386 The Charvaka System of Philosophy. [No. 4, 



Or again when he loved his maidservant, can his mother's command be his ex- 

 cuse then ?* 

 Books made by gods and Brahmans are your only authority for paying them 



homage, — 

 And see ye not, when ye bow down to the cow, ye debase yourselves even lower 



than that ? 

 Bravely have our passionless priests relinquished desires — erer hankering after 



sacrifices, 

 And longing, even when they are dead, to obtain a heaven of apsarases with eyes 



like fawns. 

 Why seek to be passionless, ye sages ? rather labour to win the love of the fair ; 

 When once a creature is dust, it is idle to think that he comes hither again. 

 Let both sexes devote themselves to enjoyment, — such is the opinion 

 Even of the Muni Panini, when he said " apavarge tritigd."f 

 Men dive into the Ganges in hopes to rise higher thereby 



Like a ram forsooth who retreats backward before he rushes forward to charge ! 

 Why should we fear such Vaidic threats as " by this sin one will become a beast ?'' 

 Even the rajilaj is as happy as a raja in its own means ef enjoyment. 

 If the slain in battle rejoice in heaven, § then the demons, 

 Slain by Vishnu in battle, may fight with him there, slain though they be. 

 " In the world there is Brahma and the self, || in liberation there is only Brahma," 

 Oh the wisdom of the Vedantists who would make liberation to be the self's 



obliterating ! 

 He too who propounded his system that a stone's state is the true liberation, — 

 You may well call him Gotama, for a superlative fool was he.lf 

 The wives of S'iva, Vishnu, &c, are intensely devoted to their lords ; 

 Why then are they still the prisoners of love — why have they not attained to 



liberation ? 

 If there be a Supreme Being all-knowing, all-merciful, and whose word never fails, 

 Then why does he not make us, suppliants, happy by the mere expense of a word ? 

 The Supreme producing sorrow to mortals, arising from their evil deeds, 

 Would be an enemy without a cause, while others hate only when provoked. 

 Since all are equally vacillating in proof and each destroys the other, 

 What opinion is there which is not futile, just like two contradictory premises? 



* His mother had given him her command in the first case as his brother 

 died without issue, but this excuse will not hold in the second. 



t This grammatical rule (Pan. II. 3, 6) properly means " the third (case is to 

 used) when the action is continuously performed till the desired end i3 obtained," 

 (as " he read it in a month," md-sena,) but S'riharsha puns on each word and 

 makes it mean "the third (i. e. in the list of objects of human desire — merit, 

 wealth, enjoyment and final liberation) is to be used to obtain the final end." 



X A kind of snake. 



§ Bhag. Gita, II. 



|| Swa means here the individual soul. He now proceeds to attack the different 

 systems of philosophy, beginning with the Vedanta. 



TT Go -f- tama. Eor the mulcti of the Nyaya, see Nyaya Sut. I. 22. 



