15
The Ocean of Mercury: An Eleventh-Century Alchemical Text
Alchemy, the “way of mercury” (rasāyana), was essentially a Hindu enterprise in India; there are no extant Buddhist texts devoted to the subject. Within the Hindu sphere, the roughly eleventh-century Rasārṇava or “Ocean of Mercury” is the most important textual source for what is known as tantric alchemy. In contrast to earlier (third to tenth centuries C.E.) “gold-making” alchemy and later (fourteenth to twentieth centuries) therapeutic uses of mercurial and mineral medicines, tantric alchemy, which saw its heyday in the tenth to thirteenth centuries, was most concerned with the alchemical production of an elixir of immortal life with which to realize the supreme goals of bodily immortality (jīvanmukti), supernatural powers (siddhi) and a state of being identical to that of the supreme god Śiva.
Tantric alchemy is so called because these goals were identical with those of the broad-based medieval Indian body of religious practice and doctrine known as tantra. What made tantric alchemy unique was its emphasis on the use of mineral, mainly mercurial, preparations (but also botanicals, as well as a number of animal substances) as the means toward its tantric end. The theory behind this practice was the identification alchemists made between mercury (rasa), the fluid metal, and the semen (also called rasa) of Śiva, the great Hindu god whose millenarian icon has been a phallus (liṅga). Mercury was, for them, the seminal essence of a god who (pro-)creates the universe sexually; indeed, the origin myth of mercury tells us that quicksilver first arose when Śiva spilled his seed at the end of a long bout of lovemaking with his consort, the goddess Pārvatī. This seed, once spilled, became polluted through its contact with the earth. The alchemist’s craft therefore consists of returning mercury, through a series of chemical reactions of incredible complexity, to its original pristine state. Once he has perfected it in the laboratory, the alchemist may then ingest this mercury, which then transforms him into an immortal superman, a “second Śiva.”
Tantric alchemy was tantric in more than its goals: in addition to their emphasis on manipulating mercury and other mineral substances, its principal texts also prescribed the use of geometric diagrams (yantras), powerful formulas (mantras), and forms of worship (pūjā) proper to the broader tantric tradition. It was also tantric in its worldview, which held that the manifest universe (identified with the Goddess under one of her many names) was the self-realization of an absolute, unmanifest source (often identified with the god Śiva), the dynamics of this process of self-realization often being portrayed as the sexual union of the two divinities. Tantric alchemy also considered itself Hindu, and as such located itself within the broader Hindu tradition. It is in this context that chapter one of the Rasārṇava, translated here, must be read: it is an attempt to situate the way of mercury or the mercurial science (rasavidyā) within the broader contexts of tantric and Hindu doctrine and practice. What makes the Rasārṇava special in the annals of tantric literature (apart from its subject matter) is its anonymous author’s rhetorical flair, which makes for livelier reading than the usual tantric fare.
The Rasārṇava is, like most “revealed” tantric texts (called tantras), cast in the form of a dialogue in which the Goddess (here called by the names Pārvatī, Devī or Bhairavī) asks the questions and Śiva (also called Bhairava here) answers them. Verses 1-6 set the scene and introduce one of the main themes of the chapter, the gaining of bodily liberation through alchemical practice. Bhairava begins his answer by stressing the concrete nature of the alchemical path: in contradistinction to the teachings of more conventional Hinduism (the six schools of Indian philosophy), which maintain that liberation occurs after the shedding of one’s mortal body, here it is this body of flesh and blood that is transformed and rendered immortal (verses 8-9, 12-17).
The author reserves his greatest scorn and rhetorical ammunition for the practices of other tantric sects which, he clearly feels, are on the wrong track. These he condemns for their antinomian practices, which he groups under the common heading of the five makāras, the “Five Ms”: the consumption of flesh (māṁsa), fish (matsya), alcohol (madhu), and parched grain (mudrā), and the practice of sexual intercourse (maithuna) as means to realizing tantric goals (verses 10-11, 24, 29-30). He does, however, seek to defend himself vis-à-vis the tantric sects in an obscure verse (verse 27), in which he maintains that the Alchemical school or order (sampradāya) is a “womb,” because mercury is a “womb.” Here, he is referring to the tantric notion that each sectarian order was a household (which was part of a broader clan, that is, the confederation of tantric sects) into which one is born as a son or daughter of the Goddess, upon initiation. The biological nature of the tantric lineage is emphasized in the old tantric initiation rituals, in which the initiate ingests “lineage-nectar”—in the form of sexual fluids—which originally arises from the Goddess’s own womb. It is in this context that the Rasārṇava states that mercury itself is the Alchemical school’s “womb.”
In verse 26, the author appears to contradict himself regarding his anti-makāra position of prior verses, when Bhairava praises the eating of “cow meat” and the drinking of “liquor.” This, however, is a mystic reference to a technique, known as khecarī mudrā (“the seal of moving in the ether”), which was a commonplace of the body of breathing techniques, bodily postures, and so on, grouped under the heading of haṭha yoga, the “yoga of violent exertion.” The internal practice of haṭha yoga was in fact the necessary complement to alchemical practice: without a body “primed” by yoga, the high-energy mercury ingested by the alchemist would destroy him. Moreover, perfected mercury served as a catalyst for the internal transformation of the gross mortal body into a perfected and immortal one (verses 18-22). Alchemical and yogic works alone were not sufficient, however; without the grace and teachings of a spiritual preceptor (guru), the alchemist would fail in his quest for power, pleasure, and immortality (verses 54-57).
Much of this chapter is devoted to the greatness of mercury itself. It is the seed of Śiva (verse 36), or the product of the sexual union of Śiva and the Goddess (verse 34), whose own sexual emission takes the form of mica (mentioned in verse 44) in the mineral world: the goddess also can take the mineral forms of red arsenic or sulphur, both identified with her uterine blood. Itself possessed of wonderful powers, mercury affords the same powers to alchemists who eat it (verses 22, 27-28, 31, 53, 57). Because it gives (da) the highest end (para), it is called pārada (pārada is a synonym for rasa, mercury: verse 35).
Beyond being identified with Śiva’s semen, mercury is identified with Śiva’s phallic emblem, the liṅga from which it arose in the beginning. Therefore, the construction and worship of mercurial phalluses (rasaliṅgas) are central to alchemical practice, just as liṅga-worship is central to devotional cults of Śiva, for which such liṅgas as Kedārnāth in the Himalayas are important pilgrimage sites (verses 37-43). Abuse of or lack of faith in mercury is, in this context, a sacrilege, the punishments for which are detailed in verses 45 and 47 through 52. The chapter ends (verse 59) with a reference to a ritual form of tantric worship called nyāsa, in which mantras of the god and goddess of alchemy are superimposed upon one’s own body, as a preparation for self-divinization. The final verse (verse 60) opens the way to the remaining seventeen chapters of the Rasārṇava, devoted in the main to alchemical “recipes” and descriptions of the wondrous powers to be gained through the use of perfected mercury.
Chapter I of the Rasārṇava is found in Rasārṇava Nāma Rasatantra, 2d ed., edited with a Hindi commentary by Indradeo Tripathi, Haridas Sanskrit Granthamala, no. 88 (Benares: Chaukhamba Sanskrit Series Office, 1978), pp. 1-14.
The Ocean of Mercury: Chapter One
1. He in whom everything is, from whom everything will be, who is everything and everywhere, who is all-encompassing and eternal, salutations to that universal soul!
2-3. While on Kailāsa’s delightful peak, a peak adorned with a multitude of jewels and strewn with myriad trunks and vines, the goddess Pārvatī, bowing her head before the blue-throated, three-eyed God of gods who was comfortably seated there, asked with circumspection:
4. “O God among gods, O great God, O incinerator of Time and Love, O preception of the Kaula, Mahākaula, Siddhakaula, etc. lineages!
5-6. “By your grace, all of revelation has been made known to the world in its entirety. If I am worthy of your favor, if I am your beloved, then tell me this: there are things that have been told in all of the tantras; yet there are things that have not been brought to light. O Lord! What is this liberation in the body? You alone are capable of describing that.”
7. “Well said, well spoken, O fortunate Goddess! Well spoken, O Daughter of the Mountain! The question you have asked is a matter that concerns the welfare of our devotees.
8-9. “Eternal youth, immortality of the body, and the attainment of an identity of nature with Śiva—that is, liberation in the body (jīvanmuktī)—is difficult even for the gods to attain. The liberation that occurs when one drops dead, that liberation is worthless. For in that case, a donkey would also be liberated when he dropped dead.
10. “If liberation is to be identified with the excitation of the female genitilia, whom could donkeys not liberate? Indeed, what ram or bull would not be liberating?
11-13. “Therefore, one should safeguard one’s body with mercury and mercurial elixirs. If liberation came from utilizing one’s semen, urine, and excrements, which of the races of dogs and swine would not be liberated? Liberation is indeed viewed in the six schools as occurring when one drops dead, but that kind of liberation is not directly perceivable, in the manner of a myrobalan fruit in the hand. Ineffable reality, even that shall I tell you, O Goddess!
14-17. “In no wise can he who is merely without sin or who offers mantras maintain his body. If the maintenance of the body is difficult even for the gods, O great Goddess, then how much more difficult it must be for men living on the face of this earth! When righteousness is destroyed, how can there be righteousness? When righteousness is destroyed, how can there be practice? When practice is destroyed, how can there be yoga? When yoga is destroyed, how can there be a way to liberation? When the way is destroyed, how can there be liberation? When liberation is destroyed, there is nothing at all. Therefore, O fortunate Goddess, the body is to be vigorously preserved.
18. “The maintenance of the body is realized through the practice of yoga. Mercury and breath control are known as the twofold practice of yoga.
19. “When swooning, mercury, like the breath, carries off disease; when killed, it raises from the dead; when bound, it affords the power of flight.
20-22. “Liberation arises from insight, insight arises from the maintenance of the vital breaths. Therefore, where there is stability, mercury is powerful and the body is stable. Through the use of mercury one quickly obtains a body that is unaging and immortal, with a mind absorbed in meditation. He who eats calcinated mercury truly obtains insight as well as worldly knowledge, and his mantras succeed.
23. “So long as the Goddess does not descend, and so long as one’s fetters to this world remain uncut, there is no way that true discrimination can arise in the use of calcinated mercury.
24. “For those people who have lost their powers of reason through indulgence in liquor, flesh, sexual intercourse, and the male and female organs, the mercurial science is exceedingly difficult to realize.
25. “He who is without instruction in the alchemical tradition and who does not strive after the true religion, for him the mercurial science does not succeed. He drinks the water of mirages.
26. “He who eats cow meat and drinks the liquor of immortality, I consider to be one of the lineage and a connoisseur in the science of mercury. Other experts in the science of mercury are inferior.
27. “To those who say that this [alchemical] order (sampradāya) is not a ‘womb’: it is maintained that mercury is a ‘womb.’ It is by means of it that the siddhi is obtained. No siddhi without mercury.
28. “Until such time as one eats Śiva’s seed—that is, mercury, rasa—where shall he seek his liberation, where shall he seek the maintenance of his body?
29-30. “There are those ignorant ones who, wholly besotted with liquor and flesh and deluded by Śiva’s illusion, prattle that ‘we are liberated, we have gone to the world of Śiva.’ Then there are those dim-witted ones who are dissatisfied with the yogic preservation of the body. The universe, O Goddess, is enamoured with partial knowledge!
31. “Let him who has realized the power of flight and Śiva-hood in his own body, and who has knowledge of mercury always practice the mercurial science, my darling.”
32. The Goddess said: “I wish to hear of the worldly descent and greatness of mercury, O Lord of the gods! You can tell me that in its essentials.”
33. Lord Bhairava said: “Well asked, O fortunate Goddess! That which you contemplate is highly esoteric, a matter for the support and welfare of the worlds.
34. “You, O Goddess, are the mother of all beings and I am their eternal father. That which was generated from our great sexual union, that is rasa.
35. “Because it arose of its own volition, that great one [mercury] is praised as pārada, and because the greatest of practitioners use it to the highest ends it is also called pārada.
36. Mercury is identical to me, O Goddess. It arises from my each and every limb. It is my own vital fluid. It is for this reason that it is called rasa.
37-42. “From viewing, touching, eating, indeed merely recalling, worshiping, and offering mercury, six types of fruits are realized. The merit one gains from viewing all of the liṅgas in the world—of Kedārnāth, and so on—as well as all others that may exist is gained from the mere viewing of mercury. By worshiping Śiva in the form of calcinated mercury, with sandal, camphor, and saffron, one attains the world of Śiva. Eating mercury destroys the triad of sins (in word, deed, and thought), afflictions, and morbid states. The highest station, difficult even for fully realized brahmans to reach, is attained. By recalling mercury in the center of the lotus in the space within one’s heart, O Goddess, one is immediately freed from the sins accumulated in past lives.
43. “The combined fruits that one might gain from worshiping one thousand of Śiva’s self-generated (svayambhū) liṅgas, are reaped a hundred thousandfold by worshiping Śiva’s mercurial liṅga.
44. “The ‘doctrine of mica’ is the lowest alchemical doctrine; the ‘doctrine of mineral salt’ is a middling doctrine; the ‘doctrine of mantra’ is highest; and the ‘doctrine of mercury’ is the very highest.
45. They who, possessed of a consummate knowledge of mantra and tantra, put mercury to an evil use, annihilate their accumulated good acts, and go to hell.
46. The mercurial science is a transcendent form of knowledge, difficult to gain in the three worlds. It affords worldly enjoyment and liberation. For this reason, it should be promulgated by persons eminent in the field.
47-48. “Some say ‘it exists’; some say ‘it does not exist.’ He who believes it exists gains siddhis and realizes his goals on this earth. Those who, out of unbelief, say, ‘it is not, it does not exist,’ their goals are not realized, my darling, even in a billion rebirths.
49-52. “The sinner who, considering himself to be liberated through his knowledge of the absolute, disparages mercury, loses my protection even for a billion rebirths. He is born as a dog, O Goddess, for as many as a thousand births; by offending mercury, he is born as a cat for 30 million births, a donkey for a hundred thousand births, a crow for a hundred thousand births, a worm for a hundred thousand births, a wild cock for a hundred thousand births, and a vulture for a hundred thousand births. He who talks to or has bodily contact with those who are revilers of mercury, he too becomes afflicted with sorrows for as many as a thousand rebirths.
53. “Mercury is, in its fluidity, potency, and fullness of development, the equivalent of ambrosia (amṛta). By virtue of this, mercury carries off death and rebirth, disease and injury.
54. “First, one should, with a purified inner soul, propitiate one’s guru. Once the guru is satisfied, the rays of light emanating from his teachings bestow upon one the secret doctrine.
55. “The slow-minded person who performs alchemical practice without taking a guru meets with no success. His acts are like the money one makes in dreams.
56. “He who performs acts that have been taught by the guru meets with success at every step. Therefore, my dear, one should put into practice the alchemical doctrine imparted by a satisfied guru.
57-58. “This teaching that is a path to realization affords both enjoyment and liberation. This great tantra called the Ocean of Mercury, exceedingly difficult of access and esoteric, may be accessed, for the realization of alchemical goals, through the grace of the guru. Once one has gained access to the alchemical practice, one should not then become egotistical.
59. “Then, having received the mantra called the ‘elephant goad of mercury,’ one should, with the guru’s permission, superimpose the goddess Bhairavī upon one’s own body, and carry out the worship of the mercurial Bhairava.
60. “O Goddess! The origin and greatness of mercury has now been told. What other matters you would like to hear me tell about?”