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03 | The Cārvāka School's Golden Rule

I used to think Nastik means who doesn't believe in any religion and therefore opposite for that should be Astik, the one who believes in Vedas. Ok I got their school buisness. Ok go ahead bro. Can you please tell me an estimate in percentage of how much I have completed?

You're absolutely right, bro. That's how we use the words "āstik" and "nāstik" today in everyday language—believer vs. atheist. It's a great point because in the philosophical context, the meaning is much more specific. Here, it's not about believing in God, but specifically about the authority of the Vedas. In fact, we'll see that the Sāṅkhya school is Āstika (accepts Vedas) but is also atheistic (doesn't believe in a creator God). Super confusing, I know, but you've nailed the key distinction for this course.

Okay, let's talk about progress.

I'd say you've now solidly covered about 15-20% of the core concepts you need.

Think of it like building a house. What we've done so far is lay the foundation.

  • Part 1 (The Goal - Mokṣa): We figured out why we are building the house. The purpose of it all.
  • Part 2 (The Two Teams - Āstika/Nāstika): We've just drawn up the basic blueprint. We know the main sections of the house and how they are divided.

This foundation is the most important part. Everything else we build will rest on these two ideas. Without them, none of the other stuff makes sense.

Now we're ready to start building the first room of the house. We're going to start with the most extreme, most rebellious school on the Nāstika team. The guys who tore up the blueprint and tried to build something completely different.

Ready to meet the Cārvāka school? The arch-heretics of Indian philosophy?

Part 3: The Cārvāka School - The Ultimate Skeptics

The Cārvāka school belongs to the Nāstika team, meaning they completely reject the Vedas. But they go even further than the Buddhists or the Jains. They reject almost everything the other schools hold dear.

Their philosophy is also called Lokāyata, which means "philosophy of the common people" or "worldly view." They weren't interested in heaven, souls, or liberation. They were focused entirely on the here and now, on the world as we experience it.

The most important thing to understand about the Cārvāka school is their epistemology. That's a fancy word for "How do we know what is true?"

Their answer was incredibly simple and radical.

The Cārvāka Golden Rule: "If I can't perceive it, it's not real."

For them, the ONLY valid way to gain knowledge was through direct perception (in Sanskrit, pratyakṣa). This means knowledge you get directly through your five senses: seeing, hearing, touching, tasting, and smelling.

That's it. Full stop.

If you can see a chair, the chair is real. If you can taste a mango, the mango is real. If you can feel the rain, the rain is real.

But what about things you can't perceive?

  • God? Can't see him. Not real.
  • The soul (Ātman)? Can't touch it. Not real.
  • Heaven and Hell? Can't visit them. Not real.
  • Karma and Rebirth? Can't observe the process. Not real.

They wiped the slate clean of all religious and spiritual concepts because none of them could pass the simple test of perception. They were the ultimate materialists and skeptics. Your notes call them the "arch-heretics" for this very reason.

So, the core idea to lock in for this part is:

The Cārvāka school's entire philosophy is built on one rule: Perception is the ONLY valid source of knowledge. Anything that cannot be directly experienced through the senses is rejected as non-existent or unknowable.

This one rule is the key that unlocks everything else they believe. We'll see how this leads them to deny even basic logic in the next step.

So, are you clear on their golden rule of perception? Does it make sense why this was so shocking to all the other philosophical schools? Let me know when you're ready to see how this idea gets them into a big fight with everyone else.