Anandakanda 1.7

Āk, 1, 7 / <The Origin of Rubies and Other Gems> / Formerly, on a peak of Mount Kailāsa, in a cave, the daughter of the mountain and the Lord / stayed for a long time sporting, each desiring to conquer the other.

Then there occurred a great flow of their semen in the form of quicksilver; / by the power of that flow, rocks became transmuted;

Gems such as rubies, metals such as gold and the like, / stones such as sulphur and the like, divine medicinal plants and creepers,

Of various colours, of many kinds, bestowing various perfections. / Of all those previously mentioned, the diamond is the greatest and most excellent.

Its varieties, characteristics, O Goddess, refinement process, utilisation, and results / I shall describe to you in order, O Goddess; listen attentively, O beloved:

<Characteristics of Diamond and Varieties of Diamond> / [They are] brāhmaṇa, kṣatriya, vaiśya, and śūdra, respectively: / white, red, yellow-hued, and black, as well as of various kinds;

They are also to be known respectively as female, male, and neuter, O beloved. / White, complete with facets, brilliant, larger,

Free of streaks and spots—those are to be known as male; / possessing strength, endowed with essence, causing permeation into metals,

Quickly causing the fixation of mercury, bestowing perfection upon all, / effecting rejuvenation, stout, and indeed bestowing the eight perfections.

Those radiant with hexagonal seed-marks and lines are traditionally considered female; / they generate radiance in the body and bestow pleasure, beauty, and happiness.

Those that are long, triangular, and thin should be understood as eunuchs; / they are depleted of essence, weak in potency, yet capable of penetration, O queen of the gods.

The impotent [are used] for a eunuch, the female for women, and the male are beneficial for all; / their zeal corresponds to their class, their quality matches their essence,

and as their luster is, so is their nature: the brāhmaṇa [diamonds] act in this way. / The kṣatriya diamonds destroy wrinkles, grey hair, and diseases, and ward off death.

The vaiśya diamonds impart firmness to the body and effect the transmutation of base metals. / The śūdra diamonds arrest aging and eliminate manifold afflictions.

<Refinement of Diamond>
Now I shall explain the refinement process of diamond, listen, my beloved: / śyāmā, śamī, meghanādā, varṣābhū, dhūrta, kodrava,

meṣaśṛṅgī, ākhukarṇī, kuluttha, amlavetasa, / madana, agastya, and nirguṇḍī—together with the fresh juice of these,

one should cook it in a swing apparatus (dolāyantra) placed inside a vyāghrī tuber for a day. / Having taken it out, smeared with buffalo dung, [it is burned] with a fire of dry cow-dung;

one should burn it during the night for four watches, and at night's end sprinkle it / with horse urine, milky sap of snuhī, and the decoction of horse gram.

One should thus cook it, burn it, and sprinkle it seven times. / In this way, the [diamonds] of the twice-born classes become purified and bestow alchemical perfection.

<Diamond Rejuvenation Therapy>
I shall describe diamond ash suitable for rejuvenation therapy, O sovereign of the gods: / vaikrānta, copper pyrite, sulfur, realgar, iron pyrite, orpiment,

kānta iron, borax, crab bones—one should grind these / with breast milk, place [the diamond] inside the lump, and then put it into a crucible.

One should first blow it very strongly [with bellows], and afterwards calcinate it in an elephant pit (gajapuṭa). / Taking that very diamond, in a sixteenth part of it,

one part of mercury digested with a processed seed (bīja)— / one should grind both of them with breast milk and calcinate again in an elephant pit.

Thus, after sixteen calcinations, combined with mercury that has digested the seed, / one should make that diamond solid: it becomes ash [fit for] rejuvenation therapy.

Hear, O Rudrāṇī, I shall explain the divine diamond rejuvenation therapy: / one should perform the procedure of bodily purification and the rest as stated previously.

Under an auspicious asterism and an excellent astrological hour endowed with favorable strength of moon and stars, / one should first worship Śiva, the fire, the guru, cows, brāhmaṇas, and physicians.

Then, O fair-faced lady, one should ingest that ash in the measure of a barleycorn, / along with kānta iron, mica essence, and gold ash measuring one guñjā each,

with triphalā, honey, and ghee in the morning, having a purified body. / Thus, up to the end of sixteen months, [increasing by] one, two, three, or four [barleycorns],

having increased each month until sixteen barleycorns [are reached]; / likewise, the triad of ashes—kānta iron and the rest—in the order of increasing guñjās,

with two niṣkas of triphalā powder, and ghee and honey as comfortable; / one should observe the prescribed and prohibited rules as stated before, O my beloved.

A single pala of diamond ash ingested gradually over days / destroys wrinkles, grey hair, and diseases, and grants a lifespan of a hundred years.

Two palas grant a thousand years of life, three palas ten thousand, / four palas a hundred thousand years of life, and the fifth pala a million.

Six palas grant a lifespan of ten million years, the seventh the lifespan of the lord of gods, / eight palas grant the lifespan of Brahmā, and the ninth pala grants Viṣṇu-hood.

The tenth grants Rudra-hood, O goddess, the next after that grants Īśvara-hood, / and at the twelfth, diamond ash fully bestows Sadāśiva-hood,

omniscience, omnipresence, and roaming at will. / <Diamond Mush>
I shall describe diamond mush, supremely beneficial for rejuvenation therapy.

When the diamond is purified as before, one should begin the softening procedure: / placed in the midst of mātṛvāhaka, wrapped in the flesh of a partridge,

one should further wrap it with the essence of sharp and magnetic iron, / and in decoction of horse gram, triphalā water, and kodrava separately,

one should boil it for three days in this manner; one should wrap that diamond with leaves / of a betel vine that is three years old, or of cotton.

Worn between the knees, the diamond becomes soft within two watches. / This is declared as diamond mush (vajraudana); now diamond liquefaction is described.

<Diamond Liquefaction>
The three alkalis, chickpea acid, asafoetida, and amlavetasa, / jvālāmukhī, and ikṣuraka—together with the juice of sthalakumbhī,

having ground these with the milky saps of snuhī and arka, into a ball of that [paste] / one should insert the softened diamond, and cook it in lemon juice in a swing apparatus for three days.

When this is done, liquefaction of the diamond occurs like quicksilver. / <Application to Other Liquefactions>
When this is done, liquefaction of gems such as ruby will likewise occur.

Stones such as mica truly melt when this is done; / the gems of mercury and pearls melt in amlavetasa.

One should macerate it in the sun for seven days, then place it in lemon [juice]; / kept in a grain heap for three weeks, it thoroughly liquefies in pit-calcination.

<Properties of Diamond Ash>
Just as diamond ash, so also the ash of its liquefied and softened states / becomes, O woman of shapely hips, a conqueror of senescence, poverty, and death.

Ash derived from the liquefied and softened forms results in well-being in rejuvenation therapy: / female and male diamonds are used in rejuvenation therapy, but the eunuch in penetration.

It has six tastes, cold potency, destroys all diseases, / pacifies all defects, and is a rejuvenation therapy yielding all happiness.

It gives the luster of lightning, bodily firmness, clarity, unctuousness, is scraping, / and confers beauty, strength, longevity, and destruction of planetary afflictions and misfortune.

Purification, softening, liquefaction, and calcination of vaikrānta are like those of diamond. / <Gold and Its Varieties>
Now I shall declare the most excellent rejuvenation therapy of gold; listen:

the origin of gold was described previously; nevertheless, it is of three kinds: / one comes from mercurial transmutation, another is born from a mine,

and another is produced from the compounding of metals, respectively being the best, intermediate, and inferior; / in color, they are yellow-red, and yellow-red [mixed],

and on rubbing, cutting, and heating, they yield saffron, white, and blood-red. / <Purification of Gold>
Such divine gold, made into sheets or cut into small pieces,

halinī, kañcukī tuber, snuhī, arka, agni, karañja, / dhūrta, guñjā, iṅgudī, root of cīra, tāla, aśvagandhā,

and indravāruṇī—having ground these roots with buttermilk, / one should coat the gold sheets and heat them in fire.

Into urine, buttermilk, oil, horse gram decoction, fermented rice water, / lemon juice, and arka milky sap, one should quench them each seven times.

One should smear [it], heat [it], and sprinkle [it] again and again, seven times.
Anthill earth, soot, brick, salt, and red ochre—

having ground these with lime juice and smeared the leaf, it is roasted in a crucible.
Mica of four colors, pyrites, cinnabar, orpiment, realgar,

magnet, kaṅkuṣṭha, calamine, vimalā, quicksilver, and earthworms—
having ground these with sour gruel, one should make pills measuring one niṣka, O mistress of gods.

One should not use less than a pala, nor more than four palas.
One should melt equal parts of roasted gold and copper,

and into that melted [mixture] cast the pills one by one.
Pills ten times the amount of gold are to be introduced gradually, once dried.

One should blow gently until only gold remains.
That pure gold becomes divine, removing senescence, death, and disease.

<Calx of gold>
Leaves of gold as thin as tamarind leaves and purified mercury—
one should grind these thoroughly with sour gruel and smear that paste [on the leaf].

One should blow the paste placed in a crucible with equal parts of sulfur and pyrites.
One should cast a sixteenth part of quicksilver calx into that gold powder,

grind thoroughly with sour gruel, and cook it in a subterranean pit kiln.
In this manner, one should add mercury at each roasting, up to sixteen times.

This non-revivable gold calx is produced, bestowing all alchemical perfections.
<Rejuvenation therapy with gold>
Having purified one's body by purgation, emesis, and the like, on an auspicious day,

one should worship Īśvara, brahmins, fire, gurus, and physicians at the forefront;
with a pure heart, one should partake of the divine rejuvenation therapy with gold.

One guñjā in measure of the calx of the essence of magnet and mica,
and gold calx measuring one māṣa, one should lick along with triphalā, honey, and ghee.

As stated before, for a duration of sixteen diamond months,
the practitioner of rejuvenation therapy should observe the rule and avoid what is forbidden as stated before.

Hear, O daughter of the mountain, the wondrous regimen in gold rejuvenation therapy:
by the use of just one pala, one is freed from all diseases;

then by the use of two palas, freed from wrinkles and gray hair;
speech-perfection and divine vision arise from three palas, O beloved;

by the use of four palas, there is no fear of poison, tigers, or serpents;
and by five palas indeed, divine self-knowledge arises;

O goddess, by the use of six palas, the rank of the Siddhas and Sādhyas is attained;
and by seven palas, the rank of the Vidyādharas is attained;

and by the use of eight palas, one becomes skilled in wandering at will;
and with the ninth pala, endowed with the eight supernatural powers;

and by ten palas, one attains the state of Mahendra;
by eleven palas, O goddess, the state of Brahmā, of this there is no doubt;

by twelve palas, O beloved, one attains the state of Viṣṇu;
and by thirteen palas, one attains the state of Rudra;

and by fourteen palas, one attains the state of Īśvara;
by fifteen palas, one reaches the supreme state of Sadāśiva;

and by sixteen palas, one's form becomes existence-consciousness-bliss,
omniscient, all-doer, destroyer, protector, and omnipresent.

<Liquefaction of gold>
I shall now explain the liquefaction of gold, listen, O Pārvatī:
dust from the fruit of devadālī, cochineal insects, horse saliva,

and borax: one should imbue these repeatedly with the juices of jālinī, O beloved.
One should melt gold and cast [it] therein; a liquefaction equal to quicksilver [results].

One should administer this liquefaction and [its] calx like gold [in rejuvenation therapy].
This rejuvenation therapy is sweet, bitter, and astringent, cold and hot,

wholesome for the heart, imparting luster, pure, beneficial for the eyes, heavy, scarifying,
bestower of retention, memory, longevity, health, prudence, and speech-perfection,

destroyer of consumption, mania, and other diseases, pacifier of bodily humors,
unctuous, appetizing, radiant, generating virility, and increasing strength.

<Magnet, its varieties, and its characteristics>
Now, O lovely one, I shall explain the magnet and rejuvenation therapy with magnet.
Though there are divine herbs bestowing all alchemical perfections,

the magnet is the most superior of them, removing wrinkles, diseases, and gray hair.
At the end of the aeon, Śambhu himself, accompanied by Śarvāṇī,

performed a fierce tāṇḍava dance; drops of perspiration arose there,
and wherever they fell, they turned into loadstone.

Many were produced in arid regions, some in temperate regions,
and rarely or never in swampy lands; they are handed down as five kinds by class:

bhrāmaka, cumbaka, karṣaka, drāvaka, O goddess,
and romaka; and likewise they have one, two, three, four, or faces on all sides.

Of these five varieties, their colors are yellow, black, red,
and mixed separately; their presiding deities are, in order,

declared to be Brahmā, Viṣṇu, Īśa, Bhūtātman, and the Mātṛkās.
The yellow-colored variety transmutes by touch; the black is best in rejuvenation therapy;

the red effects the fixation of mercury; the mixed removes all afflictions;
the romaka destroys fear of possessing spirits, and the drāvaka is the very best of all.

Karṣaka, cumbaka, and bhrāmaka are respectively excellent, middling, and inferior.
I state the characteristic [of bhrāmaka]: it causes iron to rotate;

therefore it is called bhrāmaka (rotator). Cumbaka kisses (adheres to) iron;
karṣaka attracts iron; and because drāvaka liquefies [it, it is called drāvaka].

Because hair sprouts upon breaking, that [variety] is termed romaka (hairy).
The many-faced one is superior; that with four or five faces is excellent;

the two- or three-faced one is middling; the single-faced one is inferior.
Bhrāmaka and cumbaka are beneficial for destroying all diseases;

karṣaka and drāvaka are best in mercury formulations and rejuvenation therapy.
This fivefold magnet is the goad for the elephant of mercury, O beloved.

That which is touched by wind and sunlight should never be taken.
Having dug two cubits deep, O fair-faced one, the magnet should be collected.

<Extraction of the essence of magnet>
Having first worshipped Durgā, Gaṇeśa, and Bhairava, O beloved,
one should burn the magnet with intense fire and quench it in triphalā water.

One should powder that magnet finely with glass, sea salt, and borax,
lac, guggulu, guñjā, wool, ghee, honey, beeswax,

hare bone, tiny fish, pastes of marking nut and sesame,
natron, barley ash, resin, ciragula,

and equal parts of the horns of chital deer, wild buffalo, and elephant tusks.
One should grind an equal part of that magnet with goat's milk,

mix it with the five products of the buffalo cow, from yogurt to buffalo dung,
and grinding it smooth, make pills measuring a karṣa, O mistress of gods.

In a koṣṭhī furnace apparatus with a bent blowpipe, using khadira charcoal intensely, / one should drop in the pills slowly, five by five.

From three yāmas of heating alone, pure essence will fall from the magnet iron. / Having reduced all of that to fine grains, [mixing it] with equal parts of flux drugs such as glass,

placed inside a crucible, one should blow intensely; thus it is to be blown three times, my dear. / The essence of magnet iron prepared in this manner becomes the most excellent essence.

<Characteristics of magnet iron>
Drops of oil [placed] in water kept in a vessel of magnet iron / do not spread; and chickpeas [placed therein] become black, there is no doubt of this.

Asafoetida rubbed [on it] loses its odor; a ripple of milk assumes a pointed shape / [and] never falls to the ground; [and] myrobalan loses its bitterness.

Hot water poured on that iron becomes cool in an instant.
<Purification of iron>
Not less than five palas and not more than fifteen palas [of iron is to be taken].

Triphalā should be sixteen palas, and water four times that amount; / one should boil it down to a quarter remainder, and then quench the plates in it.

Smeared with hare's blood, one should dry them again in the sun; / then, having heated them repeatedly, in buttermilk, oil, sauvīra vinegar, and ghee,

and also in honey, arka latex, lime juice, and horsegram decoction, / smearing, drying, heating, and quenching [are done] successively, my dear.

One should perform each [procedure] seven times; then the iron discards its ore-defect.
<Mantras for iron processing>
First the mantra, then the procedure is to be performed; the mantra is now stated:

The words 'udbhavodbhava' should be in the dative case following 'amṛta', / ending with 'svāhā', with the praṇava at the beginning; this mantra is prescribed during the grinding.

“Oṃ amṛtodbhavodbhavāya svāhā.”
For the protection of both the iron and the man, this single-arising mantra is [recited]; / in place [of it], one who recites it without the word 'svāhā' and ending in 'phaṭ':

“Oṃ amṛtodbhavāya phaṭ.” Following the praṇava, there is “namaś caṇḍavajrapāṇaye,” / and after that, “mahāyakṣasenādhipataye namaḥ,”

the word 'suru' spoken twice, and 'mahāvidyābalāya', / then 'svāhā'—this mantra is proclaimed for the bali offering.

“Oṃ namaś caṇḍavajrapāṇaye mahāyakṣasenādhipataye namaḥ suru suru mahāvidyābalāya svāhā.”
<Iron calx>
One should then grind these iron plates into a fine powder. / Having placed the magnet iron powder into an iron vessel, with triphalā decoction,

one should sprinkle it, stirring it with an iron ladle, and thus cook it. / Taking it when it has formed a lump, in an auspicious clay-layered

casket one should deposit it well; placing it in a pit sixteen aṅgulas [deep], / in the middle of wild cow-dung cakes, one should burn the cow dung.

One should maintain it for a day and night, sheltered from wind and sun. / Taking it out again in the morning, one should triturate it with triphalā decoction.

In this manner one should subject it to cooking in a pot and roasting in a casket in sequence; / one should perform this for seven days, and then cinnabar is to be added to it,

to a sixteenth part of the iron, and one should triturate it with woman's breast milk. / One should carry out cooking in a pot and roasting in a casket sixteen times.

That calx becomes non-revivable, O goddess, [and] is to be employed in rasāyana.
<Nectarization of iron calx>
As much triphalā as there is, four times that amount of water should be taken;

one should boil it down to an eighth remainder. Ghee equal to the decoction, / [and] magnet iron calx equal to the ghee, one should cook in a copper vessel, my dear,

stirring it with an iron ladle until that liquid dries up. / For that long it is to be cooked over a mild fire; then one should add sugar equal to the iron.

This is stated to be 'nectarization', supreme and carrying all properties.
<Varieties of iron cooking>
I shall describe the cooking of iron; it is of three kinds, my dear:

mild, medium, and intense are taught. The mild is like a lime; / the medium is like a ball; the intense is like sand.

<Method of administering magnet iron rejuvenation therapy>
Now I shall explain the administration of the calx of magnet iron. / At an auspicious astrological moment, on an auspicious day, having worshipped deities beginning with Īśa,

one should consume the divine magnet iron calx rasāyana that grants success. / Previously, having purified one's body with purgatives and the like, my dear,

one should consume mica calx for one month; by that, one's body becomes purified. / One māṣa of magnet iron calx and a guñjā of mica calx,

with two niṣkas of triphalā powder, combined with honey and ghee, / one should lick in the morning, purified in self through ablutions, donations, and other rites.

The after-drink following that iron should be cow's milk, sixty times the amount, / warm from the udder; or in its absence, having mixed milk with an equal amount of water,

it should be boiled until the water is gone, and that milk is to be drunk as an after-drink, my dear. / If that is unwholesome, a decoction of triphalā or a decoction of guḍūcī [may be drunk].

Thus one should consume it for one month, [then] successively for two, three, and four [months], / with a monthly increase of a māṣa and a guñjā of the magnet iron and mica calces respectively.

In this manner, up to the end of sixteen months there is an increase of sixteen measures. / One should avoid what is to be avoided according to the rules stated before; one will attain perfection.

Through its use for one year, minor illnesses are destroyed; / through its use for two years, major diseases are eradicated.

From three years, it destroys grey hair; from four years, it removes wrinkles; / from the fifth, it averts untimely death; in the sixth, one's lifespan becomes a hundred [years].

In the seventh year, [one gains] radiance like the sun; in the tenth, association with the Siddhas; / and in the eleventh year, my dear, one attains the state of a Vidyādhara;

in the thirteenth year, godhood, and the status of Indra in the fourteenth; / likewise in the fifteenth year, one becomes dear to all the worlds;

in the sixteenth year, the eight alchemical perfections will arise; this is true, truly true, O Maheśvarī!
<Procedure for liquefaction of magnet iron>
Just like the liquefaction of gold, the liquefaction of magnet iron is done as before, my dear.

The liquefied magnet iron can become a calx just like the calx of magnet iron.
<Varieties of iron and their virtues>
Iron slag, cast iron, wootz steel, and magnet iron are progressively each superior to the former;

they are rich in virtues tenfold, a hundredfold, a thousandfold, and a hundred-thousandfold, respectively. / Magnet iron is a hundred times greater still, a rasāyana among medicines,

a divine pacifier of the three humors, a remover of all diseases, / producing luster, appetizing, beneficial to the eyes, beneficial to the heart, longevity-bestowing, pure,

imparting stability and firmness to the tissues, and a potent rasāyana.
<Origin of mica, its varieties, and characteristics>
Now I shall speak of mica, its origin and so forth in order.

Formerly, You, the Primordial Śakti, in the delightful Śvetadvīpa, / together with Indrāṇī, Kamalā, Vāṇī, Gāyatrī, and other foremost goddesses,

and accompanied by divine wives of sages headed by Arundhatī, / sported, O Mahāmāyā, whose nature is consciousness and eternal bliss.

Many tears of joy fell from her eyes onto her silk garment; / then she became menstruous, and thereupon, leaving that garment on the bank of the sweet ocean,

and having bathed, she went to Mount Kailāsa. / Due to a gale, that garment then fell into the ocean of milk.

From that ocean of milk as it was being churned by the gods and demons, / that menstrual cloth arose, known as mica, of four kinds.

Black mica had the appearance of collyrium; yellow came from anointing the Goddess's body; / red had the form of her menses; and the silk became white.

Seeing these four kinds, a cause for the fixation of mercury, / a rejuvenation therapy, destroying disease, granting all alchemical perfections,

all the gods said that it is equal to nectar itself. / White [mica is used] in silver operations, and the other three in gold operations.

All—red, yellow, white, and black—should be used in rejuvenation therapy. / Red is a hundred times superior to white, yellow a thousand times to red,

and black should be known as a hundred thousand times superior to yellow in metal-work and rejuvenation therapy. / Each of them is produced in four ways according to class, in order:

pināka, dardura, nāga, and vajra—these four kinds. / One should obtain the principal one, vajra, and avoid the other three.

Pināka, when cast into fire, emits an accumulation of layers; / consumed, it binds the feces and kills, causing disease.

Dardura, when cast into fire, makes the sound of a frog; / it produces the incurable disease called gravel.

Nāga, when cast into fire, emits a hissing noise; / by its consumption, severe leprosy called maṇḍala will certainly arise.

<Characteristics of what is acceptable>
From the consumption of this triad an accumulation of diseases arises; / but vajra-mica, when placed in fire, never undergoes any alteration.

Therefore, vajra-mica should be consumed, conquering wrinkles, grey hair, and death. / It should be gathered from its mine with a pickaxe beyond the royal cubit.

<Vajra-mica: Examination: Bad quality>
It should be heavy, with thick layers, unctuous, and its layers easily separated. / That which resembles glass, mica spangles, or dross should never be used.

<Grain-mica>
Endowed with the characteristics stated above, one should blow vajra-mica intensely, / and quench it in milk-hedge latex, sour rice-gruel, cow's urine, triphalā decoction,

and juice of meghanāda, in this way casting it thrice into each of these. / Having properly separated the layers, one should triturate it with the juices of meghanāda and sour gruel,

and steep it in intense sunlight. Then, having ground it finely, place it in a cloth / with unhusked grain, and tying it up, again in sour gruel

one should knead it forcefully with both hands, so the fine powder oozes out into that sour gruel. / One should dry that in the sun; this is known as grain-mica.

<Extraction of the essence of mica>
The extraction of the essence of mica takes place like that of loadstone, O beloved: / gold, silver, pyrites, vaikrānta, honey, borax,

guñjā seeds, jaggery, ghee, and marking nut—ten niṣkas of each. / Having ground them with calotropis latex, pills measuring one karṣa each should be made.

Into one hundred niṣkas of this essence of mica, when molten, one should cast the pills; / the pills are to be cast in slowly, one every ghaṭikā,

blowing without fatigue as long as that essence remains. / This essence of mica is indeed a rejuvenation therapy fit for the gods.

<Ash of the essence of mica>
Having powdered that essence of mica, one takes meghanāda, punarnavā, / elephant foot yam, calotropis leaf, mustā, lemon, tālamūlikā,

triphalā, vajravallī, śāṅgerī, black pepper, / the group of sour substances, banyan aerial roots, cotton, and muniśigru,

ekavīrā, kokilākṣī, sarpākṣī, basil, vacā, / peṭārī, vākucī, and aloe—with the separate juice of each,

one should perform grinding, cooking in the sun, cooking in a pot, and incineration in an incineration pit, in succession, / for one day each. Then, cinnabar and pyrites

should be combined in a one-sixteenth proportion of the essence, and triturated with triphalā decoctions. / One should perform this up to sixteen incineration pits, O Bhairavī.

Nectarisation should be performed as described previously, like that for the essence of loadstone. / It becomes an ash that cannot be revived, granting longevity and health.

<Procedure for the consumption of the essence of mica>
Now I shall declare the consumption in the rejuvenation therapy using the essence of mica. / Purified in body through emesis and other procedures, having worshipped one's chosen deity,

one should lick in the morning the essence of mica to the amount of one guñjā, along with two niṣkas of triphalā powder, / with honey and ghee; one should practice this for one month.

Thus, up to sixteen months, in the sequence of an increase by one guñjā each month, / O Goddess, there should be an increase. In this way one should consume the rejuvenation therapy.

One should follow the regimen and avoid what is prohibited as stated previously, O ruler of gods. / Within a year there will be purification of the body; after two years, one is freed from disease.

After three years, the destruction of great diseases certainly occurs. / After four years, there is an immense increase of luster, strength, and virility.

After five years comes firmness of body; in the sixth year one attains perfection of speech. / In the seventh year there will be divine vision; in the eighth, destruction of poisons.

In the ninth year one attains perfection; then one becomes a Vidyādhara. / In the eleventh year Indra-hood, and in the twelfth year Brahmā-hood occurs.

In the thirteenth year Viṣṇu-hood, and in the fourteenth Rudra-hood; / Īśa-hood in the fifteenth, and in the sixteenth year one becomes Sadāśiva.

Endowed with the powers such as atomicity, moving at will, omniscient, all-doing he becomes. / <Liquefaction of mica>
Now I shall declare the liquefaction of mica: kañcukīkanda,

kapi-tindu, and keśataila—one should macerate it thrice in each. / Having melted it in a crucible, that becomes the liquefaction of the essence of mica.

One should carefully reduce it to ash, like the liquefaction of the essence of mica. / <Properties of mica>
Possessing six tastes, it destroys all diseases and is supreme in pacifying the three humors.

It increases virility, longevity, strength, intellect, luster, and beauty. / It bestows bodily firmness and stability, and destroys wrinkles, grey hair, and death.

It is appetizing, aphrodisiac, light, cooling, intellect-promoting, unctuous, and a rejuvenation therapy. / Mica is an appetizer, astringent, and the best agent for the fixation of mercury.

The ash of the essence of mica overcomes the winged nature of the king of quicksilvers. / Mica sheet destroys disease, and its essence imparts firmness.

It softens the heart's nature, and its liquefaction dispels poverty.