Guest guest Posted October 25, 2008 Report Share Posted October 25, 2008 The ChArvAka system As is well known, this is a purely atheistic system. It is said to have been founded by bRihaspati, the guru of the gods, in order to mislead the asuras. sAyaNa mAdhavAcharya, who became a sannyAsi with the name Svami VidyAraNya, has composed a work entitled 'sarva darshana samgraha' in which he has dealt with sixteen systems of philosophy. The order in which the various systems are taken up in this work is indicative of their distance from advaita. ChArvAka, Buddhism, and Jainism, being the farthest from advaita, form the first three chapters. sAnkhya and yoga which are closest to advaita, come just before advaita which forms the last chapter. The chArvAka philosophy is also known as LokAyata--- Loka, meaning 'world', and Ayata, meaning 'wide-spread'. They claim that most people in the world live according to this philosophy and it is what appeals to people most. It is interesting to mote that, in spite of the fact that this system condemns and ridicules the vedas and the priests in strong language, it has been accepted as one of the systems of philosophy and included in this work which deals with all the schools of philosophy. The chapter on CharvAka begins with a shloka, the meaning of which is:--- As long as you live, live joyously None can escape Death's wide net; When once this body has been burnt, How can it ever return? According to this school the acquisition of wealth and the fulfillment of desires is the ultimate end of human life. They accept only four elements, air, fire, water, and earth. When these elements combine to form a body, consciousness is produced in the body, just as betel, areca, and lime chewed together have an exhilarating property and acquire a red colour, though these are not present in these substances severally. There is no consciousness separate from the body. The only objective of human life is enjoyment of sensual pleasures. One should not give up enjoyments on the ground that they may be followed by suffering. Men do not stop sowing rice because animals may destroy them. People do not give up cooking for fear of being pestered by beggars. The agnihotra and other rituals laid down in the vedas are only the means of livelihood for some persons. The vedas are tainted by the faults of untruth, self-contradiction and tautology. The authority of the jnAna kANDa is contradicted by the karma kANDa and vice versa. The vedas are only the incoherent blabberings of knaves, and to this effect runs the popular saying --- The agnihotra, the three vedas, the ascetic's three staves, and the smearing of the body with ash, bRihaspati says, these are but means of livelihood for those who have no manliness or intelligence. It is only as a means of livelihood that Brahmanas have established here all these ceremonies for the dead. The authors of the three Vedas were buffoons, knaves and demons. If dead ancestors are satisfied by some person being fed here in a shrAddha, then when a person goes on a journey what is the need to give him packed food. His hunger should be satisfied if you feed some one here. If an animal slain in a sacrifice will go to heaven, why does the sacrificer not sacrifice his own father so that he can go to heaven? In some other religions such ridiculing of sacred texts would be considered as blasphemous, entailing severe punishment such as excommunication. But our ancestors have given even to the chArvAka school the status of a system of philosophy like all the other systems. The concept of blasphemy is alien to the Vedic religion. S.N.Sastri Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted October 25, 2008 Report Share Posted October 25, 2008 advaitin , " S.N. Sastri " <sn.sastri wrote: > > The ChArvAka system > As is well known, this is a purely atheistic system. It is said to have been > founded by bRihaspati, the guru of the gods, in order to mislead the asuras. > sAyaNa mAdhavAcharya, who became a sannyAsi with the name Svami > VidyAraNya, > has composed a work entitled 'sarva darshana samgraha' in which he > has dealt with sixteen systems of philosophy. This work can be accessed at: http://www.advaitin.net/Vedanta%20Classics/sarva-darshana-sangraha.pdf Moderators Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted October 25, 2008 Report Share Posted October 25, 2008 Dear members is there a PDF in english available too? michael - S.N. Sastri advaitin Saturday, October 25, 2008 3:35 PM The ChArvAka system The ChArvAka system As is well known, this is a purely atheistic system. It is said to have been founded by bRihaspati, the guru of the gods, in order to mislead the asuras. sAyaNa mAdhavAcharya, who became a sannyAsi with the name Svami VidyAraNya, has composed a work entitled 'sarva darshana samgraha' in which he has dealt with sixteen systems of philosophy. The order in which the various systems are taken up in this work is indicative of their distance from advaita. ChArvAka, Buddhism, and Jainism, being the farthest from advaita, form the first three chapters. sAnkhya and yoga which are closest to advaita, come just before advaita which forms the last chapter. The chArvAka philosophy is also known as LokAyata--- Loka, meaning 'world', and Ayata, meaning 'wide-spread'. They claim that most people in the world live according to this philosophy and it is what appeals to people most. It is interesting to mote that, in spite of the fact that this system condemns and ridicules the vedas and the priests in strong language, it has been accepted as one of the systems of philosophy and included in this work which deals with all the schools of philosophy. The chapter on CharvAka begins with a shloka, the meaning of which is:--- As long as you live, live joyously None can escape Death's wide net; When once this body has been burnt, How can it ever return? According to this school the acquisition of wealth and the fulfillment of desires is the ultimate end of human life. They accept only four elements, air, fire, water, and earth. When these elements combine to form a body, consciousness is produced in the body, just as betel, areca, and lime chewed together have an exhilarating property and acquire a red colour, though these are not present in these substances severally. There is no consciousness separate from the body. The only objective of human life is enjoyment of sensual pleasures. One should not give up enjoyments on the ground that they may be followed by suffering. Men do not stop sowing rice because animals may destroy them. People do not give up cooking for fear of being pestered by beggars. The agnihotra and other rituals laid down in the vedas are only the means of livelihood for some persons. The vedas are tainted by the faults of untruth, self-contradiction and tautology. The authority of the jnAna kANDa is contradicted by the karma kANDa and vice versa. The vedas are only the incoherent blabberings of knaves, and to this effect runs the popular saying --- The agnihotra, the three vedas, the ascetic's three staves, and the smearing of the body with ash, bRihaspati says, these are but means of livelihood for those who have no manliness or intelligence. It is only as a means of livelihood that Brahmanas have established here all these ceremonies for the dead. The authors of the three Vedas were buffoons, knaves and demons. If dead ancestors are satisfied by some person being fed here in a shrAddha, then when a person goes on a journey what is the need to give him packed food. His hunger should be satisfied if you feed some one here. If an animal slain in a sacrifice will go to heaven, why does the sacrificer not sacrifice his own father so that he can go to heaven? In some other religions such ridiculing of sacred texts would be considered as blasphemous, entailing severe punishment such as excommunication. But our ancestors have given even to the chArvAka school the status of a system of philosophy like all the other systems. The concept of blasphemy is alien to the Vedic religion. S.N.Sastri Checked by AVG - http://www.avg.com Version: 8.0.175 / Virus Database: 270.8.3/1744 - Release 24/10/2008 18.08 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted October 25, 2008 Report Share Posted October 25, 2008 advaitin , " Michael Bindel " <michael.bindel wrote: > > Dear members > > is there a PDF in english available too? PLEASE remember to include ONLY the relevant portion of the message when replying. The book, sarva-darshana-sangraha, is available from several booksellers (amazon.com). The Digital Library of India also carries the whole text (tr. E.B.Cowell & A.E.Gouth) . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted October 25, 2008 Report Share Posted October 25, 2008 Thank you for your fast reply! Could you outline please for this ignorant soul "why" words are written like this: ChArvAka thank you so much! michael - advaitins advaitin Saturday, October 25, 2008 5:34 PM Re: The ChArvAka system advaitin , "Michael Bindel" <michael.bindel wrote:>> Dear members> > is there a PDF in english available too?PLEASE remember to include ONLY the relevant portion of the message when replying.The book, sarva-darshana-sangraha, is available from several booksellers (amazon.com).The Digital Library of India also carries the whole text (tr. E.B.Cowell & A.E.Gouth) . Checked by AVG - http://www.avg.com Version: 8.0.175 / Virus Database: 270.8.3/1745 - Release 25/10/2008 9.53 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted October 25, 2008 Report Share Posted October 25, 2008 advaitin , " Michael Bindel " <michael.bindel wrote: > > Could you outline please for this ignorant soul " why " words are written like this: > > ChArvAka Namaste, The Sanskrit language has 12 vowels and 36 consonants (and over 200 conjuncts!), while the Roman script has 5 vowels and 24 consonants. This disparity is compensated by adding 'diacritics' or alternate encoding methods - e.g. A or aa for the sound in 'father' - written 'phAdar'. There are programs that can convert such 'encoding' into many different Indic scripts. Please refer to the file 'Transliteration-Encoding' in the Files section. Regards, Sunder Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted October 25, 2008 Report Share Posted October 25, 2008 Namaste Sunder, thank you so much for your information! yours sincerely michael - Sunder Hattangadi advaitin Saturday, October 25, 2008 6:57 PM Re: The ChArvAka system advaitin , "Michael Bindel" <michael.bindel wrote:>> Could you outline please for this ignorant soul "why" words are written like this:> > ChArvAkaNamaste,The Sanskrit language has 12 vowels and 36 consonants (and over 200 conjuncts!), while the Roman script has 5 vowels and 24 consonants. This disparity is compensated by adding 'diacritics' or alternate encoding methods -e.g. A or aa for the sound in 'father' - written 'phAdar'. There are programs that can convert such 'encoding' into many different Indic scripts. Please refer to the file 'Transliteration-Encoding' in the Files section.Regards,Sunder Checked by AVG - http://www.avg.com Version: 8.0.175 / Virus Database: 270.8.3/1745 - Release 25/10/2008 9.53 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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