Mircea Eliade YOGA IMMORTALITY AND ... - Brihaspati.net

eached to prepare the elixir, but Indra ordered not to inform anyone about its use (tr.
Tawney, edition Penzer, Ocean of Stories, III, p. 257; sig.).
Somadeva, as a good Brahmin, wanted to demonstrate the prestige of Indra even with
respect to a wizard as powerful as Nagarjuna. In Prabandhacintamani, Nagarjuna is the
author of an elixir by which flies through the air (tr. Tawney, ps. 195-196). According to
other legends, such as famine was raging in the region, making gold and the exchange of
cereals imported from distant countries (see Note VII, 2). We shall return to discuss
Nagarjuna. But remember now that belief in the po-der yogi to transmute base metals is
still standing in India. Russell and William Crooke, yogis knew that attempted to
transform copper into gold, they said to possess that power through one of his teachers on
the time of Sultan Altitmish (or Altamsh). Oman also speaks of a sadhu alquimista.8
We'll see how the alchemical sortile-leges crystallize mainly around the 84 tantric siddha,
and that in certain regions, alchemy is confused with Tantric yoga and magic.
commentary on the alchemical treatise Rasadhtjaya A. B. Keith, A History of Sanskrit
Literature, p. 512. Regarding the "golden man" see Prabandliacin-Tamani, P. 8; Hertel,
Indische. Marchen (Jena, 1921), p. 235. The legend of the Philosopher pierlra in India is
also in the Air 'i Akbari, by Abdul Fadhl Allami (1551-1602), trans. Blochmann and
Jarrett (Calcutta, 1873), vol. II, p. 197.
3 E. V. Bai Bahadur Russell and Hiralal, The Tribes and Castes of the Center
Provinces of India (London, 1916), vol. II, p. 398; \ V. Crooke, Tribes and Castes of the S
\ W. Provinces (Calcutta, 1898), vol. III, p. 61; J. C. Oman, The Mystics, Ascetics and
Saints of India (London, 1903), p. 59 et seq.
Tantrism HAWAYOGAY Alchemy
his description of India, emphasis is on the
relation between alchemy, rejuvenation and lon-gevidad. "They have a science similar to
alchemy and all their own. They call rasayana, derived from slate," gold. "It is an art
consisting of certain drugs based manipulations and certain medicinal compounds in their
most removed from the plan -tas. Its principles restored the health of the terminally ill
and return the youth to the elders, the men immediately returned to the puberty age, white
hair turn black, one rediscovers the acuteness of the senses, agility youth and even sexual
vigor, and the earthly life of men is protracted until very old age, why not? ^ Have not
been mentioned on the authority of Patanjali, one of the methods that lead to liberation is
the rasayana? (Ed. C. Sachau, Alberuni's India, vol. I, ps. 188-189). Indeed, Vyasa and
Vacaspati Misra, commenting on a sutra of Patanjali (Y.-Y. IV, 1) where talking about
simple (ausadhi) between the means of achieving the "perfections", ausadhi interpreted as
an elixir of life, obtained by rasayana.
Some Orientalists (AB Keith, Liiders) and the majority of historians of science (J, Ruska,
Stapleton, Rainha, Muller, E. von Lipmann) argued that alchemy was introduced in India
by the Arabs: invoked on all the importance alchemical mercury and aparicidn Late in the
texts. However, mercury is registered in the Bower Manuscript (rv century of the
Christian era Hoemle, The Bower Manuscript, Calcutta, 1893-1912, p. 107) and perhaps
also in the Arthasastra (third century before Je - sucristo), always in relation to alchemy,
4 Moreover, a certain number of Buddhist texts speak of alchemy long before the
influence of Arab culture. Avatamsaka Sutra, which may consider yourself belonging to
afios 150-350 of our era (was tra -