The ascetic, therefore, who aspires to liberation in this life should first make to himself a glorified body. And inasmuch as mercury is produced by the creative conjunction of Hara and Gaurí, and mica is produced from Gaurí, mercury and mica are severally identified with Hara and Gaurí in the verse-- "Mica is thy seed, and mercury is my seed; "The combination of the two, O goddess, is destructive of death and poverty." This is very little to say about the matter. In the Raseśvara-siddhánta many among the gods, the Daityas, the Munis, and mankind, are declared to have attained to liberation in this life by acquiring a divine body through the efficacy of quicksilver. "Certain of the gods, Maheśa and others; certain Daityas, Śukra and others; "Certain Munis, the Bálakhilyas and others; certain kings, Someśvara and others; "Govinda-bhagavat, Govinda-náyaka, "Charvaṭi, Kapila, Vyáli, Kápáli, Kandaláyana, "These and many others proceed perfected, liberated while alive, "Having attained to a mercurial body, and therewith identified." The meaning of this, as explicated by Parameśvara to Parameśvarí, is as follows:-- "By the method of works is attained, O supreme of goddesses, the preservation of the body; "And the method of works is said to be twofold, mercury and air, "Mercury and air swooning carry off diseases, dead they restore to life, "Bound they give the power of flying about." The swooning state of mercury is thus described-- "They say quicksilver to be swooning when it is perceived, as characterised thus-- "Of various colours, and free from excessive volatility. "A man should regard that quicksilver as dead, in which the following marks are seen-- "Wetness, thickness, brightness, heaviness, mobility." 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 Gaurí 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."