Cited by 22Study and Philosophy of ReligionIndian and Buddhist StudiesCultural and Mythological Studies
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‘Why Gurus are Heavy’
Open accessDOI 10.2307/3269889
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The alchemist becomes a jīvanmukti, 'one who has found liberation in the body', and as such controls the universe.
“The alchemist becomes a jīvanmukti , 'one who has found liberation in the body', and as such controls the universe.”
From Perfect Medicine (2013) · cites this paper as White 1984
The culmination of alchemical practice is the intake of the power substance created in the alchemical ritual, which is ultimately meant to render the alchemist's body immortal while endowing him with insight into the highest reality.
“The culmination of alchemical practice is the intake of the power substance created in the alchemical ritual, which is ultimately meant to render the alchemist's body immortal while endowing him with insight into the highest reality.”
From Perfect Medicine (2013) · cites this paper as White 1984
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Research works printed but not linked: 13
- Ibid., p. 96: "Root metaphors, by establishing a certain view of the world, implicitly suggest certain valid and effective ways of acting upon it; key scenarios, by prescribing certain culturally effective courses of action, embody and rest upon certain assumptions about the nature of reality." 8 Rasdyana is a compound of rasa + dyana, in which "rasa" stands at once for "essence", "mercury", "sperm", "liquid element" etc., and "a.yana" for "the way of". While the common translation for this term is "the way of mercury," the other senses of "rasa" are also inherent to it. It is also the Ayurvedic term for longevity, or the elixir of life. 9 Rasdrznavam ed. by Sir Praphulla Chandra Ray and Pandit Harischandra Kaviratna, (Bibliotheca Indica, Asiatic Society of Bengal, Nos 1193, 1220 and 1238) Calcutta, Satya Press, 1901-1910. All translations my own. 10 This is admirably illustrated by medieval Puranic accounts of primary creation (cf. Madeleine Biardeau, "Cosmogonie Puranique," in Dictionnaire des mythologies ed. by Yves Bonnefoy (Paris, Flammarion, 1981), vol. I, p. 236), schematically described as follows: Purusa-Avyakta-Mahan (atma)-the three gunas -Aharmkara-Vaikarika/Bhuitadi-the five cognitive organs/the five sentient qualities-the five sensory organs/the five elements. 11 This reverse movement is epitomized in the stages of yoga, as related in the Katha Upanisad 3.10-11; 6.7-8 (cf. Biardeau, op. cit., p. 236), by which reabsorption into the absolute proceeds from the sensory organs-manas -.mahan (atma)-. Avyakta -Purusa(-Brahman). 12 RV 10.90. 13 The Parasara version of the tanmatras is as follows: The tanmatras originate from one another in one linear series, and each bhuta originates in a separate line from its own tanmatra, such that: Bhutddi Sabdatabmdtra--(Sound tanmatra), as a radical or center encircled by Bhuitadi, generates dks'a (ether).
- Gandhatanmdtra--(Smell tanmatra), as a radical or center encircled by the Rasatanmatra, with the apas-atom as a catalyst, generates p.rthivI (earth). (Cf. P. Ray, History of chemistry.., p. 264. See n. 42). 14 Mahandrayana Upanisad 10.10.11, cited in Jean Varenne, Yoga and the Hindu Tradition (Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 1973), p. 45. 15 Cf. notes 10, 11, and 13.
- Mircea Eliade, Forgerons et alchimistes (Paris, Flammarion, 1977), pp. 27-34 and passim. Creation is viewed as sexual from an early time in Hindu mythology, an example being in the Brhaddrapnyaka Upanisad (1.4.1-6) myth of the man-soul who divides himself into man and woman. The two then mate, in various creaturely forms, to give rise to all of the creatures of the universe. In Safikhya, the primary emanations of Purusa and Prakrti give rise, through further emanations of themselves (being male and female respectively), to all of creation. Saivite cosmology, drawing on the yogic tradition, conceives of all of creation and universal processes as being emanations of the eternal union of Siva (as male and potentiality) and his female aspect Sakti (as energy and manifestation). 17 The yogic representation of creation as the reverse of yogic processes should be retained here (cf. notes 10 and 11) as well as the relationship between laya and pralaya, especially when Siva is portrayed as the great yogin.
- D. C. Sircar, The Sakta Pi-thas (New Delhi, Motilal Banarsidass, 1973), pp. 3-4. 19 Eliade, op. cit., p. 108.
- Rasayan Sdr, ed. by Syamasundaracarya Vaisya (Varanasi, 1914), pp. 85-86. While this is a very late compilation, it nearly wholly respects earlier textual traditions.
- S. Mahdihassan, Indian alchemy or Rasayana (New Delhi, Vikas Press, 1979), p. 101. See also note 29. 40 Rasarnavam 12: 198 ff.
- Eliade, op. cit., p. 108, and Mircea Eliade, Leyoga: immortaliti et liberti (Paris, Payot, 1954), pp. 113-118. 44 Rasartnavam chaps. 11 and 12. 45 Eliade (1977: 117).
- Many of the siddhis have alchemical names, as khecar (= mercury; "flying through the air") and rinjana (= black antimony; "invisibility"). The eight siddhis are mentioned in Rasdrnavam 14:43-44; 18:167-169. For many of the thirty-five siddhis, see Varenne, op. cit., pp. 133-134. 50 Cf. Rasdrnavam 12:336-337. 51 Rasopanisat 17:1-34 Rasdrtnavam, chap. 18, passim. 52 Rasdrnavam 14:24-44. 53 Eliade (1977: 107-117);
- Baroda, Oriental Institute, 1928), p. lxxvi. 57 Varenne, op. cit., p. 99. 58 Ibid., p. 138. 59 In the "desexualized" context of the Nath tradition, it is the fire of Brahman (Brahmdgni), rather than the Kundalini, that mounts the cakras. Yoga, as the inter- nalization into psychochemical processes of the alchemical processes, and of the purificatory rite of dfkysa etc., is to be seen as a ritual process in the same way that alchemy was so described. 60 The complementarity of blood and sperm also exists in Indian perceptions of human genesis, with the embryo understood as being evolved solely from sperm and blood. Cf. Gopinath Kaviraj, Tdntrik varimay mem Saktidrsti (Patna, Bihar Rashtrabhasa Parisad, 1963), p. 238: "The secret is that just as the material body is born of a combination of sperm and blood, in the same way the rasa-body is born of the power of Siva and Sakti. That being whose dissolution takes place and that in which dissolution takes place become identical. By the dissolution of gold, etc. in mica-swallowed mercury, the immortal essences become manifest, by the power of which stability occurs in the body." 61 Das Gupta, op. cit., p. 230. 62 Gorakh Sabadi 3, in Gorakh Bdna, ed. by Pitambaradatta Bharathwal (Prayag, Hindi Sahitya Sammelan, 1961). 63 7Trthas (Vtf: "cross over, ford") are cosmologically conceived, in bhakti, as points at which, by virtue of the god who resides in those places, the devotee may, by bathing, cross over from one state of being (existence, samnsdra) to a higher state (liberation, moksa). In yoga, cakra as tirtha is the point at which the Kuindalini, by crossing it, causes the yogin to accede to a higher yogic state. 64 P-thas are "seats" where the goddess (or parts of her body) is located on earth, along with her consort, who is generally Bhairava (see note 47). Bhairava was an important form of Siva for many of the traditions under study here, including alchemy, Nath panth, Sakta yoga etc. For the origins of the SaLkta pithas and the names of the Bhairavas who dwell with the goddess at her pithas, see Sircar, op. cit., pp. 5-7 and passim.
- Raja Radni Samvdd of Gopicand, in Ndth Siddhom ki Bdniyd'm, ed. by Hajariprasad Dvivedi (Benares, Nagaripracarini Sabha, 1964), pp. 18-19. 84 Gorakh Sabadi 88. 85 Ula.td is the turning back of ontogenic time, such that one becomes as a child again. Cf. Gorakh Sabadi 1,52 and 92. 86 Gorakh Sabadi 55, 67. 87 Woodroffe, op. cit., p. 241. 88 Gorakh Sabadi 19, 49, 60. 89 Kaviraj, op. cit., pp. 235-236.
- George Weston Briggs, Gorakhnath and the Kanphata Yogis (Delhi, Motilal Banarsidass, 1973), pp. 179-207. 91 Das Gupta, op. cit., p. 222. 92 Gorakh Sabadi 219. 93 Ibid., 142. All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 94 Ibid., 141;
- Briggs, op. cit., pp. 333-334. "-olf' is probably a shortening of the Sanskrit -dlaya, which means "the place, depository of". Vajra-is "diamond";
- It is possible that the name for preceptor (guru) in these traditions takes its original meaning ("heavy") from this ultimate end of maximum density and impenetrability. 97 Edmund Leach, Genesis as myth and other essays (London, Grossman, 1969), pp. 8-9.
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Wujastyk, D. (2013) · Asian Medicine · doi:10.1163/15734218-12341278 · Cited by 18
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- Authors
- White, D. G.
- Affiliations
- University of Chicago (US)
- Corresponding author
- White, David Gordon
- Venue
- Numen
- Publisher
- JSTOR
- Published
- 1984-07
- Volume
- 31
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 40
- ISSN
- 0029-5973 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W4247419716
- Cited by
- 22
- References
- 0
- Citations by year
- 2025: 1 · 2023: 4 · 2017: 2 · 2013: 1
- FWCI
- 0.00
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- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- escholarship.org
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- Numen (publishedVersion)
- eScholarship (California Digital Library) (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › Philosophy › Study and Philosophy of Religion
- Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › Religious studies › Indian and Buddhist Studies
- Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › General Arts and Humanities › Cultural and Mythological Studies
- Keywords
- guru, guru-disciple relationship, religious authority
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