Eastern Wisdom + Contemplative AI
How did Charvaka view the concept of God and the supernatural?
Within the Charvaka or Lokayata tradition, the very notion of God is set aside as unnecessary and unfounded. No creator, sustainer, or governing deity is acknowledged, whether conceived as a personal lord or an impersonal absolute. God is treated as a human fabrication, a concept lacking any grounding in direct experience. The cosmos, in this view, does not require a divine architect; it is understood in terms of material elements and their interactions, without appeal to a higher will or transcendent principle.
This radical stance extends to all forms of the supernatural. Charvaka thought rejects spiritual realms, invisible forces, and any reality beyond the physical world that can be directly perceived by the senses. Miracles, divine interventions, occult powers, and similar claims are regarded as products of imagination, error, or deliberate deception rather than windows into a higher order. Heaven, hell, karma operating beyond this life, and an immortal soul are all denied, since none of these can be verified through immediate sensory awareness.
Underlying this outlook is a strict commitment to empiricism. Only what is directly available to the senses is accepted as real, and any appeal to scripture or revelation is dismissed as an unreliable path to truth. Religious texts and rituals are seen as human creations, often serving the interests of those who claim spiritual authority. Supernatural explanations are therefore viewed as superfluous when natural causes suffice, and as instruments by which fear and ignorance can be exploited.
From this perspective, Charvaka represents a thoroughly naturalistic and atheistic current within Indian thought. It affirms the material world as the sole domain of reality and treats all transcendent claims with deep suspicion. The spiritual quest, in such a framework, does not turn toward an unseen deity or hidden realm, but toward a clear-eyed recognition of what can actually be known through lived, embodied experience.