(ABDU MAN JEETE MAN ICHHA FAL UPAJE) Philosopher's Stone

[faisall667]

I was just reading this ginan and came across this line:

abdhu satgur paaras saadhu traa(m)baa, bhette to sovan hoi;
jyu jal mee(n)ne aap prakaashe, tyu maa(n)je darshan soi abdhu....................................................10

O slave! the True Guide is the philosopher's stone (paaras) and the aspirant
is copper(traa(m)baa), when copper comes into contact with the philosopher's
stone it changes into gold. Just as a pool of water shines with the reflection
of the Moon, in the same manner your mind (and heart) is enlightened
(shines with the Light of real faith and joy) upon receiveing the Spiritual Vision ('darshan').


I then searched google for the philosopher's stone and came across this.


Concepts of Proto-Science:

The Philosopher's Stone

This was, perhaps, the most sought-after of alchemical theories. With the philosopher's stone, the alchemist would possess the power of a god, able to progress the transformation index at will. The philosopher's stone, also called the Red stone, was never found over the three hundred years that alchemists pursued it (except in the pages of fiction).

By accelerating the natural transformations that led to the formation of the universe, the alchemist could change lead into gold, or potentially 'grow' a homunculus, a tiny man acting as assistant and familiar to the alchemist.

In addition, when ground up and boiled in water, the philosopher's stone would give rise to an Elixir of Life, which cured all ailments and made the drinker live forever.

Since the possession of the philosopher's stone would enable the alchemist to both live forever and turn base metals into gold, it is unsurprising that it was very popular. Ian Stewart and Jack Cohen wrote in 1999 that:

"The big goals of alchemy were recipes... for things like The Elixir of Life, which would make you live forever, and How To Turn Lead Into Gold, which would give you lots of money to finance your immortal lifestyle."

However, as I wrote previously, many alchemists did not prescribe to the Transformation Index theory, and although some used other methods to turn base metals into gold, many were perfectly content performing basic chemistry and some physics.

The Alkahest:

A rather less useful substance was the alkahest or universal solvent, which would dissolve anything. Despite the practical problems of storing such a solvent (what would you put it in?), many alchemists were greatly excited by the concept of the alkahest. The idea was first suggested by Arabic scholars before the Crusades, but only after the Renaissance did European alchemists start exploring the possibilities, once again without success.

While searching for the universal solvent, alchemists made stronger and stronger acids, including aqua fortis (concentrated nitric acid), and aqua regia (King's water, a mixture of nitric and hydrochloric acids) which could dissolve gold, but were left to bitterly agree that the closest thing to a universal solvent was the thing they had started out at: water.

New Chemical Methods:

While alchemists were not chemists in the modern view, they certainly developed some decent chemical skills while they were searching for their various goals.

For a start, they learned how to prepare a wide range of chemicals and materials, and modified versions of their methods are still used today. These include:

*

alloys (steel in particular)
*

acids and alkalis
*

alcohols other than ethanol
*

perfumes

All of these were seen as 'progress' to the alchemists, and alchemists typically regarded any progress as beneficial to the enlightenment of mankind.

In addition, while making these innovations (and a great many more unsuccessful ones!), they discovered a wide range of modern chemical processes, for instance:

*

distillation
*

condensation & reflux
*

evaporation
*

aerobic and anaerobic combustions

Distillation in particular was seen as an exciting discovery. If, for instance, rose petals were crushed and dissolved in alcohol, the distilled product (rose oil) could be made into perfume. However, what made the alchemists even more excited was their idea that this distilled oil was something they called 'essence of rose' and contained a blueprint for everything that made a rose into a rose. Alchemists worked tirelessly to obtain catalogues of natural essences, making them out of small animals as well as plants.

Alchemical Mistakes:

This was not the only misunderstanding that alchemists made while studying the world around them. Due to the fairly hazy scientific nature of their work, many mistakes were made.

For instance, alchemists claimed magnetism was a magical force which occurred because magnetic objects had magical 'sympathetic ties' between them. They used this as proof that natural magic existed, and that there were other ways of obtaining magic other than through evil diabolic means. These sympathetic ties covered medicine too. Some scholars believed the rather absurd notion that if a person was injured by a weapon, then the weapon should be treated rather than the person because of the sympathetic ties between the weapon and the wound it caused.

Less far-fetched mistakes covered optics: alchemists thought that prisms changed white light into the rainbow, rather than splitting the light as we know now; and the theory of octaves, which was believed (mistakenly) to control the motion of the planets and even defined one of the earliest periodic tables, long after alchemy had fallen in popularity.

Source: http://www.chm.bris.ac.uk/webprojects20 ... ncepts.htm


One thing that caught my mind was that the alchemist after 3 hundred years were not able to find the philosopher's stone, just like God, where it can take several life times to find Him.

Faisal

[faisall667]

Do you think the Philosopher's Stone exists?

Faisal

[shamsu]

Yes it does.

But not in the form you may be thinking about.

When you and the Imam get in contact with each other in the spiritual realm the reaction is exactly like Iron/Copper turning to Gold.
You will never ever be the same.
Yes you will become immortal like the legend says but it has nothing to do with physical immortality.

Shams

[nagib]

Do you think the Philosopher's Stone exists?

Faisal

Yes it does. Nicholas Flamel used to change metal in Gold, at least that was the accusation against him of witchcraft. He did posses unexplained large stock of Gold. The grand master of the Templars who came in contact with the Ismailis also where said to make gold in that manner. And Jabir ibn Hayyan the pupil of Imam Jafar Sadiq was making it.

The process is called in French "Le Grand Oeuvre", an expression whose exact Gujrati translation would be "Mota Kam", sometimes also called "baytul Khayal"...


Nagib

[kmaherali]

The notion of the transformation of an individual when in contact with a Master are universal in all mystical traditions. Acknowledgement of this concept is central to making spiritual progress because it points to a higher order of existence beyond this material plane. Different traditions have used different symbols to express the irreversible change of a person who undergoes an ascetic discipline under a living guide. This verse uses the symbolism of the transformation of copper into gold. The following are verses from Mathnavi conveying the same notion.

All the wise have said the same:
the one who knows God
is God’s mercy to His creatures…

Companionship with the holy makes you one of them.
Though you’re rock or marble, you’ll become a jewel
when you reach the man of heart.

Whatever knowledge the master is known to have,
With it the souls of his pupils are imbued.