[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.