Hindu atheism

Atheism (Sanskrit: 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 ‘heterodox’ and astika streams of Hindu philosophies.

Astika atheism

The term Sanskrit Āstika ("pious, orthodox") is sometimes translated as "theist" and Nāstika as "atheist". Sanskrit asti means "there is", and Āstika per Panini 4.2.60 is derived from the verb, meaning "one who says 'asti', one who believes in the existence [of God, of another world, &c.]" When used as a technical term in Hindu philosophy the term Āstika refers to belief in the Vedas, not belief in the existence of God.

There are six schools of thought within Hinduism addressed as the Shat (Astik) Darshana (darshana meaning "viewpoint.") Within the Astika schools of Hindu philosophy, the Samkhya and the early Mimamsa school did not accept a God in their respective systems.

The atheistic viewpoint as present in the Samkhya and Mimamsa schools of Hindu philosophy takes the form of rejecting a creator-God. The Samkhya school believed in a dual existence of Prakriti ("nature") and Purusha ("spirit") and had no place for an Ishvara ("God") in its system. The early Mimamsakas believed in a adrishta ("unseen") that was the result of performing karmas ("works") and saw no need for an Ishvara in their system. Mimamsa, as a philosophy, deals exclusively with karma and thus is sometimes called Karma-Mimamsa. The karmas dealt with in Mimamsa concern the performance of Yajnas ("sacrifices to gods") enjoined in the Vedas.

The Vedanta philosophy had its practitioners advocating a Nirguna Brahman of which the most prominent example is Adi Shankara.

Nastika atheism

Further information: Jainism and non-creationism

In Indian philosophy, three schools of thought are commonly referred to as Nastikas by the Hindus: Jainism, Buddhism and Cārvāka for rejecting the doctrine of Vedas. Nastika refers to the non-belief of Vedas rather than non-belief of God. However, all these schools also rejected a notion of creationist god and so the word Nastik became strongly associated with them. Cārvāka, an atheistic school of Indian philosophy, traces its origins to 600 BCE. It was a hedonistic school of thought, advocating that there is no afterlife. Cārvāka philosophy appears to have died out some time after 1400 CE. Buddhism and Jainism have their origins in pre-historic sramana tradition and are not hedonistic. Also worth mentioning are the Ājīvikas (now an extinct religion), 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 exists in any other classical language. Even within the Hindu tradition, there are many people who were atheist. 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.

Prominent atheists

• Jawaharlal Nehru
• Bhagat Singh, Indian freedom fighter
• Veer Savarkar, who was president of Hindu Mahasabha. He is credited for developing a Hindu nationalist political ideology he termed as Hindutva (Hinduness).
• Shreela Flather, Baroness Flather of Windsor and Maidenhead, the first Hindu woman in British politics was She described herself as a "Hindu atheist". Broadly, she is an atheist with affinity to secular aspects of Hindu culture such as dress and diet.
• K. Shivaram Karanth- Jnanapita award winner was an atheist. He reflects his beliefs in his novel Mookajjiya Kanasugalu.
• Poornachandra Tejaswi - prominent Kannada writer was an outspoken atheist.
• S. Nijalingappa - Former chief minister of Karnataka.
• A. N. Murthy Rao - Prominent Kannada writer who wrote acclaimed book Devaru(God) rejecting the concept of god.
• Goparaju Ramachandra Rao, called Gora, atheist activist, along with his wife Saraswathi Gora
• G. A. Kulkarni - a famous Marathi writer has expressed his atheist views through his correspondence with other famous literary figures like Sunitabai Deshpande, Jayawant Dalvi, Shri.Na. Pendse, et al.
• Dr. Shriram Lagoo - a famous film and theatre actor, who also is a rationalist & atheist activist.
• Vijay Tendulkar - a famous Marathi writer and dramatist who was also known to be an atheist.
• Kamal Haasan, world acclaimed film actor and a self-professed atheist, is known for making films having themes of both atheism and brahminism.
• Beechi -- the great Kannada humourist-philosopher was a known atheist, whose 'positive atheism' is similar to that of Douglas Adams.
• Yogi Vemana -- the great Telugu poet-philosopher was a known atheist.
• H. Narasimhaiah Kannada freedom fighter and socialist.
• Periyar E. V. Ramasamy
• Manabendra Nath Roy, Bengali Indian revolutionary, political theorist and activist, founder of the Communist parties in Mexico and India.
• Amartya Sen, Economist and 1998 Nobel laureate.
• Ram Gopal Varma, Indian film director.

External links

• Modern Hinduism, Atheism, and their philosophical roots

See also

• Adevism
• Atheism
• Ajita Kesakambali
• Charvaka
• Hinduism
• Nastika