Amrtam

[Gary J Hausman]

Perhaps you are referring to the following reference? [nothing about
Patanjali in the title , though]:

	Siddhar's Science of Longevity and Kalpa Medicine of India, by Dr.
A. Shanmuga Velan, Madras: Sakthi Nilayam, 1963.	Gary

On Sat, 1 Feb 1997, claude setzer wrote:

> To: Members of the list:
> 31 Jan. 1997
> 
> There is a quite interesting book on this topic: Patanjali's Sidha Science
> of Kalpa Medicine. I don't remember the author but it must have been
> written 30 or 40 years ago. I saw it in the Indian collection of the
> University of Virginia main library (around 1975 I believe). As I remember
> it describes Ayurveda as a discipline not primarily related to disease, but
> rather to physically structuring immortality (and enlightenment) into the
> human body, and gave a living example of its success. It also talks about
> the ancient Indian knowledge that later led to alchemy in Europe.(according
> to the author) In that science, the ability to turn base metal or mercury
> into gold was not the goal, but rather the test of the elixir of
> immortality. (By the way, the process of turning mercury into gold is not
> really that far fetched, a similar process of turning silicon into
> phosphorous is used extensively today in semiconductor technology. Its
> result, interestingly enough, is to make the semiconductor device have much
> higher quality, and thus a longer lifetime...leading towards electronic
> immortality.) I also believe there was at least the implication in this
> book that this elixir was closely related to soma and the process of
> physical transformation described by Sushruta.
> 
> At the conference in Bangalore, there was the claim that traditional (does
> this mean ancient?) Ayurveda had no claim to a holistic system of spiritual
> development that included meditation for perfection of the body. As I
> recall, this book was one of many references I remember seeing that
> disagree with that claim.
> 
> Claude Setzer
> 
> ----------
> > From: Gary J Hausman <gjh8 at columbia.edu>
> > To: Members of the list <indology at liverpool.ac.uk>
> > Subject: Re: Amrtam
> > Date: Friday, January 31, 1997 1:30 PM
> > 
> > The relation between external alchemy (gold deposits in the earth, etc.)
> > and internal alchemy (the alchemy of the body) is quite explicitly
> > articulated in Chinese medicine, as well as South Indian Siddha
> practices.
> > For an entire volume on this topic, see part V, of Volume 5, of Science
> > and Civilization in China by Joseph Needham on 'Physiological Alchemy.'
> > Joseph Needham argues that Chinese 'physiological alchemy' was deeply
> > influenced by Indian yogic practices.
> > 
> > 			Gary Hausman
> > 			Columbia University
> 
> 
> 
>