Having rejected the authority of the scriptures, the notions of virtue and vice, and belief in life after death, the Charvakas are naturally opposed to the performance of religious ceremonies with the object of either attaining heaven or avoiding hell or propitiating departed souls. But enjoyment is the ultimate end wealth is not an end in itself, it is good only as a means to enjoyment Wealth and enjoyment are the only rational ends that a wise man can toil to achieve. Therefore neither liberation nor virtue should be our end. Virtue and vice are distinctions made by the scriptures, whose authority cannot be rationally accepted. Liberation in the sense of destruction of all sufferings can be obtained only by death and no wise man would willingly work for that end. Of these four, the Charvaka rejects the last two. Some Indian thinkers speak of the four ends of human activity, namely: wealth, enjoyment, virtue (dharma) and liberation (moksha). A good life is a life of maximum enjoyment. “Rather a pigeon today a doubtful golden coin.’ ‘Who is that fool who would entrust the money in hand to the custody of others?’ The goal of human life is, therefore, to attain the maximum amount of pleasure in this life, avoiding pain as far as possible. We should not throw away the opportunities of enjoying this life, in the futile hope of enjoyment hereafter. For no wise man would ‘reject the kernel because of its husk,’ nor give up eating fish because there are bones, nor ‘cease to grow crops because there are animals to destroy them,’ nor ‘stop cooking his food because beggars might ask for a share.’ If we remember that our existence is confined to the existence of the body and to this life, we must regard the pleasure arising in the body as the only good thing we can obtain. Those who try to attain in life a state free from pleasures and pains by rigorously suppressing the natural appetites, thinking that all pleasures arising out of their gratification are mixed with act like fools. Liberation in the sense of complete cessation of sufferings can only mean death. We can only try to minimize pain and enjoy as much pleasure as we can. Existence in this body is bound up with pleasure as well as pain. But if liberation means the attainment of a state free from all pain, in this very life, it is also an impossible ideal. If liberation is freedom of the soul from its bondage to physical existence, it is absurd because there is no soul. But the Charvaka holds that none of these views stands to reason. Some think that it can be attained only after death, when the soul is free from the body and others believe that it can be attained even in this life. Liberation, again, is conceived as the total destruction of all sufferings. Many other philosophers regard liberation as the highest goal of human life.

Charvaka philosophy pdf