lxxiv
Siva to Párvatí, is as follows:—
"The preservation of body, O Supreme goddess! is obtained by mercury and by (the suppression of) breath.[1] Mercury, when swooned, cures diseases and when killed, restores life to the dead. Mercury and air when confined, enable a man, O goddess, to fly about.
"The swooning state of mercury is thus described:—
"They say quicksilver to be swooning when it is thus characterised.—
"Of various colours, and free from excessive fluidity or mobility (see p. 74).
"A man should regard that quicksilver as dead, in which the absence of the following properties is noticed.—
"Wetness, thickness, brightness, heaviness, mobility.
"The fixed condition is described in another place as follows:—
"The character of fixed quicksilver is that it is:—
- ↑ Here Cowell and Gough translate पवन simply as 'air'. We are inclined to think, however, that it is used in the sense of closing the nostrils—प्राणायाम of Yoga philosophy.
