"Self liberated cognises all that is cognisable as identical with itself, like Mahesvara free from bondage: the other (or unliberated) self has in it infinite plurality."

An objection may be raised: If the divine nature is essential to the soul, there can be no occasion to seek for this recognition; for if all requisites be supplied, the seed does not fail to germinate because it is unrecognised. Why, then, this toilsome effort for the recognition of the soul? To such an objection we reply: Only listen to the secret we shall tell you. All activity about objects is of two degrees, being either external, as the activity of the seed in developing the plant, or internal, as the activity which determines felicity, which consists in an intuition which terminates in the conscious self. The first degree of activity presupposes no such recognition as the system proposes, the second does presuppose it. In the Recognitive System the peculiar activity is the exertion of the power of unifying personal and impersonal spirit, a power which is the attainment of the highest and of mediate ends, the activity consisting in the intuition I am G.o.d. To this activity a recognition of the essential nature of the soul is a pre-requisite.

It may be urged that peculiar activity terminating in the conscious self is observed independent of recognition. To this it is replied: A certain damsel, hearing of the many good qualities of a particular gallant, fell in love with him before she had seen him, and agitated by her pa.s.sion and unable to suffer the pain of not seeing him, wrote to him a love-letter descriptive of her condition. He at once came to her, but when she saw him she did not recognise in him the qualities she had heard about; he appeared much the same as any other man, and she found no gratification in his society. So soon, however, as she recognised those qualities in him as her companions now pointed them out, she was fully gratified. In like manner, though the personal self be manifested as identical with the universal soul, its manifestation effects no complete satisfaction so long as there is no recognition of those attributes; but as soon as it is taught by a spiritual director to recognise in itself the perfections of Mahesvara, his omniscience, omnipotence, and other attributes, it attains the whole pleroma of being.

It is therefore said in the fourth section--

"As the gallant standing before the damsel is disdained as like all other men, so long as he is unrecognised, though he humble himself before her with all manner of importunities: In like manner the personal self of mankind, though it be the universal soul, in which there is no perfection unrealised, attains not its own glorious nature; and therefore this recognition thereof must come into play."

This system has been treated in detail by Abhinava-gupta and other teachers, but as we have in hand a summary exposition of systems, we cannot extend the discussion of it any further lest our work become too prolix. This then may suffice.[152]

A. E. G.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 150: Read _bhavan_ for _bhavat_.]

[Footnote 151: Cf. _supra_, p. 113. Madhava here condenses Abhinava Gupta's commentary. Abhinava Gupta lived in the beginning of the eleventh century (see Buhler's Tour in Cashmere, pp. 66, 80).]

[Footnote 152: I have seen in Calcutta a short Comm. on the Siva sutras by Utpala, the son of Udayakara (cf. pp. 130, 131).--E. B. C.]

CHAPTER IX.

THE RASESVARA-DARSANA OR MERCURIAL SYSTEM.[153]

Other Mahesvaras there are who, while they hold the ident.i.ty of self with G.o.d, insist upon the tenet that the liberation in this life taught in all the systems depends upon the stability of the bodily frame, and therefore celebrate the virtues of mercury or quicksilver as a means of strengthening the system. Mercury is called _parada_, because it is a means of conveyance beyond the series of transmigratory states. Thus it has been said--

"It gives the farther sh.o.r.e of metempsychosis: it is called _parada_."

And again in the Rasar?ava--

"It is styled _parada_ because it is employed for the highest end by the best votaries.

"Since this in sleep identical with me, G.o.ddess, arises from my members, and is the exudation of my body, it is called _rasa_."

It may be urged that the literal interpretation of these words is incorrect, the liberation in this life being explicable in another manner. This objection is not allowable, liberation being set out in the six systems as subsequent to the death of the body, and upon this there can be no reliance, and consequently no activity to attain to it free from misgivings. This is also laid down in the same treatise--

"Liberation is declared in the six systems to follow the death of the body.

"Such liberation is not cognised in perception like an emblic myrobalan fruit in the hand.

"Therefore a man should preserve that body by means of mercury and of medicaments."

Govinda-bhagavat also says--

"Holding that the enjoyments of wealth and of the body are not permanent, one should strive

"After emanc.i.p.ation; but emanc.i.p.ation results from knowledge, knowledge from study, and study is only possible in a healthy body."

The body, some one may say, is seen to be perishable, how can its permanency be effected? Think not so, it is replied, for though the body, as a complexus of six sheaths or wrappers of the soul, is dissoluble, yet the body, as created by Hara and Gauri under the names of mercury and mica, may be perdurable. Thus it is said in the Rasah?idaya--

"They who, without quitting the body, have attained to a new body, the creation of Hara and Gauri,

"They are to be lauded, perfected by mercury, at whose service is the aggregate of magic texts."

The ascetic, therefore, who aspires to liberation in this life should first make to himself a glorified body. And inasmuch as mercury is produced by the creative conjunction of Hara and Gauri, and mica is produced from Gauri, mercury and mica are severally identified with Hara and Gauri in the verse--

"Mica is thy seed, and mercury is my seed;

"The combination of the two, O G.o.ddess, is destructive of death and poverty."

This is very little to say about the matter. In the Rasesvara-siddhanta many among the G.o.ds, the Daityas, the Munis, and mankind, are declared to have attained to liberation in this life by acquiring a divine body through the efficacy of quicksilver.

"Certain of the G.o.ds, Mahesa and others; certain Daityas, Sukra and others;

"Certain Munis, the Balakhilyas and others; certain kings, Somesvara and others;

"Govinda-bhagavat, Govinda-nayaka,

"Charva?i, Kapila, Vyali, Kapali, Kandalayana,

"These and many others proceed perfected, liberated while alive,

"Having attained to a mercurial body, and therewith identified."

The meaning of this, as explicated by Paramesvara to Paramesvari, is as follows:--

"By the method of works is attained, O supreme of G.o.ddesses, the preservation of the body;

"And the method of works is said to be twofold, mercury and air,

"Mercury and air swooning carry off diseases, dead they restore to life,

"Bound they give the power of flying about."

The swooning state of mercury is thus described--

"They say quicksilver to be swooning when it is perceived, as characterised thus--

"Of various colours, and free from excessive volatility.

"A man should regard that quicksilver as dead, in which the following marks are seen--

"Wetness, thickness, brightness, heaviness, mobility."