The bound condition is described in another place as follows:--

"The character of bound quicksilver is that it is--

"Continuous, fluent, luminous, pure, heavy, and that it parts asunder under friction."

Some one may urge: If the creation of mercury by Hara and Gauri were proved, it might be allowed that the body could be made permanent; but how can that be proved? The objection is not allowable, inasmuch as that _can_ be proved by the eighteen modes of elaboration. Thus it is stated by the authorities--

"Eighteen modes of elaboration are to be carefully discriminated,

"In the first place, as pure in every process, for perfecting the adepts."

And these modes of elaboration are enumerated thus--

"Sweating, rubbing, swooning, fixing, dropping, coercion, restraining,

"Kindling, going, falling into globules, pulverising, covering,

"Internal flux, external flux, burning, colouring, and pouring,

"And eating it by parting and piercing it,--are the eighteen modes of treating quicksilver."

These treatments have been described at length by Govinda-bhagavat, Sarvajna-ramesvara and the other ancient authorities, and are here omitted to avoid prolixity.

The mercurial system is not to be looked upon as merely eulogistic of the metal, it being immediately, through the conservation of the body, a means to the highest end, liberation. Thus it is said in the Rasar?ava--

"Declare to me, O G.o.d, that supremely efficacious destruction of the blood, that destruction of the body, imparted by thee, whereby it attained the power of flying about in the sky. G.o.ddess (he replied), quicksilver is to be applied both to the blood and to the body. This makes the appearance of body and blood alike. A man should first try it upon the blood, and then apply it to the body."

It will be asked: Why should we make this effort to acquire a celestial body, seeing that liberation is effected by the self-manifestation of the supreme principle, existence, intelligence, and beat.i.tude? We reply: This is no objection, such liberation being inaccessible unless we acquire a healthy body. Thus it is said in the Rasah?idaya--

"That intelligence and bliss set forth in all the systems in which a mult.i.tude of uncertainties are melted away,

"Though it manifest itself, what can it effect for beings whose bodies are unglorified?

"He who is worn out with decrepitude, though he be free from cough, from asthma, and similar infirmities,

"He is not qualified for meditation in whom the activities of the cognitive organs are obstructed.

"A youth of sixteen addicted to the last degree to the enjoyment of sensual pleasures,

"An old man in his dotage, how should either of these attain to emanc.i.p.ation?"

Some one will object: It is the nature of the personal soul to pa.s.s through a series of embodiments, and to be liberated is to be extricated from that series of embodiments; how, then, can these two mutually exclusive conditions pertain to the same bodily tenement? The objection is invalid, as unable to stand before the following dilemmatic argument:--Is this extrication, as to the nature of which all the founders of inst.i.tutes are at one, to be held as cognisable or as incognisable? If it is incognisable, it is a pure chimera; if it is cognisable, we cannot dispense with life, for that which is not alive cannot be cognisant of it. Thus it is said in the Rasasiddhanta--

"The liberation of the personal soul is declared in the mercurial system, O subtile thinker.

"In the tenets of other schools which repose on a diversity of argument,

"Know that this knowledge and knowable is allowed in all sacred texts;

"One not living cannot know the knowable, and therefore there is and must be life."

And this is not to be supposed to be unprecedented, for the adherents of the doctrine of Vish?u-svamin maintain the eternity of the body of Vish?u half-man and half-lion. Thus it is said in the Sakara-siddhi--

"I glorify the man-lion set forth by Vish?u-svamin,

"Whose only body is existence, intelligence, and eternal and inconceivably perfect beat.i.tude."

If the objection be raised that the body of the man-lion, which appears as composite and as coloured, is incompatible with real existence, it may be replied: How can the body of the man-lion be otherwise than really existent, proved as it is by three kinds of proof: (1.) by the intuition of Sanaka and others; (2.) by Vedic texts such as, A thousand heads has Purusha; and (3.) by Pura?ic texts such as, That wondrous child, lotus-eyed, four-armed, armed with the conch-sh.e.l.l, the club, and other weapons? Real existence and other like predicates are affirmed also by Srikanta-misra, the devoted adherent of Vish?u-svamin. Let, then, those who aspire to the highest end of personal souls be a.s.sured that the eternity of the body which we are setting forth is by no means a mere innovation. It has thus been said--

"What higher beat.i.tude is there than a body undecaying, immortal,

"The repository of sciences, the root of merit, riches, pleasure, liberation?"

It is mercury alone that can make the body undecaying and immortal, as it is said--

"Only this supreme medicament can make the body undecaying and imperishable."

Why describe the efficacy of this metal? Its value is proved even by seeing it, and by touching it, as it is said in the Rasar?ava--

"From seeing it, from touching it, from eating it, from merely remembering it,

"From worshipping it, from tasting it, from imparting it, appear its six virtues.

"Equal merit accrues from seeing mercury as accrues from seeing all the phallic emblems

"On earth, those at Kedara, and all others whatsoever."

In another place we read--

"The adoration of the sacred quicksilver is more beatific than the worship of all the phallic emblems at Kasi and elsewhere,

"Inasmuch as there is attained thereby enjoyment, health, exemption from decay, and immortality."

The sin of disparaging mercury is also set out--

"The adept on hearing quicksilver heedlessly disparaged should recall quicksilver to mind.

"He should at once shun the blasphemer, who is by his blasphemy for ever filled with sin."

The attainment, then, of the highest end of the personal soul takes place by an intuition of the highest principle by means of the practice of union (???s??) after the acquisition of a divine body in the manner we have described. Thereafter--

"The light of pure intelligence shines forth unto certain men of holy vision,

"Which, seated between the two eyebrows, illumines the universe, like fire, or lightning, or the sun:

"Perfect beat.i.tude, unalloyed, absolute, the essence whereof is luminousness, undifferenced,

"From which all troubles are fallen away, knowable, tranquil, self-recognised: