Shloka 7
ध्यानयोगवर्णनम्
Description of the Path of Meditation
प्राणान् धारयते हाग्नि: स जीव उपधार्यताम् | वायुसंधारणो हान्निर्नश्यत्युच्छवासनिग्रहात्
bharadvāja uvāca | prāṇān dhārayate hy agniḥ sa jīva upadhāryatām | vāyu-saṃdhāraṇo hy agnir naśyaty ucchvāsa-nigrahāt ||
婆罗陀婆阇说道：“火维系诸般命息（prāṇa）；因此，当知命我（jīva）亦如彼火，具光明性。此内火由风（vāyu）在身中摄持而得以存续。若制止出息、呼吸断绝，则风灭——火亦随之熄灭。”
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.