Rasarnava 10
English (machine translation) 10
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10.1
The glorious Devī said:
What are the characteristics of mercury, and of what sort is mercurial work?
I do not know that, O ruler of gods; you should speak truly.
10.2
The glorious Bhairava said:
The origin of mercury was spoken of earlier; now hear its characteristics.
10.3
It has thousands of names, myriads, and hundreds of millions;
it is impossible for me to state them [all]; hear them related in brief:
10.4
Rasa, rasendra, sūta, pārada, and also miśraka.
10.5
One should know rasa as siddharasa, having its abode in sacred sites;
it destroys all diseases, as well as wrinkles and gray hair.
10.6
Now hear about the pure rasendra, which transforms the body and metals:
it acts upon the body and on gold, in digestion and in flowing processes.
10.7
Sūtaka is slightly yellowish, rough-bodied, and fraught with flaws.
10.8-
That which is white outside and inside, [yet] covered by thick sheaths,
know that to be mercury, O Devī; one should employ it in works for silver.
Just as a pot of milk is ruined by contact with sour gruel,
so gold and the body are ruined by [unprocessed] mercury.
10.9
The wise know miśraka as having the lustre of a peacock's feather.
Seeing mercury of a smoky color, it is especially recognized;
one should know miśraka as an agent for the process of soaring.
10.10
Thus, O Devī, the five varieties of mercury have been set forth.
10.11
Steaming, rubbing, moving, and likewise digestion,
liquefying, coloring, flowing, and penetration in order:
for one who knows these truly, mercury is accomplished.
10.12
Sharpness arises from steaming, and stainlessness from rubbing;
by moving one imparts strength, and from digestion binding occurs.
10.13
Unity comes from its liquefaction, redness from red pigment,
pervasiveness from its flowing process, and likewise penetrating power from penetration.
10.14
That which enters dirt takes the form of dirt; the swift one becomes like a swan.
That which enters dirt takes the form of dirt; full of smoke, it moves into smoke.
10.15
There is another, the departure of the life-force, O Devī, as the life-force emerges from an egg;
it enlivens the soul for as long [as it lasts]; therefore mercury is called jīva ("life").
10.16
Its movement is fourfold, but is understood by an expert:
four movements are visible, while the fifth movement is invisible.
10.17
By means of mantra, meditation, and the like, its fifth movement is checked.
10.18
Smoke, crackling, jumping like a frog,
motionlessness, and trembling: these are the five states of mercury.
10.19
When it is churned with paste, three movements surely occur:
movement into water, movement into dirt, and then movement like a swan.
10.20
Having added pure gold, one should restrain it with a fixative;
having added mercury with the plants of the group of fixatives, one should cook it.
10.21
Restrained, it does not move into the smoky state, O auspicious goddess.
10.22
Free of the shifting of particles and devoid of bubbles,
it becomes restrained and able to endure the hearth-fire.
10.23
When one digests mercury without restraining it in an acid-gruel bath,
then, O fortunate one, its three movements certainly take place.
10.24
Indeed steamed necessarily by suspension steaming for three days,
with clerodendrum and other herbs, O Devī, the king of mercury does not diminish.
10.25
Seeing that the mercury is not depleted, one should then add mica and the rest;
then the operation is steaming, and rubbing of what is administered.
10.26
Food embraced by mercury is called amalgam paste;
that liquefied in the womb of mercury is proclaimed as digestion.
10.27
Digestion is declared to be that, and it is thus observed.
When digestion is complete, coloring is to be performed with the red group.
10.28
Digested again and again, colored, one should cause it to flow with an equal amount of gold. / By application of the flowing process apparatus, the mercury made to flow is bound.
10.29
Just as the mercury becomes flowed again and again, / joined with penetration, one should employ it in transmutation.
10.30
Mercury in raw amalgam is Brahmā, swooned it is Janārdana, / but bound it becomes the form of Rudra, through the power of the yoga of action, mercury.
10.31
Hear, O Devī, I will explain the detailed account of the yoga of action.
10.32
There are three impurities of mercury: poison, fire, and dross. / By poison, know it to be poisonous; in fire, a man becomes afflicted with leprosy; / by dross, one becomes sick with abdominal disease, and one dies in rejuvenating alchemy.
10.33
Six truṭis are one likṣā, and six likṣās are one yūka; / six yūkas are named a rajas, declared to you, O virtuous lady.
10.34
Six rajas are a sarṣapa; and that is declared to be a siddhārtha. / And six siddhārthas, O goddess of gods, are declared to be one yava.
10.35
By six yavas there is one guñjā, and six guñjās are one māṣaka. / Twelve māṣas are a tola; eight tolas are a pala.
10.36
Thirty-two palas, O Devī, are declared to be a śubha. / And two thousand śubhas are declared to be one bhāra.
10.37
Two thousand palas, or a thousand, or a hundred, / or twenty-eight palas, or ten, or five—
10.38
or even with half a pala, the processing of mercury must be performed.
10.39
Mahābalā, nāgabalā, meghanādā, punarnavā, / and meṣaśṛṅgī: with their extracts, combined with navasāra, / one should steam mercury for three days, O goddess of the gods.
10.40
Girikarṇī, mīnākṣī, sahadevī, punarnavā, / uragā, triphalā, kāntā, laghuparṇī, śatāvarī,
10.41
one should crush all together and cast them into husk-free grain sour broth. / In this acid of eleven parts, ground with a sixteenth part [of mercury],
10.42
along with āsurī, salt, the three pungents, citraka, fresh ginger, and radish, / one should steam it in a swing apparatus, O Devī, for three days over a gentle fire.
10.43
Aṅkola destroys poison; āragvadha destroys fire, my dear; / citraka destroys dross; kumārī destroys the seven sheaths.
10.44
Therefore, combined with these, the wise one should grind and distill it.
10.45
With a Vidyādhara apparatus one should imbue it, freed from impurities. / Then, O Devī, that mercury, placed in a threefold cloth, is filtered.
10.46
Because of triphalā, citraka, and root, joined with the juice of aloe vera, / on a stone free from fissures one should grind and distill it again.
10.47
With soot, jaggery, the three pungents, turmeric, and white mustard seeds, / with brick, sour gruel, and wool, one should then grind it for three days.
10.48
The mercury becomes spotless; it reveals my own power.
10.49
With vāsaka and vibhītaka one should grind and distill it again; / the impurities originating from external conditions, such as lead and tin, are destroyed.
10.50
Seven times one should grind with kākamācī to remove impurities; / and one should distill it seven times: the mercury abandons mountain impurity.
10.51
It abandons field impurity, O Devī, when swooned with gokarṇa juice.
10.52
Steamed in the extract of cotton leaves combined with the three pungents, / the mercury becomes free from the seven sheaths after seven days.
10.53
Kākamācī, jayā, brāhmī, gāṅgerī, red citraka, / maṇḍūkī, mudgaparṇī, ginger, rasāṅkuśa,
10.54
devadālī, śaṅkhapuṣpī, kākajaṅghā, śatāvarī, / kumārī, bhṛṅgarāja, nirguṇḍī, grīṣmasundara,
10.55
śūlinī, śūrpaparṇī, gojihvā, and kṣīrakañcuka: / ground with their juices, it must be distilled; seven times [done], it becomes spotless.
10.56
Having made an amalgam paste with copper, one should distill it in upward distillation; / having abandoned tin and lead, the mercury becomes pure.
10.57
Ground with triphalā, śigru, black mustard, salt, and citraka, / placed in an upper vessel, it must be heated with blazing cow dung cakes below.
10.58
By obstructing the creation-lotus, the mercury is nearly obtained. / Along with karkoṭī, kañcukī, bimbī, sarpākṣī, and ambuja,
10.59
one should place the mercury in a regulator apparatus; it becomes lustrous and spotless. / The mercury purified in this way, dried with an eighth part of bhadrā,
10.60
with small acidic [substances], salt, alkali, mica, vitriol, black pepper, and śigru, / along with black mustard and borax, in sour gruel for three days: / from the steaming, O Devī, the mercury is stimulated, eager to consume a mouthful.
10.61
Mica metallic essence and other seeds in the digestion and purification of mercury— / declare that to me, O goddess of the gods! What else do you wish to hear?
Linked texts (1)
- Rasārṇava — Sanskrit