Carvaka -
the Materialists believes that:
While life is
yours live joyously;
No one can
avoid Death's searching eye:
When this
body of ours is burnt,
How can it
ever return again?
That the
pleasure arising to man
from contact
with sensible objects,
is to be
relinquished because accompanied by pain—
such is the
reasoning of fools.
The kernels
of the paddy, rich with finest white grains,
What man,
seeking his own true interest,
would fling
them away
because of a
covering of husk and dust?
Springing
forth from these elements itself
solid
knowledge is destroyed
when they are
destroyed—
after death
no intelligence remains.
Fire is hot,
water cold,
refreshingly
cool is the breeze of morning;
By whom came
this variety?
They were
born of their own nature.
This also has
been said by Brhaspati:
There is no
heaven, no final liberation,
nor any soul
in another world,
Nor do the
actions of the four castes,
orders, or
priesthoods produce any real effect.
If a beast
slain as an offering to the dead
will itself
go to heaven,
why does the
sacrificer not straightway offer his father?
If offerings
to the dead produce gratification
to those who
have reached the land of the dead,
why the need
to set out provisions
for travelers
starting on this journey?
If our
offering sacrifices here gratify beings in heaven,
why not make
food offerings down below
to gratify
those standing on housetops?
While life
remains, let a man live happily,
let him feed
on butter though he runs in debt;
when once the
body becomes ashes,
how can it
ever return again?
If he who
departs from the body goes to another world,
why does he
not come back again,
restless for
love of his kinfolk?
It is only as
a means of livelihood
that brahmins
have established here
abundant
ceremonies for the dead—
there is no
other fruit anywhere.
Hence for
kindness to the mass of living beings
we must fly
for refuge in the doctrine of Carvaka.