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A Series of Lessons on the Inner Teachings of the Philosophies and Religions of India1242
and everything consisting of fire, water, air, and earth, from which everything
was evolved, and into which everything would return;
Kassasapa, who founded a school of Indifferentism, the doctrine of
which was that morality and immorality were but names, and that the laws
of the universe were unmoral, that is neither moral nor immoral, and that
the latter terms were inventions of men, and changed from time to time in
their meaning and application; and that there was no such thing as merit
or demerit for actions or deeds, as claimed by the current religions and
philosophies, particularly the school of Buddha;
Makkhali, who founded a school of Determinism, holding that Samsara,
or the Cycle of Existence, proceeded according to fixed and invariable laws,
allowing of no voluntary choice or action, and therefore making of Karma
a mechanical law instead of a moral one; and holding that everything and
every individual worked out its own nature according to its inherent laws,
without possibility of modification or control; the operative cause of all
action being Niyati, which means Destiny, Fate or Logical Necessity.
The Charvakas.
In addition to the above minor non-metaphysical schools, we find from
the earliest days a school of Materialism in India, supporting various phases
of that thought, the Charvakas, named after its founder, and which school is
often called the Lokayatika. This school was founded nearly three thousand
years ago. It was not only Materialistic, but also manifested various forms
of Hedonism, with a tendency toward the “eat, drink, and be merry, for
to-morrow we die” idea. The Charvakas held that Reality consists of the
Principle of Matter, which is composed of the four elements of fire, air, water,
and earth, respectively, from which the body is evolved, and the mind also.
The soul was held to be merely the faculties of the mind, which perish at death.
They held that perception is the sole means of knowledge, and experience
the only basis. All future existence was denied by the Charvakas, and the
believers in the current creeds and philosophies were derided for their