Many modern ‘intellectuals’ who proudly declare themselves to be atheists would probably find many supporters in ancient India 😉
That is because most of the ancient Indian schools of thought were inherently atheist in the core. They did not believe in a ‘creator’ God who created this world, just like our modern atheists 😉
Take for example, the six schools of ancient Indian thought that were considered to be acceptors of Vedic authority.
The first and foremost among them namely the Meemamsa school almost down played the concept of God. These people are staunch supporters of Vedic rituals. They did believe that by performing various Vedic rituals you can achieve almost anything. But they said that it is not because of any God but because of the magical ‘power’ of the ritual steps and the chants that produced the results. And not God!
Even the Vedanta school which also stemmed out from the Vedic school did not say that any God created this world. But this world emerged as multiple forms of the very same entity which they called Atma. But Atma did not create the world – it ‘became’ the world. So, Atma is not a creator God. The Advaitis like Sankara went a step further and said that there is no world at all. And the appearance of this world itself is an illusion. So, far from any God creating it since world does not even exist!
One of the most intellectual schools of ancient Indian thought namely the Samkhya said that the world emerged from some primordial substance called Pradhana all on its own and the concept of God is not at all needed to explain the existence of this world. So, there is no creator God even here.
The Yoga school that followed on the close heels of the Samkhya school, did talk about a God which they called Ishwara. But they did not say that this world is created by this God either. According to them this God is just a special soul which is omniscient and it is that which could help us to overcome our ignorance about the reality of this world. So, that too is not a creator God.
The fantastic logicians like the Nyaya school, also rejected the idea that this world was created by any God. So also, their highly intellectual Vaisheshika counterparts. These Vaisheshikas who were the first to postulate the concept of a world emerging purely out of subatomic particles, very reluctantly admitted that there could have been some God. They said that this God could have been a non-participating accomplice, who probably was a witness to the emergence of this world which came up all on its own. But this God did not create the world. He was merely a witness and at best a guiding force!
All these six schools of ancient Indian thought are generally considered to be Asthika schools, a word that many people translate as theistic schools. They did not recognize any creator God as many Abrahamic religions talk about. Or for that matter, the way modern Hindus talk about.
How about other non-Vedic schools of ancient Indian thought? Ancient Indians called them Nastika schools. Again, this word is wrongly translated as atheistic schools. But they were almost as much theistic as the first mentioned theistic schools. They too did not believe in a creator God 😉
Among these Nastika schools, people often count four schools of Buddhist thought, the Jain school of thought, and finally the Charvaka school or the materialists.
Buddha never talked about a creator God though he did talk about the Gods mentioned in the Vedic rituals. There is a well-known statement attributed to Buddha about creator God. Apparently, Buddha said
“If this world was indeed a creation of any creator God, then that God indeed was a sadist. How else anyone can create a world which is full of misery?”
Buddha was very much concerned about the miseries suffered by common man. So, he rejected the idea of some creator God since no sane person could have created something that is so prone to misery. Unlike the later Buddhists, Buddha did not elaborate on the emergence of this world but he almost held individuals responsible for their miseries. His emphasis was on how each individual can put an end to these miseries without looking for a nonexistent God.
But later Buddhists came up with lot of theories, all of which also rejected the concept of a creator God. Some said that the world came up on its own bound by law of causality. Some said the world is a creation of the mind which imagined it. And some even said that there is no world at all! So, where is the question of a creator God?
The Jain school of thought also rejected a creator God who could have created this world. They believed in the law of causality and attributed the emergence of this world to pure coincidence, governed by cause and effect. There is no creator God whatsoever!
And finally, we had the Charvakas, utter materialists. They are like our modern intellectuals. They did not believe in anything which cannot be perceived through our senses. Far from accepting any God, they even rejected the concept of soul! All that exists is a material world, and that exists for our pleasure 😉 That was their conclusion.
But I have been talking about some Atma, which though did not create this world, ‘became’ this world by taking infinitely many forms. That is what even the Upanishads say.
No one needs to emphasize the fact that this world is full of miseries. In the context of the recent onslaught of the Corona pandemic, the looming threat of imminent world war which could finally end up in massive bloodshed and suffering – do we need to be enlightened like Buddha to infer that whoever created this world must be a sadist?
Assuming that the Atma did emerge as the world as claimed by the Upanishads and as discussed in previous episodes, why did Atma come up with such a world? What motivated it? Was it a sadist, the way Buddha branded it? Let us look at this aspect in the next episode before we move on.
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