4. On Lokayat

Of the nine ancient and medieval schools of Indian “philosophy”, which are normally taught in the philosophy departments of the Indian universities, Lokayat or Charvak is the only school, which is secular in both the senses of the term: one, independent of religion and, two, this worldly.

Treating the Vedas as authentic or infallible is a religious doctrine of Hindu or Brahmin religion. Six of the so-called schools of Indian philosophy – Sankhya-Yoga, Nyaya-Vaisheshika, Mimamsa and Vedanta – regard the Vedas as authentic. Jainism and Buddhism, which do not consider the Vedas as authentic, too, are religions with their own religious scriptures. Thus, Lokayat is the only school, which neither is a religion nor is linked to any religion. Secondly, all the schools except Lokayat have an element of supernaturalism in them. Sankhya, Mimamsa, Jainism and Buddhism do not believe in the existence of God. Buddhism does not believe in the existence of soul either. Nevertheless, all of them believe in after life and in the so-called cycle of birth and death. Mimamsa regards attainment of heaven as the highest end in life, whereas others regard “liberation” (nirvana, moksha or mukti) from “bondage” – the alleged cycle of birth and death – as the highest end. Lokayat is the only school, which clearly rejects god, soul, after life and the so-called ethical ends like heaven and mukti.

Thus, Lokayat is, according to me, the only ancient Indian school of philosophy, which deserves to be called philosophy in the true sense of the term. It is a pity that some modern scholars of Indian philosophy have enumerated the “general characteristics of Indian philosophy” after discarding Lokayat as an exception![1] As a result, what we actually get is the general characteristics of Indian religions.

I commend Lokayat for rejecting imaginary ethical ends like heaven and “liberation” and for regarding human happiness as the highest ethical end. Lokayat categorically asserts that there is no life after death and no rebirth. According to Lokayat, this world is the only world, this life is the only life, and one should make the best of it. One should not run away from life just because pleasure in life is mixed with pain.

The basic ideas of Lokayat ethics come out very clearly in the following verses:

While life is yours, live joyously;

None can escape Death’s searching eye:

When once this frame of ours they burn,

How shall it ever again return?

The pleasure which arises to men from contact with sensible objects,

Is to be relinquished as accompanied by pain - such is the reasoning of fools;

The berries of paddy, rich with the finest white grains,

What man, seeking his true interest, would fling away because covered with husk and dust?

There is no heaven, no final liberation, nor any soul in another world,

Nor do the actions of the four castes, orders, etc., produce any real effect.[2]

(The last verse also shows the Lokayat rejection of Brahminical varna-ashrama-dharma  or duties according to varna and ashrama.)

We may paraphrase, and logically rearrange the ethical ideas expressed by the Lokayat in simple and contemporary prose:

Happiness is the highest end in life. There is no soul and no life after death. There is no world other than this world. Heaven and liberation from the so-called cycle of birth and death are imaginary ideals. Everyone will inevitably die. No one will be reborn. Therefore, one should make the best of one's life and live happily as long as one lives.

It is irrational to suggest that one should give up pleasures of life because they are mixed with pain. It is just like saying that we should throw away our finest grains because they are covered with husk and dust.

I would place Lokayat along with ancient Greek thinkers, Aristippus and Epicurus. In West, this hedonistic philosophy flowered into the utilitarianism of Bentham and Mill. However, in India all the “spiritualists” were after Lokayat as if they committed a great crime by saying that happiness is good!

Ancient Indian wisdom is often equated with "spiritualism" of one kind or another. However, according to me, real ancient Indian wisdom is to be found in the teachings of Lokayat.[3]

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