Jiva

MIND, MATTER AND GOD : JIVA, JADA AND ISVARA
M.M.NINAN
Soul, which experience pleasure and pain, are simply the organized qualitative aspect
of matter in its position and movement. Has anyone seen a soul apart from the body? It
is because they are the property of the body in the particular organizational form.
Compare these thoughts with the modern day Marxism.
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.
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. Prabodhacandrodaya
(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.
Brhaspati Laukya is sometimes referred to as the founder of Cārvāka or Lokāyata
philosophy. Brhaspati Laukya was the author of the Barhaspatya-sutras, which was
devoted to emphasising the view that meta-physical inquiry could not be extended
beyond matter. The original version of these sutras is irrevocably lost to us. Much of
what we know about Barhaspatya-sutras comes from the references to Indian
materialism in general, or the philosophy of Carvaka and Brhaspati Laukya in particular,
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