Rasārṇavakalpa (English critical edition)

If a diamond is made to be digested with gold, O fair lady, the mercury becomes a crore-fold transmuter and transmutes all eight metals. (120)

I shall speak of another very rare method of binding mercury. An herb with seeds should be taken, which is a creeping shrub, O beloved. (121)

The second is named mantra-siṃhāsana (the lion-throne of mantras), O Goddess, it is a khecarī (sky-moving herb). Obtain its oil in a copper vessel using the pātāla-yantra (underground distillation apparatus). (122)

Into that oil, drop the khecarī-rasa (juice). Place it inside the medinī-yantra (earth apparatus), O fair lady. (123)

With the help of the previous herb, O Goddess, [bring] the gaganam (sky-essence) onto the medinī (earth/base). Then, adding the mercury extract, grind it into a ball. (124)

In that bound packet, digest the gaganam. When the gaganam is equally digested, the mercury remains in a bound state. (125)

When heated while being blown upon by bellows, the mercury, once fully digested, takes on the appearance of crow's excrement. (126)

When double the amount of gaganam is digested, it can consume all eight metals. It also digests sulfur and tālaka (orpiment). (127)

It digests gold, binds the rasendra (king of mercury), digests all metals, and causes all animal substances to settle. (128)

It digests coral, melts gaganam, and kills the diamond; there is no reason to doubt this. (129)

I shall speak of another [method] through which the practitioner attains success. Place the harīśvarī (herb) in the mercury and put it in a cow's horn, O fair lady. (130)

Bury it in a heap of grain; the mercury remains in a dead [stable] state. By the juice of divine herbs, the mercury is worshipped by gods. (131)

When an equal amount of gold is digested, it transmutes ten hundred thousand. With four times [the amount], it transmutes ten crores; with six times, it is a touch-transmuter. (132)

At the seventh, it is a smoke-transmuter, and at the eighth, it is seen as [supreme]. Foolish animals wander around, bereft of the secret herbs of their lineage. (133)

No success is gained from the juices of common grasses. Therefore, with all effort, one must know the secret lineage-herbs. (134)

There are sixty-four divine herbs established within the lineage. Fools, deluded by Shiva’s illusion, do not know them. (135)

Common grasses that grow in mountain caves are useless. Mercury is never bound by the juices of common grass. (136)

It is not eternal, O fair lady, and does not survive in fire. In leaf, in cooking, in cutting, it does not remain in gold. (137)

That mercury does not perform the five-fold transmutation, O beloved, as long as it is not bound. That which is distorted is not gold; for the sake of virtue, wealth, desire, and liberation, one should not give that [to the unworthy]. (138)

If the mercury has attained a lifeless state, how can it give life? How can a lifeless mercury enliven anything? (139)

O Goddess, when the rasendra (king of mercury) is swooned by divine herbs and is free of impurities, then, O Pārvatī, the mercury comes to life. (140)