Part III - Charuvaaka/Bauddha and BrahmaVaada

[Guest guest]

To give continuity of thought, I have repeated a para from my previous email.

 

..... if everything is accepted without pramaana, then there is no need for

vichaara. In this situation there is no necessity for Shastra. This is what is

termed Shastra-Niraakarana and this is the blindness that Ishavasya talks about

as

 

" Asuryaa naama te lokaaha Andhena tamasaavrithaah

Taagumste pretyaabhigachhanti ekechaatmahano janaaha " .

 

If there is only blindness, then there is no need to accept anything, the

result of this is Atma-Naasha.

 

 

It is generally understood that there is this vedic literature which

the vedantins have taken to be anthority. But a little bit of enquiry

shows that " authority " is anti-intellectual. If intellect asks

us to enquire, authority asks us to believe or " to have faith " .

To believe in a thing is not to know it. Veda is accepted by

Srimad Acharya not as authority, but as Pramaana. Pramaana

is the correct source of knowledge and correct knowledge is that

which is fully faithful to its object. All of veda is after one thing,

as veda itself says

" Sarve vedaah yat padam aamananti tapaamsi sarvaaNi yat vadanti tad

vijigyaasasva tat Brahma "

All the vedas are after one thing, enquire into that, that is Brahman.

Srimad Acharya is not interested in any idea that falls outside Veda. So the

vedanta taught by Madhwa

is essentially " BrahmaVaada "

 

We can see how every Astika/Nastika system that were there before

Srimad Acharya have come about starting from a faith/belief based

system and NOT from pramaana-pariikshaa.

 

The three schools of thought, viz Charuvaaka, Bouddha, and Jaina,

started off by believing in the upadesha vaakyas which is NOT Veda.

For this reason they have been classifed as Naastika schools of thought.

 

 

Charvaka system holds " everthing is inanimate, there is no chetana " following

this argument, jnana itself is rejected and so the need for pramaana is

completely removed from this system. Therefore,

all the arguments in this system is only an imagination.

 

Bauddha system depended on the upadesha of Buddha that " everything is Shoonya "

and to uphold this teaching, it holds that world of experience is due to

Avidyaa, and that it is Saamvrita meaning not Satya. This again gives no room

for the examination of pramaana.

 

 

Charvaaka system, has its root only in Brihaspathi's upadesha. It can not be

understood with an examination of pramaana. If examination

of pramaanas begins, then the importance of Knowledge gets established.

In this situation, there is no scope for this imagination or upadesha.

After accepting such an imagination, one can come up with suitable imagined

pramaanas. The school that Charvaakas started belongs to this

category. First they start off with the imagination that everything is

Jada ( inanimate), then imagine that Pratyaksha is a suitable pramaana for

this. If you ask how come? then their answer is that pratyaksha only

apprehends inanimate objects and not chetana. In case they had

started off with the inquiry " what is the nature of valid-knowledge " ?

then chetana vastu would have been established automatically, and the charvaaka

school that " all is inanimate " would not be born.

 

The Bouddha system has its root only in Buddha's " all is Shoonya " upadesha.

The Buddists did not arrive at the conclusion " All is Shoonya " starting from

pramaana-pariiksha. If they had started with

the pramaana-pariiksha, then pramaana would have established itself

first, thus giving no room for Shoonya-vaada. Pramaana establishes

everything, and for it to do this, it has to establish

itself first. So they " believed " that " all is shoonya " based on the upadesha

of Buddha, and when it came to justify their conclusions,

they found a pramaana suitable for their conclusion that " all is shoonya " .

Since all is Shoonya, the Pramaana establishing this is

also shoonya, so this pramaana negates itself and makes way for

shoonya. Whatever be the importance of discovering such a pramaana,

the point is that it is based on a kalpana ( imagination) and becomes

a mere imagination.

 

In the next part we will look at some Astika systems.