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Bharadvāja said.
How does the bodily fire exist by resorting to the earthly element? How does the wind act according to particular spaces?
Bhṛgu said.
O Brahman, I shall describe to you the movement of the wind, O sinless one. The powerful wind moves the bodies of living beings.
The fire, having resorted to the head, protects the body; the life-breath, existing on the head and in the fire, moves about.
He is the creature, the self of all beings, the eternal person. He is mind, intellect, ego, the elements, and the objects.
Thus, here, he is protected everywhere by prāṇa; from behind, having resorted to his own movement by samāna.
Apāna, having its seat at the base of the bladder, anus, and digestive fire, carries urine and feces and moves accordingly.
The knowers of the self call him who abides as one in the three—effort, action, and strength—as 'udāna'.
It is taught that the wind called Vyāna, having entered all the joints and the entire body, is present in the bodies of men.
The fire present in the elements, being spread and stimulated by samāna, remains while causing the movement of essences, elements, and doṣas.
The fire, situated between apāna and prāṇa, united with both and established in its own seat, properly digests (food).
The mouth, indeed, when joined with the anus at the end, is called 'guda'; from that channel arise all the bodily channels of living beings.
Conjunction arises from the union of the vital energies. The heat, known as fire, is that which cooks the food for embodied beings.
The breath, which carries the force of fire, is checked at the end of the rectum; then, rising upwards again, it lifts the fire.
The large intestine is located below the navel, while the stomach is situated above it. All the vital energies of the body are gathered in the center of the navel.
All the ten channels, extended from the heart and impelled by prāṇa, carry the food-essences in all directions—across, upwards, and downwards.
This is the path of yogas, by which they reach that state. The steadfast, who have conquered fatigue and seat, placed the self at the crown of the head.
Thus, in all embodied beings, the fire is always established in the prāṇa and apāna, situated there just as fire is contained in a vessel.
