Hinduism: What Really Happenned in India (PDF) - Oration

Hinduism: What Really Happened in India – M. M. Ninan
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The Carvaka therefore refuted any karmic transference beyond the grave.
Life comes to an end when the body dissolves, as consciousness is the
function of the brain and sense perceptions are the function of the senses.
They argued that there is no Dharma beyond the self-existence. The
Carvakas rejected absolutely the concept of an afterlife in any shape or
form, and that there was no karmic law of reward and retribution that
could influence the destiny of a human being whatsoever.
There are no gains beyond the temporal attainment of 3Ps: Pleasure,
Power and Prosperity. This is why Carvakas are often termed as
Rakshashas. They laughed at the foolishness of those that accepted the
Vedas and put themselves in subjugation to the exploiters of the period.
The Vedic proponents destroyed most of the literary works of the
Carvaka philosophy. But from the few that we have received we could
reconstruct their stand. Prabodha-candrodaya (Rise of Wisdom), which
survived, is a drama. In this play Passion is personified and speaks to a
materialist and one of his pupils. Passion laughs at ignorant fools, who
imagine that spirit is different from the body and reaps a reward in a
future existence. This he says is like expecting trees to grow in air and
produce fruit. Has anyone seen the soul separate from the body? Does
not life come from the configuration of the body? Those who believe
otherwise deceive themselves and others.
"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.
The Agnihotra [fire sacrifice], the three Vedas, the ascetics three staves
and smearing oneself with ashes were made by nature as the livelihood
of those destitute of knowledge and manliness. If a beast slain in the
Jyotishtoma rite will itself go to heaven, why then does the sacrificer not
offer his own father immediately?…While life remains let a man live
happily, let him eat ghee [clarified butter] even if he runs into debt.
When the body turns into ashes, how can it ever return? If he who
departs from the body goes to another world, how is it that he does not
come back again, restless because of his love for his kindred? Hence, it
is a means of livelihood that the Brahmin priests have established all