Shloka 12
Ācāra-vidhi (Rules of Conduct) — Yudhiṣṭhira’s Inquiry and Bhīṣma’s Normative Catalogue
प्राणानां संनिपाताच्च संनिपात: प्रजायते । ऊष्मा चाग्निरिति ज्ञेयो योडज्न॑ं पचति देहिनाम्,उन स्रोतोंद्वारा सारे अंगोंमें प्राणोंका सम्बन्ध या प्रसार होनेसे उसके साथ रहनेवाले जठरानलका भी सम्बन्ध या प्रसार हो जाता है। प्राणियोंके शरीरमें जो गर्मीका अनुभव होता है, उसे उस जठरानलका ही ताप समझना चाहिये। वही देहधारियोंके खाये हुए अन्नको पचाता है
bharadvāja uvāca | prāṇānāṁ sannipātāc ca sannipātaḥ prajāyate | ūṣmā cāgnir iti jñeyo yo 'nnaṁ pacati dehinām |
Bharadvāja said: When the vital breaths converge and pervade the body, a corresponding convergence arises. The warmth felt in living beings should be understood as fire—indeed the digestive fire—which “cooks” and digests the food eaten by embodied creatures.
भरद्वाज उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse identifies bodily warmth with agni, specifically the digestive fire that processes food, and links its operation to the convergence and pervasion of the prāṇas. It teaches a disciplined understanding of the body as governed by subtle vital principles rather than by mere chance.
In a didactic discourse of the Śānti Parva, Bharadvāja explains an inner, physiological-spiritual account of embodied life: how prāṇa functions throughout the limbs and how the associated inner fire (jāṭharāgni) digests what beings eat.