Bhagavad Gita 15.14

ahaṁ vaiśvānaro bhūtvā

prāṇināṁ deham āśritaḥ

prāṇāpāna-samāyuktaḥ

pacāmy annaṁ catur-vidham

 

As digestive fire within, I stay,

In every body, day by day;

With breath that moves both in and out,

I digest all food, without a doubt.

 

My dear Lord, from my first moment, life gives me an undeniable reminder of my dependence. Without my mother’s milk and without my caregivers’ attention, I would not survive. As I grow up, I learn independence—in eating, walking, taking care of my needs, and arranging for my livelihood.

O all-providing Lord, let me never misunderstand growth as simply a journey from dependence to independence. The more I learn to provide for myself, the more I am reminded of how much is provided for me. Even when I work hard to put food on my table, I cannot digest it myself. This reality becomes evident whenever my digestion fails. My digestion works through your inner arrangement of complex physiological and biochemical mechanisms that I barely understand, let alone control or create.

O benevolent Lord, let these dual and dueling developmental arcs of actualizing independence and realizing dependence remind me of my dynamic identity—as a distinct individual in my own right, yet an eternal part of yours. Help me see my movement toward independence as the unfolding of the potential you have given me as a distinct individual. Help me see my acknowledgment of dependence as a reassuring conviction that I am forever meant to be your part, that you have a plan for me, and that this plan is ongoing—today, every day, and in every moment.

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15.14 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.