Anandakanda 1.13

Āk, 1, 13 / <Sulphur> / The venerable Bhairavī [said]: / Having bowed her head to Śambhu, the supreme goddess praised [him]: / Through your grace, the divine and entire rejuvenation therapy has been heard.

Tell, O Maheśvara, in due order, the origin of sulphur, its varieties, its purification, / its administration, and the fruits of its rejuvenation therapy.

The venerable Bhairava [said]: / Listen, O goddess, I shall explain the rejuvenation therapy of sulphur. / Formerly, O goddess, in Śvetadvīpa, resplendent with wish-fulfilling creepers and trees,

strewn with various collections of gems, abounding in manifold flowers and fruits, / amidst groups of women of the Siddhas and Vidyādharas, and kinnarīs and apsarases,

sporting with many wives of gods, radiant with intoxication, / with the diversion of flutes and lutes, and charming sounds of musical instruments,

with beats of rhythms, large kettle-drums, double-headed drums, and cymbals, / dancing in extreme joy, O ruler of the gods, O you who are worshipped by gods!

Then you entered your menses, and a great menstrual discharge flowed. / By that fragrant menstrual discharge, your garment became red.

Discarding that red garment, having bathed in the great ocean of milk, / surrounded by many celestial maidens, you departed for Mount Kailāsa.

By the wind, that garment with the menstrual fluid was cast into the great ocean of milk; / immersed right there, that cloth remained for a long time, O ruler of gods.

From the great ocean being churned, it arose along with the nectar, / gladdening the demons and the gods by its praiseworthy inherent scent.

By that very name, Śakra and the other foremost of the gods spoke: / 'Let this be called sulphur (gandhaka).' By that name was it produced, O my beloved.

Fourfold was your divine blood, conferring the highest strength. / This sulphur is capable in the fixation of mercury and in its assimilation.

Whatever qualities exist in the lord of mercury, those qualities exist in sulphur. / Thus spoke Indra and the others, delighted by the fragrance of sulphur.

From that time forth, this sulphur became renowned in this world, O beloved. / That resembling the hibiscus flower is Kṣatriya and the best, O beloved.

The yellow is Vaiśya and of middling quality; the white is considered Vipra and inferior; / the black-colored is Śūdra, O beloved, and is the lowest of the low.

The red-colored transmutes base metals; the yellow-colored is for rejuvenation therapy; / the white-colored is used in medicine, and the black in anointments for skin diseases and the like.

<Purification of sulphur> / Now I shall explain the purification of sulphur that grants alchemical perfection: / Tilaparṇī, ajamodā, brāhmī, bhṛṅgī, and dhuttura—

powdered sulphur is to be macerated with juices of these for one day. / Throwing it into a vessel of magnetic iron, one should cook it with an equal part of clarified butter.

Having cooked it over a gentle fire, one should cast it into goat's milk. / One should tie the mouth of an earthen pot somewhat short of full with cow's milk and clarified butter

with a clean cloth, and place the powder upon it. / Covering it with a saucer above, it should be set inside a pit.

When a gentle heating is applied with wild cow-dung cakes, the sulphur liquefies. / Again one should macerate it with tilaparṇī and the others and dry it three times.

Taking it, one should liquefy it and macerate it seven times with fish bile; / one should grind it thoroughly with powder of jālinī seeds.

Then it should be soaked seven times in the juice of bhṛṅgarāja in intense sunlight, / washed thoroughly with water, dried, and cooked again

over a mild fire in a vessel of kānta iron smeared with ghee for a moment; then / thrown into juice of bhṛṅgarāja, that sulfur becomes purified.

It should be used in mercury, rejuvenation therapy, and formulation; it produces well-being. / <Sulphur rejuvenation therapy>
One should purify the body through vomiting and purgation as previously described.

At an auspicious hour and under an auspicious lunar mansion, having worshiped supreme Śiva, / Gaṇādhipa, Kṣetrapāla, the venerable guru, and the physician in succession,

one should lick one niṣka of triphalā powder, one niṣka of guggulu, / and purified sulfur measured in guñjās, with castor oil.

It should be consumed every day in a graduated increase of guñjās, / up to sixteen days, up to a measure of sixteen guñjās.

Then, at the end of sixteen days, it should be consumed every day / measured at sixteen guñjās, along with unprecedented triphalā afterward.

No increase beyond this should be made by one desirous of alchemical perfection. / In this way, by a month's application, it destroys the eighteen types of cutaneous disease,

as well as urinary disorders, abdominal tumors, cough, dyspnea, consumption, fevers, / ulcers, fistula-in-ano and the like, and diseases arising from the eighty vāta humor [disorders].

By an application of two months, it bestows great radiance; / after three months, beloved, all diseases are pacified.

Then, through an application of six months, an old man attains youth; / in this way, through an application of a year, he becomes an adept, O Śāmbhavī.

Through contact with his urine and feces, copper turns into gold. / The wise man should follow the prescribed rules and prohibitions as previously stated.

Whoever partakes of pure, meritorious rejuvenation therapy beginning with mercury, / he indeed has achieved his purpose and is worshiped even by the gods.

He is as if bathed in all sacred places, endowed with the fruit of all vows; / he obtains the fruit of all sacrifices, beginning with the horse-sacrifice.

He is fortunate, most holy, pre-eminent, praiseworthy by the wise, / an expert in yoga, omniscient, gracious to all, and a master.

Pure, omnipresent, tranquil, heroic, radiant with the quality of sattva, / there is no dissolution of his body, and invisible, he attains the state of Śiva.