Śivasaṃhitā 2.34

Śiva identifies the digestive fire as a direct emanation of his own luminous energy (tejoṃśa). The use of the first-person possessive mama (mine) in the deity’s voice confers a sacred and personal character upon vaiśvānarogni: digestion is not a mere biological process but a participation in divine creative power, a fragment of cosmic fire burning within each living body.

Vaiśvānara carries deep Vedic resonance, appearing in the Ṛgveda and major Upaniṣads as the universal fire or the Ātman conceived as cosmic flame. Etymologically it derives from viśva (all, universal) and nara (man, being), meaning «common to all beings» or «the universal fire.» Tejoṃśa joins tejas (fire, brilliance, energy) with aṃśa (portion, fragment).

The Chāndogya Upaniṣad (5.18–24) presents Vaiśvānara as the Ātman that digests food within all creatures — a passage the Śivasaṃhitā clearly echoes. By embedding this Upaniṣadic concept in a Śaiva Tantric context, the text sacralizes the daily act of eating, framing nutrition as a form of inner ritual participation in divine fire.