Ritual

The Siddhayoga of Vrinda is an Ayurvedic-Tantric treatise
which discusses the external and internal uses of mercury. A
preparation called parpatitamram, which contains mercury and
was taken internally, was prepared by pounding sulphur and
copper pyrites together with mercury and roasting the mixture in
a closed crucible. The product thus obtained was administered
with honey. This process probably produced sulphides of copper
and mercury. Sulphide of mercury was also the main ingredient of
another preparation called rasamrita-churan. To make it, one part
of sulphur and half its weight of mercury were rubbed together
and then administered with honey and clarified butter. Killed
copper, blue vitriol, rock salt and a few vegetable ingredients
compounded together formed a collyrium for the eyes.
Many foreign travellers to India, notably Marco Polo, Al-
Biruni and Francois Bernier, recorded their observations on the
remarkable uses of mercury as a restorative and stimulant. Marco
Polo, describing 'the chugchi [yogis] who live 150 or 200 years',
wrote: 'These people make use of a very strange beverage, for they
make a potion of sulphur and quicksilver mixed together and this
they drink twice every month. They say this gives them long life,
and it is a potion they are used to take from their early childhood.'
Despite the apparent simplicity of these recipes and procedures,
it should not be assumed that the mere mechanical mixture of
compounds will yield immediate results. Indeed, the effectiveness
of these formulae is not the literal interpretation of the alchemical
texts but lies within a body of closely guarded secret processes and
considerations. Researches of the contemporary alchemist Armand
Barbault have met with scepticism based on a simplistic view:
Armand Barbault, a contemporary alchemist, achieved after twelve years
what he calls in his book L' Or du millieme matin (Paris 1969) the 'vegetable
gold' or Elixir of the first degree. This elixir was thoroughly analysed and
tested by German and Swiss laboratories and doctors. It proved its great
value and efficacy, especially in the treatment of very serious heart and
kidney ailments. But it could not be fully analysed nor, therefore,
synthesized. Its preparation required such peculiar care, and took so long,
that eventually all hopes of commercialization were abandoned. The
scientists who examined it declared that they were in the presence of a
new state of matter having mysterious and perhaps deeply significant
qualities. 25
This is not an isolated case. Dr P. C. Ray, in his History of Hindu
Chemistry, emphasizes the inscrutability of alchemical preparations
and records that Nagarjuna, (c. 8th century AD) the father of Indian
alchemy, had to undergo twelve years of asceticism to know the
hidden secret. 26
Suryakalanal chakra.
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