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Slayer of Namuchi

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Namuchi-Vadha

The king of gods Indra slew the three-headed son of Tvashtri(the cosmic artificer) named Vishvarupa(aka Trishiras). Seeing his son slain, Tvashtri vowed vengeance and brought Soma(the elixir of the gods) that he had poisoned and refused to invite Indra for his Yajna. Indra drank the Soma by force and the poison weakened him severely, and his vitality flowed out through all of his pores and orifices .

At that time Namuchi, the Asura lay hidden and bethought to himself, "He has been undone once and for all! I will seize upon his power" and then seized upon the Soma that flowed out from his body while staying hidden.

The gods gathered around Indra and said "Verily he was the best of us but evil has befallen him; let us heal him!"  Then the divine twin physicians, the Ashvins and Sarasvati(goddess of wisdom and war) healed Indra.

Indra hastened up to the Ashvins and Sarasvati, and said he has sworn not to kill him in day or night, neither with staff nor with bow, neither with the palm of his hand not with the fist, or by any weapon wet or dry and yet he has betrayed him.

The Ashvins and Sarasvatî then poured out foam of the ocean to serve as a vajra, saying, "It is neither dry nor wet" and, when the night was clearing up, and the sun had not yet risen, Indra, thinking, "It is neither by day nor by night"  therewith struck off the head of Namuchi. Having thus, indeed, slain his hateful enemy, Indra wrested from him vital power.

In Namuchi's severed head there was Soma mixed with blood. The gods loathed it. They perceived the means of drinking separately one of the two liquids,--'Soma, the nectar of immortality, is pressed '--and having thereby made that Soma palatable, they took it in and Indra's power was restored.

-based on the Satapatha Brahmana.
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This is not a story of a deity living separately somewhere in the heavens and that of a demon from some dark place.  Namuchi literally means "not letting go", he symbolizes attachment; Indra(the master of the senses) is Prajnatman(consciousness) who loses his state of enlightenment(Soma) to Namuchi(Attachment) but with the power of wisdom(Sarasvati) and discrimination/viveka(Ashvins) he severs the head of the demon and regains his state of enlightenment(Soma).  As for the semi-solid vajra and killing in neither day or night, neither by staff nor by bow, neither palm nor fist:  it symbolizes balance in one's own will to be detached, so as to not be attached to detachment, which defeats the whole purpose of detachment.

I'll elaborate on the story of Trishiras and explain the symbolism behind the story when I paint Indra cutting off Trishira's three heads.
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