Verse 15.14

Verse 15.14: “I, becoming the Vaishvanara (Fire), abide within the body of animals, and, in association with the out-going and incoming Vital Airs, effect the digestion of the fourfold food. (407)

Commentary called Jnaneshwari by Jnaneshwar:

Therefore, I become the fire by kindling it, Oh Kiriti, in the navel region of the body of all beings, and working day and night the pair of bellows (a contrivance to drive air into the fire) in the form of Prana and Apana (incoming and outgoing Vital airs), effect digestion of unlimited volume of food. I digest all the fourfold food viz. dry, oily, well-cooked, or badly-cooked. In short, I am the entire world as also the feed supplied to it, and I am likewise the fire, the principal means of digesting that feed. Now with all this, to what length I should preach to you the novelty of my pervasion. There is nothing else but myself and I pervade all. Why is it then that some are happy and some miserable in the world? How is it that some of the lamps should be without light when all lamps in the town derive light from one and the same source? Were any such doubt to arise in your mind, I now clear such doubts and hear. I am everywhere and there is nothing else except myself. Yet, I appear (in different ways) to different people, according to their (respective) discerning powers (buddhi).

Sound is the sole property of the sky: but there naturally arise different sorts of sounds in it according to the varieties of the musical instruments: or there arises only one Sun, quite aloof from world transactions: yet he (Sun) is useful for (diverse) world-transactions: or water takes the form of different trees, according to the properties of the (different) seeds. In that way my spirit (which is homogeneous) is metamorphosed into heterogeneous manifestation of diverse beings. It is like this: There were two men, one an ignorant fool and the other a knowing one; they perceived a double braided necklace of blue gems; the ignorant took it as a serpent (and got frightened), while the knowing one felt happy coming to know of its real nature; or the same ‘Swati [Svati]’ (one of the 27 lunar mansions) rain-water gets converted into pearls in a pearl-oyster, as also into poison in serpents: in that way, I become the cause of pleasure to the wise, while of pain to the ignorant.