Upaniṣads · Prāṇāgnihotra 2.5
॥
Devanāgarī
चत्वारोऽग्नयस्ते किंभागधेयाः
Transliteración (IAST)
catvāro'gnayaste kiṃbhāgadheyāḥ
Palabra por palabra
SánscritoIASTSignificado
चत्वारः अग्नयः तेcatvāraḥ agnayaḥ tefour fires has he
किम् भाग-धेयाःkim bhāga-dheyāḥwhat are their shares
Traducción
Four fires has he — what are their shares?
Versión
6b8b7373979a · publicado 12 ago 2026, 5:00:00 UTC
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A question is asked about bhāga-dheya, "shares," that is, what portion falls to whom. The word bhāga means "share, portion, lot"; it was discussed when reading the Rudrākṣa-jābāla (2.13), where saubhāgya, "good fortune," was examined. In sacrificial practice, bhāga-dheya is a precise concept: every deity has its own share of the libation, and this distribution forms the content of whole books.
Transferred to the body, it means: which part of what is eaten goes where. Note that the question is put exactly this way, and not "how many fires" or "where are they." It asks about distribution.
The Vaiṣṇava side holds this concept of a share and has applied it to its own central subject. Food that is offered and distributed is divided: a portion for Him, a portion for devotees, a portion for guests, a portion for the household; and the order of distribution is set out in detail. Let us add what lies behind this and deserves keeping.
Where everything is divided by shares, no one receives everything; and a person accustomed to such an order does not think of himself as the sole recipient. Hence the question of shares, for all its ritual dryness, is in fact a moral question: it trains one to ask not "how much for me," but "how much for whom."