THE RASESVARA-DARSANA OR MERCURIAL SYSTEM.[153]
Other Máhesvaras 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 Rasárnava--
"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
Rasahridaya--
"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
Rasesvara-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, Mahesa and others; certain Daityas,
Sukra and others;
"Certain Munis, the Bálakhilyas and others; certain kings,
Somesvara and others;
"Govinda-bhagavat, Govinda-náyaka,
"Charvati, 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 Paramesvara to Paramesvarí, 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-rámesvara 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
Rasárnava--
"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
Rasahridaya--
"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 Vishnu-svámin maintain the eternity of the body of
Vishnu half-man and half-lion. Thus it is said in the Sákára-siddhi--
"I glorify the man-lion set forth by Vishnu-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 Sanaka and others; (2.) by Vedic texts
such as, A thousand heads has Purusha; and (3.) by Puránic 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 Sríkánta-misra, the devoted
adherent of Vishnu-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 Rasárnava--
"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 Kási 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 ([Greek: henôsis]) 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.
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 153: Cf. Marco Polo's account of the Indian yogís in Colonel
Yule's edit. vol. ii. p. 300. _Párada-pána_ is one of the practices of
the Siddhopásakas in the Sankara-digvijaya, § 49, to obviate
_apamrityu_, _akálamrityu_, &c.]