Within the Charvaka or Lokayata tradition, what is commonly called the “soul” (atman) is not regarded as an independent, immortal entity distinct from the body. Rather, consciousness and personality are seen as arising from the particular configuration of the material elements—earth, water, fire, and air—that make up the living body. The so‑called soul is therefore understood as a function or emergent property of the body, not as a separate, non-material substance. This view stands in deliberate contrast to the many Indian schools that affirm an eternal, unchanging self.

From this standpoint, there is no survival of a soul after death. When the body disintegrates and its constituent elements disperse, the consciousness associated with that body simply ceases. There is no transmigration, no journey to heaven or hell, and no enduring inner essence that continues beyond the dissolution of the physical organism. The continuity so often attributed to the soul is, in this perspective, a projection unsupported by what can be directly perceived.

Charvaka thinkers are especially skeptical of doctrines that rely on scriptural authority to assert an eternal soul. Claims about a divine or everlasting atman are treated as speculative constructions that go beyond what experience can verify. By grounding their position in observable phenomena, they seek to strip away metaphysical excess and focus on the evident link between bodily conditions and conscious life. The soul, in this materialist vision, is not a hidden, otherworldly principle, but simply a name given to the living, conscious functioning of the body itself.