Shloka 7
प्राणान् धारयते हाग्नि: स जीव उपधार्यताम् | वायुसंधारणो हान्निर्नश्यत्युच्छवासनिग्रहात्,अग्नि प्राणोंको धारण करती है। जीवको उस अग्निके समान ही ज्योतिर्मय समझो। उस अग्निको वायु देहके भीतर धारण किये रहती है। श्वास रुक जानेपर वायुके साथ-साथ अग्नि भी नष्ट हो जाती है
bharadvāja uvāca | prāṇān dhārayate hy agniḥ sa jīva upadhāryatām | vāyu-saṃdhāraṇo hy agnir naśyaty ucchvāsa-nigrahāt ||
Bharadvāja said: “Fire sustains the vital breaths (prāṇa); therefore the living self should be understood as luminous like that fire. That inner fire is maintained within the body by the sustaining action of wind (vāyu). When the outgoing breath is restrained and breathing ceases, the wind perishes—and along with it, the fire too is extinguished.”
भरद्वाज उवाच
Educational Q&A
Life in the body is explained through an interdependence: prāṇa (vital breath) is sustained by agni (inner fire), and agni is sustained by vāyu (the moving breath). If breathing is forcibly stopped, the sustaining vāyu fails and the inner fire is extinguished—highlighting the delicate balance of life and the seriousness of breath-restraint.
In a didactic passage of Śānti Parva, Bharadvāja instructs about the physiology and metaphysics of embodied life, using agni and vāyu as explanatory principles to describe how the jīva is to be understood as luminous and how life depends on the continued functioning of breath.