This World

As their critics report them, the Charvakas held that only what is perceived can be known, so they accepted only the four perceived elements: earth, water, fire and air. Consciousness, they said, arises when these combine in a living body, as the power to intoxicate arises when certain ingredients ferment together. When the body dies, the mind ends with it.

It follows that there is no soul passing to another life, no karma and no rebirth. The same reports say they mocked priests who sold rituals for the dead. If an animal sacrificed in a rite goes to heaven, they asked, why does the sacrificer not offer his own father?

Their aim was pleasure in this life, with prudence. Critics called them crude, but they pressed others to give reasons for beliefs about what no one has seen.

The costly promise

A salesperson pushes a costly plan that promises benefits in some distant future that no one can check. Ana is told that refusing would be foolish.

She asks what the plan does now and what evidence there is for the promised payoff. Finding little of either, she spends the money on something she can see doing good this year.

Try this today Name one thing you do mainly for a reward you cannot check, and ask whether it is also worth doing for this life.