Link to purport by A C Bhaktivedanta Swami Srila Prabhupada

Transcript of Bhakti-Shastri class on this verse by Chaitanya Charan

Now we will see how Krishna is arranging at Physiological level.

Bg 15.14

ahaṁ vaiśvānaro bhūtvā
prāṇināṁ deham āśritaḥ
prāṇāpāna-samāyuktaḥ
pacāmy annaṁ catur-vidham

Synonyms: 

aham — I; vaiśvānaraḥ — My plenary portion as the digesting fire; bhūtvā — becoming; prāṇinām — of all living entities; deham — in the bodies; āśritaḥ — situated; prāṇa — the outgoing air; apāna — the down-going air; samāyuktaḥ — keeping in balance; pacāmi — I digest; annam — foodstuff; catuḥ–vidham — the four kinds.

Translation: 

I am the fire of digestion in the bodies of all living entities, and I join with the air of life, outgoing and incoming, to digest the four kinds of foodstuff.

Vaiśvānar is the devata who presides over digestion, I become Vaiśvānar which doesn’t mean there is complete oneness between Krishna and Vaiśvānar but just like in Vibhuti Yoga chapter some kind of correlation is described, there the correlation is between one among the many, one above the many, Vaiśvānar gets the power to digest by the grace of Lord, as sun gets power to give light by the grace of Lord Krishna, 

ahaṁ vaiśvānaro bhūtvā
prāṇināṁ deham āśritaḥ

prāṇināṁ, so it not only applies to human being it applies to all living being, 

Living entities are mentioned as Mam Amsha they are part of Krishna they are meant to take shelter of Krishna, but instead they have taken shelter of the body Deham Asrithah, and having taken shelter of body they are trying to enjoy at body level, but they can’t maintain the body by their independent effort, we don’t think it is my body we think I am the body but actually speaking we can’t maintain body ourselves. Airs are important in all functions of the body including digestion 

prāṇāpāna-samāyuktaḥ
pacāmy annaṁ catur-vidham

So I digest the food by Prana Apana, four kinds of foods which are chewed, sucked, licked and dunked. We cannot even digest the food we can only eat it. 

As it is said God gives and forgive we get and forget.

Although someone can say that he doesn’t believe some devata supervising digestion but scientifically also when we see it is a very complex process to convert food to a useful energy, it requires many-many complex reactions within. Now a days is time of transplantation, if someone’s hand is not working they will transplant a new hand, so some researcher tries to develop a digestive machine so that if someone digestion is not working the machine will digest but they found that the process is so complex that a machine is not sufficient for it we need chains of factories which extends at several miles to achieve it, then also it may not be achievable. So who does those complex processes? We just assume that it happens. Similarly all involuntarily bodily functions are not under our control like blood circulation, respiration, digestion of food these are vital for functioning and even survival for the body, but we don’t do these it is Krishna who does them.

Nature cannot do all these things because nature is not conscious, so although we have taken shelter of body it is in shelter of Krishna. We are all dependent on Krishna. Even when we are turning away from Krishna we are still resting on Krishna only. Even sense objects for enjoyment is also not created by us. So for our survival and for our enjoyment also we are depending on Krishna. So even at material level also we can see benedictory nature of Lord we can see His arrangements. This is first step for our Jyana Chachu. Krishna doesn’t only arrange for our material life but His primary purpose is to elevate us to spiritual level of consciousness. 

This is talked in next verse.

End of transcription.