Canto 2 -
Ayodhyā-kāṇḍa
Chapter 108: Jābāli Speaks the Philosophy of Materialism
Text 2.108.1
आश्वासयन्तं भरतं जाबालिर्ब्राह्मणोत्तमः।
उवाच रामं धर्मज्ञं धर्मापेतमिदं वचः॥
āśvāsayantaṁ bharataṁ jābālir brāhmaṇottamaḥ
uvāca rāmaṁ dharmajñaṁ dharmāpetam idaṁ vacaḥ
āśvāsayantam = to comfort; bharatam = Bharata; jābāliḥ = Jābali; brāhmaṇa-uttamaḥ = the best of the brāhmaṇas; uvāca = spoke; rāmam = to Rāma; dharmajñam = who knew dharma; dharma-apetam = that deviated from Vedic dharma; idam = the following; vacaḥ = words.
To comfort Bharata, Jābāli, the best of the brāhmaṇas, spoke the following words that deviated from Vedic dharma to Rāma who knew dharma.
1 Cārvāka’s ideology didn’t originate from Cārvāka. These are eternal philosophies. It appears to have been popularized by Cārvāka. It is nothing but the philosophy of materialism.
When Jābāli saw Bharata silenced by Rāma’s words, he took shelter of Cārvāka’s ideology to respond to Rāma in order to do good to Bharata.1
Brāhmaṇa-uttamaḥ (“the best of the brāhmaṇas”) indicates that Jābāli did not actually believe in the atheistic philosophy that he presented.
GLOSS. [Jābāli’s words] deviated from dharma because he took shelter of Cārvāka’s ideology.