Rasarnava 6

English (machine translation) 6

Language: English

6.139 — 1 part

6.1

The blessed Devī spoke: / O God of Gods, Mahādeva, how are the characteristics of the powers? / In their suitability for mercurial operations, let their processing be told!

The blessed Bhairava spoke: / Once the mountain-born Goddess, seeing charming Hara, / released semen at that time, and from it auspicious mica was born, / yellow, black, white, and red through contact with the earth.

6.3

Hear of mica, loadstone, diamond, and vaikrānta.

6.4

Pināka, dardura, nāga, and vajra: mica is of four kinds. / When pināka enters the fire, a crackling sound occurs;

6.5

when dardura enters the fire, a sound like a cock occurs; / but when nāga enters the fire, O Devī, it emits a hissing sound;

6.6

vajra, however, having entered fire, remains like a diamond, my dear.

6.7

Pināka mica produces leprosy; dardura produces death; / nāga, entering the body, constantly causes the disease fistula-in-ano.

6.8

Vajra mica alone should be employed in mercury and rejuvenating alchemy, my dear. / Divided by several colors, that mica is of four kinds:

6.9

red and yellow for the purpose of gold, black for gold and the body, / and white in operations on silver; one should always discard vitreous slag.

6.10

Mica having first been split into single sheets, O leader of the gods, / with the water of agastya flowers and with the juice of water lilies,

6.11

with river ebony, lime, meghanāda, and hogweed, / with barley, tamarind, gruel, sour [gruel], oleander, and red water lily,

6.12

with wild elephant yam, bhūdhātrī, okra root, and amlavetasa, / with juices of meṣaśṛṅgī, hare's fat, horn oil, and śamī,

6.13

with vajravallī, milk-kanda, black pepper, and sumukha— / one should steam it for three days, O Devī; it becomes freed from blemish.

6.14

Having first prepared dhānyābhraka, very smooth like fresh butter, / thirty palas of mica powder [and] two palas of small fish,

6.15

one pala of sesame powder, three palas of guñjā, and a quarter [pala] of borax: / that bolus bound with wheat, macerated with the five bovine products,

6.16

by blowing in an extraction furnace with pair of bellows over intense fire, / the metallic essence of mica falls, as do all metallic essences.

6.17

Agitated with the exudation of steaming herbs, calcined again and again, / it is calcined indeed with five cow-dung cake fires, into abundant leaves.

6.18

The condensed mica, moisture-free, having yielded its stainless metallic essence, / with umā fruits and flowers submerged in sour ṣaṣṭikā gruel, / through grinding with a flax stick, clearly liquefies into transit.

6.19

Placing agnijāra in a new pot, on top of the earth, / mica liquefies quickly, having the luster of a pearl.

6.20

Powder of kañcukī a hundred times macerated with juice of kañcukī / liquefies mica, O Devī, and all metals.

6.21

Stale in sour gruel, residing in alkaline water of nicula, / it attains liquefaction, resembling stain-free mercury.

6.22

Ground with water of agastya flower in an elephant yam tuber, / kept inside a grain silo for a month, it resembles mercury.

6.23

Sprinkled with goat's urine, infused with river ebony dust, / mica, O Devī, becomes resembling water.

6.24

The powder of mica, rubbed with powder of kākinī seed, / sprinkled for seven days with spurge milk and blown, liquefies.

6.25

Mica and the five parts of apāmārga, thoroughly ground, / one should place in an earthen vessel; it will become like water.

6.26

Mica powder rubbed with kapālī and black pepper, / infused again with realgar combined with agastya juice,

6.27

ground with fresh juice, fruits, and roots of mārjārapādī and sour [liquids], / placed in a citron fruit, one should deposit in the midst of paddy; / joined with realgar and rock salt, it liquefies in just half a month.

6.28

Separated into single sheets, one should throw it for seven days into agastya juice, / mixed with tree turmeric and black pepper, bathed in bowstring hemp juice.

6.29

Mica joined with black salt, flooded with vajravallī juice, / blown in a sealed pair of shallow earthen dishes, becomes resembling water.

6.30

Powder of mica equal to powder of vegā fruit, / macerated in spurge milk and blown, liquefies instantly.

6.31

Having ground mica with juices of vajravallī, accompanied by black salt, / and baked it in a sealed pair of shallow earthen dishes, it liquefies like water.

6.32

With beef, rock salt, and calotropis, combined again with agastya water, / placed inside a plantain tuber, it liquefies in three days on a cow-dung fire.

6.33

Taking sheets of black mica, one should smear them with pīlu oil; / heated in the sun for seven days, thrown into sour [liquid] for three days;

6.34

alkali of spurge, calotropis, and leadwort, alkali of bottle gourd, and arjuna, / soda ash, potassii carbonas, and borax as the eighth;

6.35

juice of milk-kanda, and juice of vajrakanda, / joined with the three vṛhatīs and smeared with the alkali group;

6.36

that sheet-mica smeared with this paste in a bell-metal vessel, / from blowing resulting from the heat of the sun, liquefies in three days.

6.37

Alternatively, mica sheets immersed in milk of kañcukī, / one should macerate them with that until a powder is produced from them.

6.38

One should take the mica sheets, throw them into sour [liquid] for three days, / smear them with that paste, and place them in a bell-metal vessel; / by the heat of the sun for seven days, liquefaction is produced in an instant.

6.39

Powder of mica joined with powder of kākāṇḍī fruit and the five liquefiers, / blown inside a crucible, liquefies.

6.40

Bhrāmaka, cumbaka, karṣaka, and drāvaka: / thus loadstone is of four kinds; and romakānta is the fifth.

6.41

It has one, two, three, four, or five faces, or faces on all sides; / it is yellow, black, and red, of three colors individually.

6.42

The deities presiding there in order are Brahmā, Viṣṇu, and Maheśvara.

6.43

The yellow brings about transmutation upon contact; the black is best in rejuvenating alchemy; / the red color, O highly fortunate lady, is praised in the binding of mercury.

6.44

The revolving [loadstone] is lowest, the kissing [loadstone] is middling, O beloved;
the attracting [loadstone] is superior, O Devī, and the liquefying [loadstone] is the highest of all.

6.45

That which causes varieties of iron to revolve is the revolving loadstone, O beloved;
the kissing loadstone kisses [iron], and the attracting one draws [it], O beloved.

6.46

That which directly liquefies iron is the liquefying loadstone;
that hair-loadstone is such that from [the iron's] cracking, horripilation arises.

6.47

The lowest has one face, the middling has two or three faces,
the superior has four or five faces, and the highest has faces on all sides.

6.48

The revolving and the kissing [loadstones] are praised in destroying diseases;
and in mercury and rejuvenating alchemy, the attracting and the liquefying are beneficial.

6.49

Mercury is a rutting intoxicated elephant; loadstone is said to be its goad.
Having dug into the earth, it should be extracted with great effort.

6.50

One should avoid that exposed to wind and sun, O beauty of the gods;
loadstone lying outside should be macerated with the blood of a goat.

6.51

One should wrap it in a cloth smeared with goat’s blood;
having wrapped it in a goat’s hide, one should deposit it in the earth as before.

6.52

Extracted after seven months, one should cast it into a jar of water.

6.53

It must always be worshipped with red flowers, with red garlands and unguents;
worshipped with liquor and meat, it is to be employed in mercury and rejuvenating alchemy.

6.54

Refined with goat’s blood, the revolving [loadstone] becomes kissing;
by this sequential method, it becomes liquefying, O beloved.

6.55

I shall describe the refinement of mercury and iron, which grants supreme well-being,
and upon entering a living body, confers bodily ease and strength.

6.56

Without loadstone, mercury never penetrates the body;
it transfigures and spreads swiftly, like a drop of oil upon water.

6.57

Loadstone is not without mercury, nor is [mercury] without loadstone;
an application combining loadstone and mercury sustains the body.

6.58

Taking barley alkali, one should place it in an unctuous vessel;
with pepper and mica powder, one should form a lump;
blown [with heat], the loadstone liquefies—there is no doubt about this.

6.59

Having ground thirty [parts of] kissing loadstone with the water of the three fruits (triphalā),
washing should be performed with that same liquid, and five niṣkas of borax [added].

6.60

Placing it in an old cloth with honey and ghee, one should subject it to a calcination fire;
leaving it for a month, purification occurs therein, O beloved.

6.61

Taking the root of sināḍikā, ten niṣkas in measure,
one should grind it in a mortar with a decoction of the three fruits.

6.62

It should be placed equally in three crucibles measuring eight finger-breadths,
and smearing of the crucible is to be done with one niṣka of that root.

6.63

A five-faced Śiva [crucible] is then made equally for each crucible;
having bound the solidified mercury tightly in the clamp on a stone surface,

6.64

and mixed it with oil, one then obtains loadstone-lead;
by the progressive application of mica, one accomplishes liquefaction.

6.65

When the ocean of milk was being churned by the gods and demons with Mount Mandara,
that nectar was drunk by the gods, and immortality was attained.

6.66

As they drank, O Devī, drops fell upon the earth;
dried, they turned into diamonds, of various colors and of immense power.

6.67

Certain drops became blue vitriol and vimalā,
and they are of many kinds: Brahmin, Kṣatriya, Vaiśya, and Śūdra.

6.68

They are of four types: white, red, yellow, and black;
and successively male, female, and neuter.

6.69

Those that are round, full of facets, brilliant, and larger,
devoid of lines and dots, are to be known as male.

6.70

Those possessed of lines and dots and fragmented are female;
those triangular, flat, and elongated are to be recognized as neuter.

6.71

Full of essence, endowed with power, prone to penetrate iron,
and quickly binding mercury, are male diamonds, O revered by the gods.

6.72

Generating bodily radiance, female diamonds are of small power;
neuter ones are devoid of essence and penetrate iron with difficulty.

6.73

Kṣatriya [diamonds] are to be avoided in all operations and in the work of mercury;
they are described as superior, middling, and inferior.

6.74

They are thick, very thick, medium, thin, and very thin, O beloved;
free from fracturing, burning, and splitting, unmaimed and devoid of defects,
full of potency, unblemished, and stronger, they are the best.

6.75

In rejuvenating alchemy, the Brahmin confers virtues such as atomicity;
the Kṣatriya is for the destruction of death and removes wrinkles, gray hair, and disease.

6.76

Likewise, the Vaiśya creates substances and brings the body to firmness;
the Śūdra pacifies diseases and effects the arrest of aging.

6.77

Neuter [diamonds] are suitable for neuters, female for women, and male for all.

6.78

As the caste, so the vigor; as the essence, so the qualities;
as the luster, so the character; as the character, so the excellence;
as the excellence, so the color that diamonds produce, O beloved.

6.79

Śyāmā, śamī, ghanarava, varṣābhū, intoxicated kodrava,
ākhukarṇī, munitaru, horsegram, and amlavetasa;

6.80

and the juice of meṣaśṛṅgī, and of the elephant-foot yam corm—
with these one should purify the diamond for three days, and it attains purity, O ruler of gods.

6.81

Meṣaśṛṅgī, snake bone, tortoise shell, bitumen,
juice of snuhī sap, breast milk, and loadstone,

6.82

and the diamond and vaikrānta one should cast into their midst, O beloved;
having subjected it to a calcination fire in intense heat until the completion of the calcination fire,

6.83

one should grind horsegram and kodrava with horse urine;
heated, one should immerse it repeatedly in the dish until it is reduced to ash.

6.84

This Kāpālika preparation is supreme in killing diamond.

6.85

Pyrite, meṣaśṛṅgī, realgar, sulfur, and borax,
vaikrānta, and orpiment, bathed in the milk of euphorbia:

6.86

applying this coating inside a crucible, one should melt them together;
the diamonds are killed therein and unite perfectly in the couple.

6.87

Sulfur, realgar, the face of a revolving [loadstone],
and the teeth of a hare, one should grind with wild sorrel juice.

6.88

With this prepared paste, one should coat a crucible;
placed in a blind crucible and blown [with heat], diamond is killed in an instant.

6.89

By this means, diamond is united in silver and gold without doubt.

6.90

Orpiment, sulfur, loadstone, pyrite, camphor-borax,
and tamarind seed and meṣaśṛṅgī, ground with menstrual blood,
placed as a coating inside a crucible and blown [with heat], diamond is killed in an instant.

6.91

The all-parts of purple tephrosia should then be ground with women's menstrual blood, / or seeds of peṭārī should be ground with rice-water.

6.92

Or three karṣas of cotton root should be ground with rice-water, / or red rākā root should be ground with women's breast-milk.

6.93

Or one should grind vajrakanda with the latex of the vajrī, O lady of good vows; / enclosed in a paste of that and blown [with bellows], diamond becomes calcined.

6.94

Macerated for one day in a white pearl-oyster shell from a great river, / with the milk of bitter gourd and with this paste, O lady of good vows,

6.95

wrapped with orpiment, meṣaśṛṅgī, and vajravallī, / placed inside a blind crucible and blown, the diamond is calcined in an instant.

6.96

Inside an amalgam paste of loadstone, O goddess, one should deposit the diamond; / one should grind it with scented oil: the diamond is calcined, O sovereign lady.

6.97

In horsegram water combined with green vitriol, Saurāṣṭra earth, and orpiment, / and mixed with chaff-flower alkali, diamond when steeped becomes calcined.

6.98

Wrapped in the bark and latex of the seed of amṛtākanda and timira, / the diamond, placed within a ram's horn and smeared with clay, is calcined by calcination fires.

6.99

Peṭārī, haṃsapādī, vajravallī, and elephant-foot yam, / and shoots of the holy fig tree, O goddess—all ground with women's breast-milk—

6.100

enclosed in this prepared paste inside an Indian nightshade fruit, / placed therein and smeared on the outside with clay, it is calcined by seven calcination fires.

6.101

Enclosed with white candrakānti, water from its flowers, sulfur, and three pyrites, / diamond, O goddess, becomes calcined from cooking in a calcination fire.

6.102

Grinding holy fig, jujube, okra, pyrite, and crab-bone / with the latex of milk hedge, the brāhmaṇa [diamond] becomes calcined by a calcination fire.

6.103

Meṣaśṛṅgī combined with cinnabar, with the milk of oleander and calotropis, / mixed with cluster fig [sap], causes the calcination of the kṣatriya [diamond] through a calcination fire.

6.104

Bālā and atibalā, sulfur, and crab-bone, / with the milk of bitter gourd, cause the calcination of the vaiśya [diamond] through calcination.

6.105

With itching yam, realgar, and garlic, / and the milk of banyan and conch-plant, even the śūdra [diamond] is calcined in an instant.

6.106

Thick [diamonds] such as tablets are destroyed by many intense calcination fires; / they become as if well-steamed, and softness arises in them.

6.107

Grinding the all-parts of Indian gooseberry and fair-colored colocynth, / wrapped with this, the diamond is calcined by seven calcination fires.

6.108

One should place the diamond inside a living snail; / in sweat-steaming in a hanging apparatus for three days, O goddess, it becomes like a thin sheet.

6.109

One should deposit the diamond inside a castor-oil tree, O goddess; / when one month has elapsed, O goddess, it becomes like a thin sheet.

6.110

Inside an amalgam paste of loadstone, O goddess, one should deposit the diamond, / and cotton leaves and neem leaves, together with jujube leaves,

6.111

one should grind together; wrapped in that loadstone pellet, / wrapped on the outside with a betel leaf, one should place it between the knees.

6.112

In two watches, that diamond certainly becomes soft; / that diamond is calcined in an instant: [it alloys] with silver and gold, no doubt.

6.113

Placed within a lime fruit, inserted inside a cloth bundle, / one should boil it in a decoction of kodo millet in this manner for three days; / that diamond becomes a solidified mercury, and it alloys with gold in an instant.

6.114

Smeared with betel pepper and wrapped with its leaf, / remaining between the knees for a watch, it certainly becomes soft.

6.115

At the root of the vajralatā, one should deposit the soft diamond; / one should carefully give it a calcination fire: it turns to ashes in an instant.

6.116

It easily brings about binding quickly, and releases its metallic essence in an instant; / they pacify all deaths and bring about all perfections.

6.117

Having placed the diamond inside a bone-chain plant, leaving no gaps, / steamed for a week in a water-vessel, it goes to liquidity.

6.118

Adding the three alkalis, asafoetida, sour chickpea acid, wood sorrel, / the latex of jvālāmukhī, and the juice of sthalakumbhī,

6.119

the diamond, ground with these and likewise with the milk of milk hedge and calotropis, / should be steamed in a hanging apparatus, O goddess, so that it becomes like mercury.

6.120

Alternatively, mica, steamed pearls, and coral, / pyrite, blue flower [mineral], yellow and great emerald, / chrysoberyl, crystal, and so forth melt just like water.

6.121

The class of metals, blown in this way, appears the color of fire; / cast once with that alone, calcined, it becomes like water.

6.122

A pearl macerated for a week with wood sorrel acid, / placed within the interior of a lime, should be deposited in a heap of grain; / by cooking in a calcination fire, that powder becomes just like water.

6.123

Hear, O highly fortunate goddess, of the great mineral named vaikrānta.

6.124

The lord of the daityas, Mahiṣa, was an adept born from the body of Hara; / the goddess Bhagavatī Durgā crushed him with her trident.

6.125

Wherever on earth his blood fell and remained, / right there is vaikrānta, the great mineral shaped like diamond.

6.126

It exists to the south of the Vindhya, and never to the north; / it cuts metals, therefore it is called vaikrānta.

6.127

White, yellow, red, blue, pigeon-colored, / resembling a peacock's tail-feather, and another with the luster of emerald:

6.128

the black brings perfection of the body; the yellow is [used] for yellow [metals], the white for white; / the red yields all desired success, as does the one with the luster of emerald; / the remaining two are fruitless and to be avoided: thus vaikrānta is of seven kinds.

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Rasārṇava — Sanskrit

Rasarnava 6

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