Text 25
khe khāni vāyau niśvāsāṁs
tejaḥsūṣmāṇam ātmavān
apsv asṛk-śleṣma-pūyāni
kṣitau śeṣaṁ yathodbhavam
khe — in the sky; khāni — all the holes of the body; vāyau — in the air; niśvāsān — all the different airs moving within the body (prāṇa, apāna, etc.); tejaḥsu — in fire; uṣmāṇam — the heat of the body; ātma-vān — a person who knows the self; apsu — in water; asṛk — blood; śleṣma — mucus; pūyāni — and urine; kṣitau — in the earth; śeṣam — the remaining (namely skin, bones and the other hard things in the body); yathā-udbhavam — wherefrom all of them grew.
A sober, self-realized person who has full knowledge should merge the various parts of the body in their original sources. The holes in the body are caused by the sky, the process of breathing is caused by the air, the heat of the body is caused by fire, and semen, blood and mucus are caused by water. The hard substances, like skin, muscle and bone, are caused by earth. In this way all the constituents of the body are caused by various elements, and they should be merged again into those elements.
To be self-realized, one must understand the original sources of the various elements of the body. The body is a combination of skin, bone, muscle, blood, semen, urine, stool, heat, breath and so on, which all come from earth, water, fire, air and sky. One must be well conversant with the sources of all the bodily constituents. Then one becomes a self-realized person, or ātmavān, one who knows the self.