Śakra and Namuci

In the Śānti Parva of the Mahābhārata, in the Mokshadharma Parva (Chapter 226), Indra (Śakra) finds the dānava Namuci in a state of complete loss, yet calm. Indra asks him how that is possible. Namuci answers with a teaching on grief, on the one inner ruler of all beings, and on time (kāla). Bhīshma tells this ancient itihāsa (account of past events) to Yudhishṭhira.

How it is told

The dialogue follows the Bali-Vāsava dialogue. Bhīshma introduces it with these words: in this very matter, freedom from personal pride (ahaṃkāra), hear this ancient itihāsa. (Śānti Parva, Chapter 226)

Namuci’s condition

Namuci is bound. He has lost his place, he has been taken by his enemies, and he has been stripped of all his wealth. Yet he sits in perfect śānti (peace), calm as an undisturbed ocean.

Indra is truly puzzled. He goes to him and asks, “Do you grieve? Do you not grieve?” (Śānti Parva, Chapter 226)

Namuci’s teaching

Grief destroys and does not help

Namuci begins with what anyone can see. Grief burns the body and pleases enemies, and it gives no help at all. The one who grieves is left even by those who wish him well. So a person of viveka (clear discernment) puts away the grief born of despondency and turns his mind to the good that is within the heart, which is the ātmā itself. Whenever a person turns his mind to that good, all his aims are fulfilled.

One śāsaka

Namuci then speaks of who governs all things:

“There is only one śāsaka (commander). There is no second. He governs a person from within the mother’s womb. Following his command, like water flowing to a lower place, I function under his authority.”

This is the antaryāmin, the inner ruler who directs all beings from within. Namuci does not act by his own free will. He flows with the current of the śāsaka’s order. Seen this way, loss is not personal. A person has lost nothing that he truly owned, because he never acted on his own in the first place.

Karma and what must be

Namuci says that what must happen always happens:

“What is bhavitavya (what must happen) always happens. A person gets what he must get. Brahmā places the jīva in whatever garbha (womb) is fitting, and not where the jīva itself wishes.”

Namuci follows this order without resistance, and that is the source of his śānti.

Knowing arising and passing

Namuci says that he knows bhava and abhava, the arising and the passing away of all things. Those who know that every condition is temporary, and that every form arises and dissolves through kāla, are not shaken by trouble. The self that seems to suffer, the dehin (the embodied one), is not the true self. The true self, the ātmā, is asaṅga (unattached).

Kāla alone causes all

Like Bali in the dialogue before this one, Namuci names kāla as the only cause. The sorrow and the joy that come and go are caused by kāla, and by no person. Whoever thinks himself the kartā (doer) of joy and sorrow suffers only, because that thought makes the ahaṃkāra that turns loss into something unbearable.

The steady mind

The one who truly knows stands like the Himālaya, unmoved by any wind of circumstance. The greatest gain cannot make him lose his judgment, and no trouble brings him grief. He who meets sorrow, joy and the absence of both in the same way, without disturbance (vikāra), is a dhuraṃdhara, a bearer of the great burden, a truly mature person. (Śānti Parva, Chapter 226)

The reference to Gautama

Namuci also refers to the ṛshi Gautama, whose wife was taken by Indra. Gautama was in great distress, yet he did not lose his wisdom even then. Namuci uses this to show that Indra acts from self-indulgence and then mocks those whom kāla has humbled, while the wise do not fall into moha (confusion) even when greatly provoked. Namuci has not fallen into moha. Indra, in his pride, still does. (Śānti Parva, Chapter 226)

Sources

• Mahābhārata, Śānti Parva, Mokshadharma Parva, Chapter 226