Shloka 18
Abhaya-Itihāsa: Karma, Indriyas, and the Non-sensory Brahman
Brāhmaṇī–Brāhmaṇa Saṃvāda
तेषामन्योन्यभक्षाणां सर्वेषां देहचारिणाम् । अनिनिर्वेश्वानरो मध्ये सप्तधा दीव्यतेडन्तरा,“एक दूसरेके सहारे रहनेवाले तथा सबके शरीरोंमें संचार करनेवाले उन पाँचों प्राणवायुओंके मध्यभागमें जो समान वायुका स्थान नाभिमण्डल है, उसके बीचमें स्थित हुआ वैश्वानर अग्नि सात रूपोंमें प्रकाशमान है
teṣām anyonyabhakṣāṇāṁ sarveṣāṁ dehacāriṇām | aninirveśvānaro madhye saptadhā dīvyate ’ntarā ||
Vāyu said: “Among those vital breaths—mutually sustaining one another and moving throughout the bodies of all beings—there abides the Vaiśvānara fire in the central region. Stationed within the middle (at the navel-region, the seat of Samāna), that inner fire shines forth in seven distinct forms.”
वायुदेव उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse teaches an inner-physiological and yogic ethic: life is sustained by interdependent vital forces (prāṇas), and at their center the Vaiśvānara fire—digestive/metabolic intelligence—operates as a sevenfold radiance. It frames bodily life as an ordered, sacred system where balance (especially of Samāna at the navel) supports health, restraint, and disciplined living.
Vāyudeva is explaining the internal functioning of the vital airs within embodied beings. He describes how the prāṇas support one another and how, in their central locus, the Vaiśvānara fire shines sevenfold—linking bodily processes to a broader dharmic and cosmological understanding.