A History of Hindu Chemistry from the Earliest Times to the Middle of the Sixteenth Century A.D. v2.c33.s1: The Tantrists, the Rosicrucians and the Seekers After Truth
A History of Hindu Chemistry from the Earliest Times to the Middle of the Sixteenth Century A.D. v2.c33.s1
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The Tantrists, the Rosicrucians and the Seekers After Truth
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The East has not been always East and the West, West. Modern Europe is materialistic, but she has not disdained in the past to "plunge in thought." This reminds us of the truth of the poet's words: "one touch of nature makes the whole world kin." Ancient Greece had her orphic mysteries. They were developed into a religious and ethical system by Pythagoras. In the schools of Alexandria the neo-Pythagoreans and the neo-Platonists further added to it the Vedantic doctrine of a world-soul.
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"With the dissolution of the neo-Platonic school in the sixth century, Greek philosophy disappears, it is true, as a distinct phenomenon from the theatre of history, but it continues to exist in combination with foreign elements in the service of a new form of culture in the Science of the Middle Ages and of modern times." (Zeller).
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Says Waite :—
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The traditions of the neo-Platonic philosophy, with its elaborate theurgical system, were to some extent perpetuated through the whole period of the Middle Ages, for besides the orthodox theology of the great Latin Church and amidst the clamour of scholastic philosophy, we find the secret theosophy of the magician, the Kabbalist, and the alchemical adept borrowing, directly or indirectly, from this prolific
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fountain of exalted mysticism. The traces of its influence are discoverable in Augustine, in Albertus Magnus, in St. Thomas, the angel of the schools, and in other shining lights of western Christendom, while the metaphysical principles of Johannes Scotus Erigena, even so early as the close of the ninth century, were an actual revival of this philosophy."*
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History repeats itself. In India the Yoga doctrines of Patañjali paved the way for the origin of Tāntric mysticism and it associated itself with magic and alchemy. Some twelve centuries later, this phase in the stage of human progress found exponents in the soil of Europe. As Waite says:—
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"In an age of progress, of doubt, and of great intellectual activity, it is singular to remark the almost invariable prevalence of mysticism in one or other of its manifold phases, and the close of the sixteenth century beheld spreading over the whole of Germany and passing thence into Denmark, France, England and Italy, a mighty school of mysticism in the great multitude cf magicians, alchemists, &c., who directly or indirectly were followers of the renowned Paracelsus."†
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[^ *]: "History of the Rosicrucians," p. 27. Regarding the sect of the Cabalists see also Lecky's " Rationalism in Europe." Vol. i, p. 42. ed., 1900. [^ †]: See also Kopp's " Die Alchemie in ält. u. neu. Zeit," ii, pp. 1—146, on the " Bekanntschaft mit Geheimnissen der Magie, Theosophie, Alchemie u. A."
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Even the lower strata of society in England did not escape the contagion. Sir William Temple observes: "I have had several servants far gone in divinity, others in poetry, have known in the families of some friends, a keeper deep in the Rosicrucian mysteries."
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There are those who sneer at the attempts of the alchemists to convert the baser metals into gold and are at the pains to insinuate that the motives of the adepts were sordid. It may be that there have been here and there men—vulgar charlatans—who have pursued the art merely from worldly considerations. The high priests of alchemy, however, have in every age and clime been honest seekers after truth. Had there been no desire implanted in the human breast to pry into the hidden and occult mysteries of nature there would have been no science. Whence come we and whither are we destined to go? What is this substance made up of, and what are its ultimate constituents, and what will its combination with this or that lead to? These are queries, the solution of which or rather the very attempts to solve which mark the birth of philosophy. Patañjali and Nāgārjuna in India and Paracelsus in Europe stand forth as the prominent representatives of this spirit of inquiry. They have been dreamers, mystics and naturalists all combined in one. Such geniuses have always chafed at the restraints and limitations imposed on frail man and hence their fervid yearnings to peep into regions beyond the ken of our gross senses. As Emerson puts it:—
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“The privilege of this class is an access to the secrets and structure of nature, by some higher method than by experience. In common parlance, what one man is said to learn by experience, a man of extraordinary sagacity is said, without experience, to divine.”*
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Plotinus heaved a sigh at the soul with its infinite possibilities being caged in a frail and corruptible body. The pursuit of alchemy by the esoteric *Tántrist* is easily explained. To him it was only a means to an end. “It (mercury) is alone that can make the body undecaying and immortal.”† We find echoes of the same sentiment in the authoritative literature of the Rosicrucians. Says Waite:—
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† *Vide* “History of Hindu Chemistry,” Vol. i, Intro. lxxvii and xcv—xcvi.
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“Among the concourse of inquirers, and the clamour of supposed and pretended discoverers, there rose gradually into deserved prominence an advanced school of illuminati,
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∗ “Swedenborg; or, the mystic.”
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who, employing the terminology of the *turba philosophorum*, under the pretence of alchemical pursuits appear to have concealed a more exalted aim. . . . The student is directed by these writers from the pursuit of material gold to the discovery of incorruptible and purely spiritual treasures. . . Physical transmutation, the one and supreme end of the practical alchemist, sinks into complete insignificance; nevertheless, it is performed by the adept and is a landmark in his sublime progress." l. c. p. 32.
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The sage and seer of Hoenheim had his wrestlings. Should he pursue knowledge for its own sake or for what it bringeth? His evil genius holds out the bait thus:—
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"Know not for knowing's sake
But to become a star to men for ever;
Know for the gain it gets, the praise it brings,
The wonder it inspires, the love it breeds."*
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The spiritual at last triumphs over the base in man. Paracelsus has his revelation, and he bursts forth:—
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"Truth is within ourselves: it takes no rise
From outward things, whate'er you may believe,
There is an inmost centre in us all
Where truth abides in fulness: and around
Wall upon wall, the gross flesh hems it in,
The perfect clear perception—which is truth."*
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∗ Browning's "Paracelsus."
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In the above delineation the poet has done no more than bare justice to the inward longings of an ideal alchemist, who is only an honest seeker after truth. The spiritual and thought-world has always transgressed all barriers of time and space. Kanāda, Patañjali and Nāgārjuna of India and Heraclitus, Empedocles and Plato and the rest—they all form a holy fraternity; aye, these prophets and oracles of the intellect belong to a "lofty and sequestered class," "the high-priesthood of the pure reason, the *Trismegisti*, the expounders of the principles of thought from age to age. When at long intervals we turn over their abstruse pages, wonderful seems, the calm and grand air of these few, these great spiritual lords, who have walked in the world,—these of the old religion,—dwelling in a worship which makes the sanctities of Christianity look *parvenues* and popular; for ‘persuasion is in soul, but necessity is in intellect.’ "*
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∗ Emerson : on "Intellect,"
Linked texts (1)
- Yogasūtra — Patañjali (author of the Yogasūtra), Sanskrit