The enjoyment of heaven lies in eating delicious food, keeping company of young women, using fine clothes, perfumes, garlands, sandal paste... while moksha is death which is cessation of life-breath... the wise therefore ought not to take pains on account of moksha.
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SUCH PERMISSIVE THEORIES DO CAUSE HARM IN THE LONG RUN... BECAUSE ONLY THE STRONGER ONES WOULD GET WHAT THEY WANT WITHOUT WORK..
It is for all to judge what this system actually conveyed..
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