Being knowledgeable IS NOT enough!
What are you knowledgeable about also counts much
more than the actual knowledge.
Adi Sankara was knowledgeable. So was Carvaka.
But what a lot of difference in their philosophies!
We remember Adi Sankara fondly for his role in reviving Hindu Dharma.
Can we remember Carvaka with the same reverence and respect unless we believe in his weird concepts as given below?
The Carvakas mocked religious ceremonies, calling them inventions of the Brahmins to ensure their own livelihood.
The authors of the Vedas were "buffoons, knaves, and demons." Those who make ritual offerings of food to the dead, why do they not feed the hungry around them?
Like the other two heterodox schools, Jainism and Buddhism, they criticized the caste system and stood opposed to the ritual sacrifice of animals.
When the Brahmins defended the latter by claiming that the sacrificed beast goes straight to Swarga Loka (an interim heaven before rebirth), the Carvakas asked why the Brahmans did not kill their aged parents to hasten their arrival in Swarga Loka.
"If he who departs from the body goes to another world," they asked, "how is it that he comes not back again, restless for love of his kindred?"
Knowledge by itself is not great unless it has the right orientation! Even a thief, a murderer or a pick pocket has extensive knowledge in his chosen professions.
But does it make them really great in anyway?
