FOOTNOTES:
[150] Read bháván for bhávát.
[151] Cf. supra, p. 113. Mádhava here condenses Abhinava Gupta's commentary. Abhinava Gupta lived in the beginning of the eleventh century (see Bühler's Tour in Cashmere, pp. 66, 80).
[152] I have seen in Calcutta a short Comm. on the Śiva sútras by Utpala, the son of Udayákara (cf. pp. 130, 131).—E. B. C.
CHAPTER IX.
THE RASEŚVARA-DARŚANA OR MERCURIAL SYSTEM.[153]
Other Máheśvaras there are who, while they hold the identity of self with God, insist upon the tenet that the liberation in this life taught in all the systems depends upon the stability of the bodily frame, and therefore celebrate the virtues of mercury or quicksilver as a means of strengthening the system. Mercury is called párada, because it is a means of conveyance beyond the series of transmigratory states. Thus it has been said—
"It gives the farther shore of metempsychosis: it is called párada."
And again in the Rasárṇava—
"It is styled párada because it is employed for the highest end by the best votaries.
"Since this in sleep identical with me, goddess, arises from my members, and is the exudation of my body, it is called rasa."
It may be urged that the literal interpretation of these words is incorrect, the liberation in this life being explicable in another manner. This objection is not allowable, liberation being set out in the six systems as subsequent to the death of the body, and upon this there can be no reliance, and consequently no activity to attain to it free from misgivings. This is also laid down in the same treatise—
"Liberation is declared in the six systems to follow the death of the body.
"Such liberation is not cognised in perception like an emblic myrobalan fruit in the hand.
"Therefore a man should preserve that body by means of mercury and of medicaments."
Govinda-bhagavat also says—
"Holding that the enjoyments of wealth and of the body are not permanent, one should strive
"After emancipation; but emancipation results from knowledge, knowledge from study, and study is only possible in a healthy body."
The body, some one may say, is seen to be perishable, how can its permanency be effected? Think not so, it is replied, for though the body, as a complexus of six sheaths or wrappers of the soul, is dissoluble, yet the body, as created by Hara and Gaurí under the names of mercury and mica, may be perdurable. Thus it is said in the Rasahṛidaya—
"They who, without quitting the body, have attained to a new body, the creation of Hara and Gaurí,
"They are to be lauded, perfected by mercury, at whose service is the aggregate of magic texts."
The ascetic, therefore, who aspires to liberation in this life should first make to himself a glorified body. And inasmuch as mercury is produced by the creative conjunction of Hara and Gaurí, and mica is produced from Gaurí, mercury and mica are severally identified with Hara and Gaurí in the verse—
"Mica is thy seed, and mercury is my seed;
"The combination of the two, O goddess, is destructive of death and poverty."
This is very little to say about the matter. In the Raseśvara-siddhánta many among the gods, the Daityas, the Munis, and mankind, are declared to have attained to liberation in this life by acquiring a divine body through the efficacy of quicksilver.
"Certain of the gods, Maheśa and others; certain Daityas, Śukra and others;
"Certain Munis, the Bálakhilyas and others; certain kings, Someśvara and others;
"Govinda-bhagavat, Govinda-náyaka,
"Charvaṭi, Kapila, Vyáli, Kápáli, Kandaláyana,
"These and many others proceed perfected, liberated while alive,
"Having attained to a mercurial body, and therewith identified."
The meaning of this, as explicated by Parameśvara to Parameśvarí, is as follows:—
"By the method of works is attained, O supreme of goddesses, the preservation of the body;
"And the method of works is said to be twofold, mercury and air,
"Mercury and air swooning carry off diseases, dead they restore to life,
"Bound they give the power of flying about."
The swooning state of mercury is thus described—
"They say quicksilver to be swooning when it is perceived, as characterised thus—
"Of various colours, and free from excessive volatility.
"A man should regard that quicksilver as dead, in which the following marks are seen—
"Wetness, thickness, brightness, heaviness, mobility."
The bound condition is described in another place as follows:—
"The character of bound quicksilver is that it is—
"Continuous, fluent, luminous, pure, heavy, and that it parts asunder under friction."
Some one may urge: If the creation of mercury by Hara and Gaurí were proved, it might be allowed that the body could be made permanent; but how can that be proved? The objection is not allowable, inasmuch as that can be proved by the eighteen modes of elaboration. Thus it is stated by the authorities—
"Eighteen modes of elaboration are to be carefully discriminated,
"In the first place, as pure in every process, for perfecting the adepts."
And these modes of elaboration are enumerated thus—
"Sweating, rubbing, swooning, fixing, dropping, coercion, restraining,
"Kindling, going, falling into globules, pulverising, covering,
"Internal flux, external flux, burning, colouring, and pouring,
"And eating it by parting and piercing it,—are the eighteen modes of treating quicksilver."
These treatments have been described at length by Govinda-bhagavat, Sarvajña-rámeśvara and the other ancient authorities, and are here omitted to avoid prolixity.
The mercurial system is not to be looked upon as merely eulogistic of the metal, it being immediately, through the conservation of the body, a means to the highest end, liberation. Thus it is said in the Rasárṇava—
"Declare to me, O god, that supremely efficacious destruction of the blood, that destruction of the body, imparted by thee, whereby it attained the power of flying about in the sky. Goddess (he replied), quicksilver is to be applied both to the blood and to the body. This makes the appearance of body and blood alike. A man should first try it upon the blood, and then apply it to the body."
It will be asked: Why should we make this effort to acquire a celestial body, seeing that liberation is effected by the self-manifestation of the supreme principle, existence, intelligence, and beatitude? We reply: This is no objection, such liberation being inaccessible unless we acquire a healthy body. Thus it is said in the Rasahṛidaya—
"That intelligence and bliss set forth in all the systems in which a multitude of uncertainties are melted away,
"Though it manifest itself, what can it effect for beings whose bodies are unglorified?
"He who is worn out with decrepitude, though he be free from cough, from asthma, and similar infirmities,
"He is not qualified for meditation in whom the activities of the cognitive organs are obstructed.
"A youth of sixteen addicted to the last degree to the enjoyment of sensual pleasures,
"An old man in his dotage, how should either of these attain to emancipation?"
Some one will object: It is the nature of the personal soul to pass through a series of embodiments, and to be liberated is to be extricated from that series of embodiments; how, then, can these two mutually exclusive conditions pertain to the same bodily tenement? The objection is invalid, as unable to stand before the following dilemmatic argument:—Is this extrication, as to the nature of which all the founders of institutes are at one, to be held as cognisable or as incognisable? If it is incognisable, it is a pure chimera; if it is cognisable, we cannot dispense with life, for that which is not alive cannot be cognisant of it. Thus it is said in the Rasasiddhánta—
"The liberation of the personal soul is declared in the mercurial system, O subtile thinker.
"In the tenets of other schools which repose on a diversity of argument,
"Know that this knowledge and knowable is allowed in all sacred texts;
"One not living cannot know the knowable, and therefore there is and must be life."
And this is not to be supposed to be unprecedented, for the adherents of the doctrine of Vishṇu-svámin maintain the eternity of the body of Vishṇu half-man and half-lion. Thus it is said in the Sákára-siddhi—
"I glorify the man-lion set forth by Vishṇu-svámin,
"Whose only body is existence, intelligence, and eternal and inconceivably perfect beatitude."
If the objection be raised that the body of the man-lion, which appears as composite and as coloured, is incompatible with real existence, it may be replied: How can the body of the man-lion be otherwise than really existent, proved as it is by three kinds of proof: (1.) by the intuition of Śanaka and others; (2.) by Vedic texts such as, A thousand heads has Purusha; and (3.) by Puráṇic texts such as, That wondrous child, lotus-eyed, four-armed, armed with the conch-shell, the club, and other weapons? Real existence and other like predicates are affirmed also by Śríkánta-miśra, the devoted adherent of Vishṇu-svámin. Let, then, those who aspire to the highest end of personal souls be assured that the eternity of the body which we are setting forth is by no means a mere innovation. It has thus been said—
"What higher beatitude is there than a body undecaying, immortal,
"The repository of sciences, the root of merit, riches, pleasure, liberation?"
It is mercury alone that can make the body undecaying and immortal, as it is said—
"Only this supreme medicament can make the body undecaying and imperishable."
Why describe the efficacy of this metal? Its value is proved even by seeing it, and by touching it, as it is said in the Rasárṇava—
"From seeing it, from touching it, from eating it, from merely remembering it,
"From worshipping it, from tasting it, from imparting it, appear its six virtues.
"Equal merit accrues from seeing mercury as accrues from seeing all the phallic emblems
"On earth, those at Kedára, and all others whatsoever."
In another place we read—
"The adoration of the sacred quicksilver is more beatific than the worship of all the phallic emblems at Káśi and elsewhere,
"Inasmuch as there is attained thereby enjoyment, health, exemption from decay, and immortality."
The sin of disparaging mercury is also set out—
"The adept on hearing quicksilver heedlessly disparaged should recall quicksilver to mind.
"He should at once shun the blasphemer, who is by his blasphemy for ever filled with sin."
The attainment, then, of the highest end of the personal soul takes place by an intuition of the highest principle by means of the practice of union (ἕνωσις after the acquisition of a divine body in the manner we have described. Thereafter—
"The light of pure intelligence shines forth unto certain men of holy vision,
"Which, seated between the two eyebrows, illumines the universe, like fire, or lightning, or the sun:
"Perfect beatitude, unalloyed, absolute, the essence whereof is luminousness, undifferenced,
"From which all troubles are fallen away, knowable, tranquil, self-recognised:
"Fixing the internal organ upon that, seeing the whole universe manifested, made of pure intelligence,
"The aspirant even in this life attains to the absolute, his bondage to works annulled."
A Vedic text also declares: That is Rasa (mercury), having obtained this he becomes beatitude.
Thus, then, it has been shown that mercury alone is the means of passing beyond the burden of transmigratory pains. And conformably we have a verse which sets forth the identity between mercury and the supreme self—
"May that mercury, which is the very self, preserve us from dejection and from the terrors of metempsychosis,
"Which is naturally to be applied again and again by those that aspire to liberation from the enveloping illusion,
"Which perfected endures, which plays not again when the soul awakes,
"Which, when it arises, pains no other soul, which shines forth by itself from itself."
A. E. G.