Upaniṣads · Bhāvanā p17
॥
Devanāgarī
एतद्वायुदशकसंसर्गोपाधिभेधेन रेचकपूरकशोषकदाहप्लावका प्राणमुख्यत्वेन पञ्चधोऽस्ति
Transliteración (IAST)
etadvāyudaśakasaṃsargopādhibhedhena recakapūrakaśoṣakadāhaplāvakā prāṇamukhyatvena pañcadho'sti
Palabra por palabra
SánscritoIASTSignificado
एतत्-वायु-दशक-संसर्ग-etat-vāyu-daśaka-saṃsarga-from the union of this decad of winds
उपाधि-भेदेनupādhi-bhedenaby the difference of the accompanying condition
रेचक-पूरक-शोषक-दाह-प्लावकाःrecaka-pūraka-śoṣaka-dāha-plāvakāḥreleasing, filling, drying, burning, flooding
प्राण-मुख्यत्वेन पञ्चधा अस्तिprāṇa-mukhyatvena pañcadhā astiby the predominance of prāṇa, it is fivefold
Traducción
From the union of this decad of winds, by the difference of the accompanying condition — releasing, filling, drying, burning, flooding — by the predominance of prāṇa, it is fivefold.
Versión
fc2a157475a7 · publicado 12 ago 2026, 5:00:00 UTC
Disponible enRUENPasa de verso en verso con
Five actions of fire in the body are named, and all five are verbs describing what happens to food: it releases, fills, dries, burns, floods. This is a description of digestion, and a material one. Indian body-science calls this jāṭhara-agni, "the stomach fire," and its whole structure rests on the thought that food is not simply lodged in the body but digested by fire — that is, transformed, not merely transported.
This thought is correct in substance and was voiced long before gastric juice and enzymes were distinguished. What is eaten indeed does not pass into the body as it is: it breaks down and is reassembled; and to call this process fire was, for the ancient observer, a precise solution. The Vaiṣṇava side names this same fire and speaks of it in the Gītā's famous verse: "I, having become the fire Vaiśvānara, abide in the body of living beings, and, joined with the in-breath and out-breath, digest the fourfold food" (15.14).
This verse is worth remembering, for it shows what the dispute is really about. Everything named here as powers and deities is there named His action; and the difference is not in the observation but in whom it is attributed to. Digestion is the same in both; but it is one thing to say "a fire works in me," and another to say "He works in me."