Canto 2 -
Ayodhyā-kāṇḍa
Chapter 108: Jābāli Speaks the Philosophy of Materialism
Text 2.108.12
गतः स नृपतिस्तत्र गन्तव्यं यत्र तेन वै।
प्रवृत्तिरेषा मर्त्यानां त्वं तु मिथ्या विहन्यसे॥
gataḥ sa nṛpatis tatra gantavyaṁ yatra tena vai
pravṛttir eṣā martyānāṁ tvaṁ tu mithyā vihanyase
gataḥ = has gone; saḥ = the; nṛpatiḥ = king; tatra = to the place; gantavyam = is meant to go; yatra = where; tena vai = he; pravṛttiḥ = the nature; eṣā = this is; martyānām = of those who die; tvam = You are; tu = but; mithyā = about this false relationship [with him]; vihanyase = becoming disturbed.
The king has gone to the place where he is meant to go. This is the nature of those who die. But You are becoming disturbed about this false relationship [with him].
1 According to Cārvāka philosophy, there is no soul separate from the body.
The king has merged into the five elements—earth, water, fire, air and ether—because the king’s body was made of these elements and because there is no soul apart from this body [to survive death].1
NOTE. Jābāli’s philosophy is referred to as an aspect of the ideology of the demoniac, as set out by the Supreme Lord thus:
asatyam apratiṣṭhaṁ te jagad āhur anīśvaram
aparaspara-sambhūtaṁ kim anyat kāma-haitukam
“They say that this world is unreal, with no foundation, no God in control. They say it is produced of sex desire and has no cause other than lust.” (Bhagavad-gītā 16.8)
Prabhupāda has noted in his commentary to this verse that these demoniac ideologues “conclude that as a child is simply the result of sexual intercourse between man and woman, this world is born without any soul. For them it is only a combination of matter that has produced the living entities, and there is no question of the existence of the soul.”