A beautiful friday morning, 70F in Paoli, Philadelphia. I sipped my cardamom tea sitting on the step gazing at the lawn in front of my home, relaxing and enjoying the breeze. Stepped into my routine with deccan herald and ndtv filling me up with the updates around the world. Some mishaps, some big fat greek weddings, some political buzz and Voila !! there i see the picture of stephen hawking and in big bold letters "God didn't create Universe". My first response was "Not again". I read the article, was quite thought provoking. Here i am reading about Lokayata/Carvaka and some recent studies into the Indian materialistic thought system. It might take few years for me to pen down even a simple opinion on something so vast , but shall certainly provide my view on this book edited by Debiprasad Chattopadhyaya. The book gives an overview (quoting some source materials) on Carvaka, a redoubtable intellectual and doctrinal sect outside the vedic fold, which despite the intense persecution from orthodoxy, stood its ground unfailingly and left a powerful impression on the corpus of Indian literature from Vedas to Upanishads to later. To conquer your opposition, you need to know everything about it. Ignorance doesn't seem like a bliss today. Chao !!
Did you know that Charvaka school of thought of propounded by a person who was very well versed in the vedas and has a deep reverence for the vedas. But yet he propounded the Charvaka system! it might interest you to know why !!!!
ReplyDeleteYaksha... as per the name, good at asking questions yet shredding some pearls of wisdom... Certainly, thats one of the reasons that interested me in knowing about Carvaka system. Reading going on. Thanks for the update.
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