Bhagavad Gītā · Chapter 15, Verse 14
अहं वैश्वानरो भूत्वा प्राणिनां देहमाश्रितः।प्राणापानसमायुक्तः पचाम्यन्नं चतुर्विधम्।।
ahaṁ vaiśvānaro bhūtvā prāṇināṁ deham āśritaḥ
prāṇāpāna-samāyuktaḥ pacāmy annaṁ catur-vidham
also searched as "aham vaishvanaro bhutva praninam deham ashritah"
Translation
Becoming the digestive fire, I function within the bodies of all living beings. In union with the inward and outward breath, I digest the four kinds of food.
Vāṇi's rendering
As the fire in every belly, riding the in-breath and the out-breath, I digest the four kinds of food.
Word by word
| Sanskrit & transliteration | Meaning |
|---|---|
| अहम्aham | I |
| वैश्वानरःvaiśvānaraḥ | the fire that lives in every belly; the heat of digestion |
| भूत्वाbhūtvā | having become |
| प्राणिनाम्prāṇinām | of all breathing creatures |
| देहम्deham | the body |
| आश्रितःāśritaḥ | settled in, having taken up residence |
| प्राणprāṇa | the breath that draws in |
| अपानapāna | the breath that carries down and out |
| समायुक्तःsamāyuktaḥ | yoked together with, working in pair |
| पचामिpacāmi | I cook, I digest |
| अन्नम्annam | food |
| चतुर्विधम्catur-vidham | of four kinds — chewed, sucked, licked, swallowed |
Frequently asked
What does Bhagavad Gita Chapter 15 Verse 14 mean?
Krishna says he is present as vaiśvānara, the digestive fire, inside every breathing body, working in partnership with prāṇa and apāna to break down all food. The claim is not poetic decoration. The most involuntary, unnoticed labour in you is being done, and Krishna says who is doing it.
What does 'aham vaishvanaro bhutva praninam deham ashritah' mean?
Having become the fire in all living beings, I have settled into their bodies. Āśritaḥ carries the sense of taking shelter, moving in. Krishna does not visit the body from outside; he takes up residence in it, at the level where hunger becomes flesh.
What are the four kinds of food mentioned here?
Catur-vidham annam is traditionally food that is chewed, sucked, licked, and swallowed — every way a mouth can take in the world. Nothing is left outside the list. Whatever enters you, by whatever means, meets the same fire and is turned into a life.
Why would Krishna describe himself as digestion?
Because you cannot claim credit for it. Devotion often looks upward and misses what is already happening below the ribs. Krishna places himself in the one process you neither began nor control, so that gratitude has somewhere ordinary to land — at the table, not only at the altar.
Read every verse this way, held — inside Vāṇi.
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Commentary
Krishna has just called himself the light in sun and moon, the sap in every plant. Now he goes further down — into the stomach. The fire that turns bread into a body is not yours; you did not light it, and you cannot put it out. It works while you sleep, yoked to a breath you also do not manage. Arjuna is shown a Krishna who is not only sun and moon but the humblest labour, three times a day, in everyone alive. You are being fed by something you have never thanked. Say grace over the next meal, or don't — the fire burns anyway.