Namuci

Namuci is a great dānava. He appears in the Mahābhārata, Śānti Parva, Mokṣadharma Parva, Chapter 226, in the Śakra-Namuci-Saṃvāda (the talk between Śakra and Namuci). There he teaches Indra, also called Śakra, the highest calm of mind, which comes from understanding kāla (time) and the eka-śāsaka (the one controller of all).

Namuci is also named in Vedic and Purāṇic accounts as a dānava whom Indra killed by a clever plan. He could not be killed by anything wet or dry, and Indra killed him with sea-foam (phena, aphena). In the Mokṣadharma Parva, however, it is Namuci who teaches Indra, not the other way round.

The teaching of Namuci

Namuci is found bound and stripped of his position and wealth. Indra taunts him: “Do you grieve? Do you not grieve?” Namuci answers.

Grief destroys and does not help. “Grief burns the body, gives enemies pleasure, and brings no help at all. So I do not grieve. A person of viveka (right discernment) should draw back the grief that comes from despair and fix the manas (mind) on the inner hṛd-kalya, the auspiciousness of the heart, which is the ātman (the self).”

Eka-śāsaka. “There is only one controller (śāsaka). There is no second. He rules a person from within the mother’s womb. I act at his command, like water flowing downhill.”

Bhavitavya. “What must happen always happens. A person gets what he must get. Brahmā places the jīva (the living being) in whatever womb is fitting, not where the jīva wants.”

Kāla is the cause of all. The joys and sorrows of life come from kāla alone and not from any person. A person who thinks himself the kartā (doer) of his joys and sorrows suffers only more grief from that thought.

The jñānī in hard times. The one who truly knows bhava and abhava (arising and dissolving) stands like a Himālaya mountain in trouble. No gain misleads him and no loss breaks him. He meets sorrow, joy and the state between them with the same calm. He is a dhuraṃdhara, one who carries the great burden.

This is in the Mahābhārata, Śānti Parva, Chapter 226.

Namuci in other texts

In the Ṛgveda and the Purāṇas, Namuci is a dānava of great power who had a vara (a boon) that nothing wet or dry could kill him. Indra killed him with sea-foam (phena, aphena) as his weapon, since foam is neither wet nor dry.

Sources

• Mahābhārata, Śānti Parva, Mokṣadharma Parva, Chapter 226 (Śakra-Namuci-Saṃvāda)
• Ṛgveda and Purāṇas (for the account of Indra killing Namuci with sea-foam)