02/03/2019 Atheism in Hinduism - Wikipedia

Atheism in Hinduism
Atheism (Sanskrit: नर रवाद, nir-īśvara-vāda, lit. "statement of no Lord", "doctrine of godlessness") or disbelief in God
or gods has been a historically propounded viewpoint in many of the orthodox and heterodox streams of Hindu
philosophies.[1] In Indian philosophy, three schools of thought are commonly referred to as nastika for rejecting the
doctrine of Vedas: Jainism, Buddhism and Cārvāka.[2]

Hinduism is a religion, but also a philosophy.[3][4] Among the various schools of Hindu philosophy, Samkhya, Yoga and
Mimamsa while not rejecting either the Vedas or the Brahman,[5] typically reject a personal God, creator God, or a God
with attributes. While Samkhya and Yoga rejected the idea of an eternal, self-caused, creator God, Mimamsa argued that
the Vedas could not have been authored by a deity.

Though some schools of thought view the path of the atheist as difficult to follow in matters of spirituality, it is still a valid
one.[6]

Contents
Etymology
Historical development
Arguments against God
Notable Hindu atheists
See also
References
External links

Etymology
The Sanskrit term Āstika ("pious, orthodox") refers to the systems of thought which admit the validity of the Vedas.[7]
Sanskrit asti means "there is", and Āstika (per Pāṇini 4.2.60) derives from the verb, meaning "one who says 'asti'".
Technically, in Hindu philosophy the term Āstika refers only to acceptance of authority of Vedas, not belief in the
existence of God.[8] However, though not accepted universally, Āstika is sometimes translated as "theist" and Nāstika as
"atheist", assuming the rejection of Vedas to be synonymous to the rejection of God.[9]

Another interpretation by Swami Vivekananda states "As certain religions of the world say that a man who does not
believe in a Personal God outside of himself is an atheist, so the Vedanta says, a man who does not believe in himself is an
atheist. Not believing in the glory of our own soul is what the Vedanta calls atheism."[10]

Historical development
The Rig Veda, the oldest of the Vedas, deals with significant skepticism around the fundamental question of a creator God
and the creation of the universe. It does not, at many instances, categorically accept the existence of a creator God.
Nasadiya Sukta (Creation Hymn) in the tenth chapter of the Rig Veda states:[11][12]

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Whence was it produced? Whence is this creation?

The gods came afterwards, with the creation of this universe.

The Brihadaranyaka, Isha, Mundaka (in which Brahman is everything and "no-thing") and especially the Chandogya
Upanishads have also been interpreted as atheistic because of their stress on the subjective self.[13]

Mimamsa was a realistic, pluralistic school of philosophy which was concerned with the exegesis of the Vedas.[14] The core
text of the school was the Purva Mimamsa Sutras of Jaimini (c. 200 BCE–200 CE). Mimamsa philosophers believed that
the revelation of the Vedas was sacred, authorless (apaurusheyatva) and infallible, and that it was essential to preserve
the sanctity of the Vedic ritual to maintain dharma (cosmic order).[15][16]:52–53 As a consequence of the belief in sanctity of
the ritual, Mimamsas rejected the notion of God in any form.[14] Later commentators of the Mimamsa sutras such as
Prabhākara (c. 7th century CE) advanced arguments against the existence of God.[17][18] The early Mimamsa not only did
not accept God but said that human action itself was enough to create the necessary circumstances for the enjoyment of its
fruits.[19]

Samkhya is an atheistic[20] and strongly dualistic[21][22] orthodox (Astika) school of Indian philosophy. The earliest
surviving authoritative text on classical Samkhya philosophy is the Samkhyakarika (c. 350–450 CE) of Iśvarakṛṣṇa.[16]:63
The Samkhyakarika is silent on the issue of Isvara's existence or nonexistence, although first millennium commentators
such as Gaudapada understand the text as compatible with some concept of God. However, the Samkhya Sutra (14th c.
CE) and its commentaries explicitly attempt to disprove God's existence through reasoned argument.[23]

Cārvāka, a materialistic and atheistic school of Indian philosophy, had developed a systematic philosophy by the 6th
century CE. Cārvākas rejected metaphysical concepts like reincarnation, the afterlife, an extracorporeal soul, the efficacy
of religious rites, other worlds (heaven and hell), fate, and accumulation of merit or demerit through the performance of
certain actions. Cārvākas also refused to ascribe supernatural causes to natural phenomena. Cārvāka philosophy appears
to have died out some time after 1200 CE.[24]

Ājīvikas was a movement (extinct from at least the 13th century CE) whose founder, Makkhali Gosala, was a contemporary
of Mahavira and Gautama Buddha (the central figures of Jainism and Buddhism, respectively). Gosala and his followers
also denied the existence of a creator god.[25]

Arguments against God

Mimamsas argued that there was no need to postulate a maker for the world, just as there was no need for an author to
compose the Vedas or a God to validate the rituals.[26] They further thought that the Gods named in the Vedas had no
physical existence apart from the mantras that speak their names. In this regard, the power of the mantras was what was
seen as the power of Gods.[27] Mimamsas reasoned that an incorporeal God could not author the Vedas, for he would not
have the organs of speech to utter words. An embodied God could not author the Vedas either because such a God would
be subject to the natural limitations of sensory knowledge and therefore, would not be able to produce supernatural
revelations like the Vedas.[28]

Samkhya gave the following arguments against the idea of an eternal, self-caused, creator God:[23]

If the existence of karma is assumed, the proposition of God as a moral governor of the universe is unnecessary. For,
if God enforces the consequences of actions then he can do so without karma. If however, he is assumed to be within
the law of karma, then karma itself would be the giver of consequences and there would be no need of a God.
Even if karma is denied, God still cannot be the enforcer of consequences. Because the motives of an enforcer God
would be either egoistic or altruistic. Now, God's motives cannot be assumed to be altruistic because an altruistic God
would not create a world so full of suffering. If his motives are assumed to be egoistic, then God must be thought to
have desire, as agency or authority cannot be established in the absence of desire. However, assuming that God has
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desire would contradict God's eternal freedom which necessitates no compulsion in actions. Moreover, desire,
according to Samkhya, is an attribute of prakriti and cannot be thought to grow in God. The testimony of the Vedas,
according to Samkhya, also confirms this notion.
Despite arguments to the contrary, if God is still assumed to contain unfulfilled desires, this would cause him to suffer
pain and other similar human experiences. Such a worldly God would be no better than Samkhya's notion of higher
self.
Furthermore, there is no proof of the existence of God. He is not the object of perception, there exists no general
proposition that can prove him by inference and the testimony of the Vedas speak of prakriti as the origin of the world,
not God.
Therefore, Samkhya maintained not only that the various cosmological, ontological and teleological arguments could not
prove God, but that God as normally understood—an omnipotent, omniscient, omnibenevolent creator who is free from
suffering—cannot exist.

The Indian Nobel Prize-winner Amartya Sen, in an interview with Pranab Bardhan for the California Magazine published
in the July–August 2006 edition by the University of California, Berkeley states:[29]

In some ways people had got used to the idea that India was spiritual and religion-oriented. That gave a leg
up to the religious interpretation of India, despite the fact that Sanskrit had a larger atheistic literature than
what exists in any other classical language. Madhava Acharya, the remarkable 14th century philosopher,
wrote this rather great book called Sarvadarshansamgraha, which discussed all the religious schools of
thought within the Hindu structure. The first chapter is "Atheism" – a very strong presentation of the
argument in favor of atheism and materialism.

According to Markandey Katju, former Chairman of the Press Council of India and former judge of the Supreme Court of
India, "...there are six classical systems of Indian philosophy, Nyaya, Vaisheshik, Sankya, Yoga, Purva Mimansa and
Uttar Mimansa, and three non-classical systems, Buddhism, Jainism and Charvak. Out of these nine systems eight of
them are atheistic as there is no place for God in them. Only the ninth one, that is Uttar Mimansa, which is also called
Vedanta, has a place for God in it."[30][31]

Notable Hindu atheists

Brahmananda Swami Sivayogi was an atheist and rationalist who founded the organization Ananda Mahasabha.[32]
Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, the president of Hindu Mahasabha, described himself as a Hindu atheist.[33][34][35]
Shreela Flather, Baroness Flather of Windsor and Maidenhead (1934– ), the first Hindu woman in British politics. She
has described herself as a "Hindu atheist". Broadly, she is an atheist with affinity to secular aspects of Hindu culture
such as dress and diet.[36][37]
Osho openly proclaimed that God is the biggest lie ever told to humankind.[38]

See also
Adevism
Atheism in India
Nontheistic religions

References
1. Daga, Mahesh (22 May 2004). "The Speaking Tree – The Atheistic Roots of Hindu Philosophy" (http://articles.timesofi
ndia.indiatimes.com/2004-05-22/edit-page/28331091_1_god-acceptance-shankara). The Times of India.

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2. Palash Krishna Mehrotra (29 August 2015). "The tradition of atheism in India goes back 2,000 years. I'm proud to be
a part of that" (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/indiahome/indianews/article-3215570/The-tradition-atheism-India-goes-2-00
0-years-m-proud-that.html). The Daily Mail.
3. "Make space for true values of Hinduism" (http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/goa/Make-space-for-true-values-of-
Hinduism/articleshow/46972987.cms). Times of India. 19 April 2015.
4. P. ix, The Book of Hindu Imagery: Gods, Manifestations and Their Meaning By Eva Rudy Jansen
5. Hari Ravikumar (27 August 2015). "Why Indian philosophy is incomplete without atheism" (http://www.dailyo.in/lifestyl
e/atheism-schools-indian-philosophy-jainism-buddhism-materialism-religion-vedas/story/1/5904.html). Daily O.
6. Chakravarti, Sitansu (1991). Hinduism, a way of life (https://books.google.com/books?id=J_-rASTgw8wC&pg=PA71).
Motilal Banarsidass. p. 71. ISBN 978-81-208-0899-7. "According to Hinduism, the path of the atheist is a very difficult
one to follow in matters of spirituality, though it is a valid one."
7. Pruthi (2004). Vedic civilization – Culture and civilization series (https://books.google.com/books?id=z3ksBrWoZm0C
&pg=PA214). Discovery Publishing House. p. 214. ISBN 978-81-7141-875-6.
8. Kapoor, Subodh. The Systems of Indian Philosophy (https://books.google.com/books?id=FWLRyXBzgsoC&pg=PA6).
Genesis Publishing Pvt Ltd. p. 6. ISBN 978-81-7755-887-6.
9. Monier-Williams, Monier; Leumann, Ernst; Cappeller, Carl (1999), A Sanskrit-English Dictionary: Etymological And
Philologically Arranged With Special Reference To Cognate Indo-european Languages (https://books.google.com/boo
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10. http://www.advaitaashrama.org/cw/volume_2/practical_vedanta_and_other_lectures/practical_vedanta_part_i.htm
11. Kenneth, Kramer (1986). World scriptures: an introduction to comparative religions (https://books.google.com/books?i
d=RzUAu-43W5oC&pg=PA34). p. 34. ISBN 978-0-8091-2781-8.
12. Subodh Varma (May 6, 2011). "The gods came afterwards" (http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2011-05-06/vint
age-wisdom/28377203_1_vedas-philosophy-speculation). Times of India. Retrieved 2011-06-09.
13. Bhatt, Chetan (1997). Liberation and purity: race, new religious movements and the ethics of postmodernity (https://b
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85728-424-9.
14. Vitsaxis, Vassilis (2009), Thought and Faith: The concept of divinity (https://books.google.com/books?id=52b-A2l7Qb
wC&pg=PA517), Somerset Hall Press, pp. 517–518, ISBN 978-1-935244-05-9
15. Encyclopædia Britannica (2007)
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oks?id=uca8R72W8iQC&pg=PA52), Edinburgh University Press, ISBN 978-0-7486-0954-3
17. Bales, Eugene F. (1987), A Ready Reference to Philosophy East and West (https://books.google.com/books?id=34cj
S0M1rFIC&pg=PA198), University Press of America, p. 198, ISBN 978-0-8191-6640-1
18. Warder, Anthony Kennedy (1998), A Course In Indian Philosophy (https://books.google.com/books?id=zw1UD1Mj9D
wC&pg=PA187), Motilal Banarsidass, p. 187, ISBN 978-81-208-1244-4
19. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan; Poolla Tirupati Raju (1960). The concept of man: a study in comparative philosophy (http
s://books.google.com/books?id=uLsAAAAAMAAJ). Allen & Unwin. p. 305.
20. Dasgupta, Surendranath (1992). A history of Indian philosophy, Volume 1 (https://books.google.com/books?id=PoaM
FmS1_lEC&pg=PA258). Motilal Banarsidass Publ. p. 258. ISBN 978-81-208-0412-8.
21. Michaels, Axel (2004), Hinduism: Past and Present (https://books.google.com/books?id=PD-flQMc1ocC&printsec=fro
ntcover#v=onepage&q&f=false), Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, p. 264, ISBN 0-691-08953-1
22. Sen Gupta, Anima (1986), The Evolution of the Samkhya School of Thought, New Delhi: South Asia Books, p. 6,
ISBN 81-215-0019-2
23. Nicholson, Andrew J. (2016). "Hindu Disproofs of God: Refuting Vedāntic Theism in the Sāṃkhya Sūtra" (http://www.o
xfordhandbooks.com/view/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199314621.001.0001/oxfordhb-9780199314621-e-29). In Ganeri,
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093%2Foxfordhb%2F9780199314621.013.29).
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-in-india-synoptic-view.html). Retrieved 27 August 2012.

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25. Balsham, B.L. (2003). History and Doctrines of the Ājīvikas: A Vanished Indian Religion (https://www.google.com/boo
ks?id=BiGQzc5lRGYC&). Motilal Banarsidass Publ. ISBN 81-208-1204-2.
26. Neville, Robert. Religious truth (https://books.google.com/books?id=ThLR13JpCWsC). p. 51.
27. Coward, Harold. The perfectibility of human nature in eastern and western thought (https://books.google.com/books?i
d=LkE_8uch5P0C). p. 114.
28. Cowell, E. B.; Gough, A. E. (2001), The Sarva-Darsana-Samgraha or Review of the Different Systems of Hindu
Philosophy: Trubner's Oriental Series (https://books.google.com/books?id=xkrCRbOq-HUC), Taylor & Francis,
pp. 189–191, ISBN 978-0-415-24517-3
29. "The Arguing Indian" California Magazine (http://alumni.berkeley.edu/california-magazine/july-august-2006-indo-chic/a
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30. "What is India? A blogpost by Justice Katju" (http://justicekatju.blogspot.com/2012/02/what-is-india.html).
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ndiatimes.com/india/What-is-India/articleshow/10994212.cms).
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id=c25DAAAAYAAJ (https://books.google.com/books?id=c25DAAAAYAAJ). Missing or empty |title= (help)
33. Kumar, Pramod (1992). Towards Understanding Communalism. Chandigarh: Centre for Research in Rural and
Industrial Development. p. 348. ISBN 978-81-85835-17-4. OCLC 27810012
(https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/27810012). "VD Savarkar was publicly an atheist. Even when he was the Hindu
Mahasabha leader he used to publicly announce and advertise lectures on atheism, on why god is not there and why
all religions are false. That is why when defining Hindutva, he said, Hindutva is not defined by religion and tried to
define it in a non-religious term: Punyabhoomi."
34. Nandy, Ashis (2003). Time Warps: The Insistent Politics of Silent and Evasive Pasts. Delhi: Orient Longman. p. 71.
ISBN 978-81-7824-071-8. OCLC 49616949 (https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/49616949).
35. Quack, Johannes (2011), Disenchanting India:Organized Rationalism and Criticism of Religion in India: Organized
Rationalism and Criticism of Religion in India (https://books.google.com/books?id=55wFpydSZ8oC&pg=PA263),
Oxford University Press, p. 263, ISBN 978-0-19-981260-8
36. BBC News (http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/hinduism/features/hindu_lives/script1.shtml)
37. "Baroness Flather accused of 'bigotry' over her views on marriages in Pakistani community" (https://www.independen
t.co.uk/news/uk/politics/baroness-flather-accused-of-bigotry-over-her-views-on-marriages-in-pakistani-community-103
73492.html).
38. [1] (https://www.osho.com/iosho/library/read-book/online-library-belief-doubt-atheist-e9e5bbfd-e4e?p=4f9da07afb4ef7
984eb03c095de27073)

External links
Lokayata/Carvaka - non-believers in ancient India (http://www.lokayata.info/)
Modern Hinduism, Atheism, and their philosophical roots (http://www.dbskeptic.com/2008/04/02/atheism-in-hinduism/)

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