Of all the Darsanas the most extraordinary is that called Rasesvara or the mercurial system.[788] According to it quicksilver, if eaten or otherwise applied, not only preserves the body from decay but delivers from transmigration the soul which inhabits this glorified body.  Quicksilver is even asserted to be identical with the supreme self.  This curious Darsana is represented as revealed by Siva to Sakti and it is only an extreme example of the tantric doctrine that spiritual results can be obtained by physical means.  The practice of taking mercury to secure health and long life must have been prevalent in medieval India for it is mentioned by both Marco Polo and Bernier.[789]

5

A people among whom the Vedanta could obtain a large following must have been prone to think little of the things which we see compared with the unseen of which they are the manifestation.  It is, therefore, not surprising if materialism met with small sympathy or success among them.  In India the extravagances of asceticism and of mystic sensualism alike find devotees, but the simple philosophy of Let us eat and drink for to-morrow we die, does not commend itself.  Nevertheless it is not wholly absent and was known as the doctrine of Brihaspati.  Those who professed it were also called Carvakas and Lokayatikas.[790] Brihaspati was the preceptor of the gods and his connection with this sensualistic philosophy goes back to a legend found in the Upanishads[791] that he taught the demons false knowledge whose “reward lasts only as long as the pleasure lasts” in order to compass their destruction.  This is similar to the legend found in the Puranas that Vishnu became incarnate as Buddha in order to lead astray the Daityas.  But though such words as Carvaka and Nastika are used in later literature as terms of learned abuse, the former seems to denote a definite school, although we cannot connect its history with dates, places or personalities.  The Carvakas are the first system examined in the Sarva-darsana-sangraha, which is written from the Vedantist standpoint, and beginning from the worst systems of philosophy ascends to those which are relatively correct.  This account contains most of what we know about their doctrines,[792] but is obviously biassed:  it represents them as cynical voluptuaries holding that the only end of man is sensual enjoyment.  We are told that they admitted only one source of knowledge, namely perception, and four elements, earth, water, fire and air, and that they held the soul to be identical with the body.  Such a phrase as my body they considered to be metaphorical, as apart from the body there was no ego who owned it.  The soul was supposed to be a physical product of the four elements, just as sugar combined with a ferment and other ingredients produces an intoxicating liquor.  Among verses described as “said by Brihaspati” occur the following remarkable lines: