Makkhali Gosala

Makkhali Gosala
On the left: Mahakashyapa meets an Ajivika and learns of the Parinirvana
Religious life
ReligionFounder of Ajivika
Views of the six heretical teachers
The views of six śramaṇa in the Pāli Canon, known as the six heretical teachers, based on the Sāmaññaphala Sutta.
Pūraṇa Kassapa
Amoralism
(akiriyavāda; natthikavāda)
There is no reward or punishment for either good or bad deeds.
Makkhali Gośāla (Ājīvika)
Fatalism
(ahetukavāda; niyativāda)
We are powerless; suffering is pre-destined.
Ajita Kesakambalī (Charvaka)
Materialism
(ucchedavāda; natthikavāda)
Live happily; with death, all is annihilated.
Pakudha Kaccāyana
Eternalism and categoricalism (sassatavāda; sattakāyavāda)Matter, pleasure, pain and the soul are eternal and do not interact.
Nigaṇṭha Ñāṭaputta (Jainism)
Restraint
(mahāvrata)
Be endowed with, cleansed by, and suffused with [merely] the avoidance of all evil.
Sañjaya Belaṭṭhiputta (Ajñana)
Agnosticism
(amarāvikkhepavāda)
"I don't think so. I don't think in that way or otherwise. I don't think not or not not." Suspension of judgement.

Makkhali Gosala (Pāli; BHS: Maskarin Gośāla; Jain Prakrit sources: Gosala Mankhaliputta) or Manthaliputra Goshalak (6th or 5th century BCE) was an ascetic ajivika teacher of ancient India. He was a contemporary of Gautama Buddha, the founder of Buddhism, and of Mahavira, the last and 24th Tirthankara of Jainism.