Post by Humanist on May 10, 2012 19:38:33 GMT -5
Atheism or disbelief in God or gods has been a historically propounded viewpoint in many of the orthodox and heterodox streams of Hindu philosophies. Generally, atheism is valid in Hinduism, but some schools view the path of an atheist to be difficult to follow in matters of spirituality.
Hindu atheists treat Hinduism as a "way of life" but not as a religion. Their day-to-day lifestyle will be almost similar to most Hindu theists but they do not believe in a God. They live by their Hindu values and traditions.
In Indian philosophy, three schools of thought are commonly referred to as nastika for rejecting the doctrine of Vedas: Jainism, Buddhism and Cārvāka. In this usage, nastika refers to the non-belief of Vedas rather than non-belief of God. However, all these schools also rejected a notion of a creationist god and so the word nastika became strongly associated with them.
Cārvāka, an atheistic school of Indian philosophy, traces its origins to 600 BCE, while some claim earlier references to such positions.[15] It advocated that no afterlife exists. Cārvāka philosophy appears to have died out some time after 1400 CE.
Dharmakirti, a 7th century Buddhist philosopher deeply influenced by cārvāka philosophy, wrote in Pramanvartik:
Believing that the Veda are standard (holy or divine), believing in a Creator for the world,
Bathing in holy waters for gaining punya, having pride (vanity) about one's caste,
Performing penance to absolve sins,
Are the five symptoms of having lost one's sanity.
Buddhism and Jainism have their origins in pre-historic sramana tradition and are not hedonistic. Also worth mentioning are the Ājīvikas (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.
Hindu atheists in recent times
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:
“ 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. ”
[edit]Prominent Hindu atheists
Jawaharlal Nehru, India's first Prime Minister. From his autobiography: What the mysterious is I do not know. I do not call it God because God has come to mean much that I do not believe in. I find myself incapable of thinking of a deity or of any unknown supreme power in anthropomorphic terms, and the fact that many people think so is continually a source of surprise to me. Any idea of a personal God seems very odd to me.
Bishweshwar Prasad Koirala, Nepali politician and philosopher.
Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, the president of Hindu Mahasabha, described himself as a Hindu atheist.[19][20] He is credited for developing a Hindu nationalist political ideology he termed as Hindutva ("Hinduness").
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.[21]
Amol Palekar – a notable Hindi and Marathi Filmmaker, openly claims to be agnostic and atheist, even though brought up in a Hindu background.
G. A. Kulkarni – a Sahitya Akademi Award winner Marathi writer has expressed his atheist views through his correspondence with other famous literary figures like Sunitabai Deshpande, Jaywant Dalvi, Shri.Na. Pendse, et al.[22]
K. Shivaram Karanth – Jnanapita award winner. He reflects his beliefs in his novel Mookajjiya Kanasugalu.
Kamalahaasan - A well known Tamil Actor and film maker who make films with atheist ideals and has a popular dialog in his film Dasavathaaram "I don't say that God doesn't exist, I just say it would be good if he existed".
Amartya Sen - The Nobel laureate is a self-proclaimed agnostic and associates it with the idea of Hinduism as a political entity.
Hindu atheists treat Hinduism as a "way of life" but not as a religion. Their day-to-day lifestyle will be almost similar to most Hindu theists but they do not believe in a God. They live by their Hindu values and traditions.
In Indian philosophy, three schools of thought are commonly referred to as nastika for rejecting the doctrine of Vedas: Jainism, Buddhism and Cārvāka. In this usage, nastika refers to the non-belief of Vedas rather than non-belief of God. However, all these schools also rejected a notion of a creationist god and so the word nastika became strongly associated with them.
Cārvāka, an atheistic school of Indian philosophy, traces its origins to 600 BCE, while some claim earlier references to such positions.[15] It advocated that no afterlife exists. Cārvāka philosophy appears to have died out some time after 1400 CE.
Dharmakirti, a 7th century Buddhist philosopher deeply influenced by cārvāka philosophy, wrote in Pramanvartik:
Believing that the Veda are standard (holy or divine), believing in a Creator for the world,
Bathing in holy waters for gaining punya, having pride (vanity) about one's caste,
Performing penance to absolve sins,
Are the five symptoms of having lost one's sanity.
Buddhism and Jainism have their origins in pre-historic sramana tradition and are not hedonistic. Also worth mentioning are the Ājīvikas (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.
Hindu atheists in recent times
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:
“ 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. ”
[edit]Prominent Hindu atheists
Jawaharlal Nehru, India's first Prime Minister. From his autobiography: What the mysterious is I do not know. I do not call it God because God has come to mean much that I do not believe in. I find myself incapable of thinking of a deity or of any unknown supreme power in anthropomorphic terms, and the fact that many people think so is continually a source of surprise to me. Any idea of a personal God seems very odd to me.
Bishweshwar Prasad Koirala, Nepali politician and philosopher.
Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, the president of Hindu Mahasabha, described himself as a Hindu atheist.[19][20] He is credited for developing a Hindu nationalist political ideology he termed as Hindutva ("Hinduness").
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.[21]
Amol Palekar – a notable Hindi and Marathi Filmmaker, openly claims to be agnostic and atheist, even though brought up in a Hindu background.
G. A. Kulkarni – a Sahitya Akademi Award winner Marathi writer has expressed his atheist views through his correspondence with other famous literary figures like Sunitabai Deshpande, Jaywant Dalvi, Shri.Na. Pendse, et al.[22]
K. Shivaram Karanth – Jnanapita award winner. He reflects his beliefs in his novel Mookajjiya Kanasugalu.
Kamalahaasan - A well known Tamil Actor and film maker who make films with atheist ideals and has a popular dialog in his film Dasavathaaram "I don't say that God doesn't exist, I just say it would be good if he existed".
Amartya Sen - The Nobel laureate is a self-proclaimed agnostic and associates it with the idea of Hinduism as a political entity.