The fire is hot, the water cold, refreshing cool the breeze of morn; By who came this variety? from their own nature was it born. And this has been also said by Brhaspati— There is no heaven, no final liberation, nor any soul in another world Nor do the actions of the four castes, orders, etc., produce any real effect The Agnihotra, the three Vedas, the ascetic’s three staves, and smearing oneself with ashes, Were made by Nature as the livelihood of those lacking knowledge and manliness. If a beast slain in the Jyotistoma rite will itself go to heaven, Why then does not the sacrificer forthwith offer his own father? While life remains let a man live happily, let him feed on ghee even though he runs in debt; When once the body becomes ashes, how can it ever return again? If he who departs from the body goes to another world, How is it that he comes not back again, restless for love of his kindred? Hence it is only as a means of livelihood that Brahmins have established here all these ceremonies for the dead—there is no other fruit anywhere.

While life remains, let a man live happily, let him feed on ghee through he runs into depts...

The Rise of Dating Apps [Infographic]

Interview with Peter Adamson on Indian and Islamic Philosophy

The reductionist tactics, which [Cārvāka / Lokāyata thinker] Jayarāśi shared with the Mādhyamika Buddhists [1], was traditionally classified by Brahmanic philosophers, e.g. the Naiyāyikas, as an eristical dispute or refutation-only debate (vitaṇḍā) and considered as a non-genuine argument, because the goal of an authentic debate was to strive for truth, understood of course in positive terms. Were such criticisms denying Jayarāśi a genuine argumentative value justified? Clearly not, and for a variety of reasons, the most important being that the main objective of Jayarāśi is indicated in the title of his treatise: the dissolution of all categories. How should we understand it? Was his approach purely negative, eristical, nihilistic or agnostic? His main objective, it seems, was not necessarily the strong claim that no truths can ever be known. Rather his intention was to show the fundamental dependence of our knowledge of reality on cognitive means and categories we accept more or less arbitrarily. The dissolution of all categories implies that the criteria on which all philosophical systems and theories of the world rest are in need of further evidence, which itself is not possible without adopting some of these categories or some other categories which again call for further evidence, but which categories and methods we chose is ultimately our arbitrary decision. To engage in what Brahmanic philosophers would call a ‘genuine debate’ (vāda) one would necessarily have to accept that such an arbitrary decision is ultimate and justified, thus giving up the further search for truth, even though the process would be infinite and doomed to terminate untimely. In other words, contradictions and inconsistencies are, in fact, inherently systemic in the sense that they are generated by a body of propositions each adopted arbitrary for this or other reason, and the systemic knowledge ultimately lacks reliable and coherent foundations. Just as with Pyrrhonism in Sextus' interpretation, Jayarāśi seems to be a perpetual investigator: he discards all theories and propositions that are neither consistent nor proof-tight, for which there is also no compelling evidence. But it would probably be far-fetched to claim that the idea of truth did not represent any value for him.

Live with full pleasure till you are alive. Borrow heavily for your worldly pleasures, once your body dies, will it ever come back again?

Matter-Spirit, Imaginary, Paxson, Meander

There is no such thing as alms or sacrifice or offering. There is neither fruit nor result of good or evil deeds…A human being is built up of four elements. When he dies the earthly in him returns and relapses to the earth, the fluid to the water, the heat to the fire, the wind to the air, and his faculties pass into space. The four bearers, on the bier as a fifth, take his dead body away; till they reach the burning ground, men utter forth eulogies, but there his bones are bleached, and his offerings end in ashes. It is a doctrine of fools, this talk of gifts. It is an empty lie, mere idle talk, when men say there is profit herein. Fools and wise alike, on the dissolution of the body, are cut off, annihilated, and after death they are not.