Within the Charvaka perspective, religious rituals and practices are regarded as fundamentally ineffective and devoid of genuine power. Ceremonies, sacrifices, and observances are seen as empty gestures that cannot influence outcomes, secure blessings, or bring about any form of spiritual liberation. Since only what is directly observable is treated as meaningful, ritual actions that claim invisible or otherworldly results are dismissed as disconnected from material reality. In this view, ritual duty is not a sacred obligation but an unnecessary burden that distracts from the concrete concerns of life.

Charvaka thought also subjects priestly authority to sharp criticism. Religious specialists and Brahmins are portrayed as exploiting fear and superstition, constructing elaborate systems of ritual primarily to secure their own livelihood and social standing. Rituals and ceremonies thus appear less as pathways to truth and more as instruments of economic gain and social control. The entire edifice of ritual knowledge is treated as suspect, since it rests on claims that cannot be verified through direct experience.

A further dimension of this critique concerns the use of resources. Offerings, sacrifices, and costly ceremonies are judged to be a wasteful expenditure of time, wealth, and materials that could otherwise support tangible, immediate well-being. From this standpoint, elaborate religious observances represent an irrational allocation of human effort, diverting attention from practical means of improving life here and now. What is valued instead is action that yields clear, observable benefits, along with practical knowledge and skills that enhance material welfare.

Against this backdrop, the broader Vedic ritual framework, including fire sacrifices and injunctions about ritual purity and obligation, is rejected as lacking a solid empirical foundation. Religious practices are thus interpreted as sophisticated constructions that promise much yet deliver nothing that can be directly confirmed. For Charvaka, authentic living lies not in appeasing unseen powers through ritual, but in engaging the world in ways that produce evident, material results.