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CH. XXIII. ramAnuja blessing the babies. 149
went to bed again, soinewliat out of humour with his wife. But
he had a dream. Lord Hanga appearing spoke to him :
" My
beloved, the two morsels you have eaten, will be the seed for
raising two precious sons in your family. They shall be considered
as my own sons. As sons, I myself choose to appear in
furtherance of my own future purpose, in the same manner as
I chose to appear as Bama, the son of DaSaratha, and Krishna
the son of Vasuclfiva." The dream was over. Kuresa awoke,
and related it to his wife and others, and attended to his duties,
quietly expecting events to develop in their own good time.
Some time went by. In due course, two sons were born
to Kui6.sa as predicted by Lord Ranga. The ten days of
puerperal sutaka were over, but KureSa never concerned
himself about Ihe name-giving and other sacramental rituals,
which the Vedas require to be administered to new-born
infants. His idea was that to his Ramanuja's spiritual family
the children belonged, an 1 it was for Rslm&nuja therefore
to do the needful. RaniilQuja, however, now made his
appearance, accompanied by Govinda ;
and commanded him to
bring the little ones to him. Govinda sped in all earnestness
to Andftlamma, and lovingly hugging the two gems of babies,
ran to Rftni&nuja, muttering all the way the Holy Dvaya-
Mantra as a protective shield for tlie babies against evil inftueuces
;
and lovingly lifted them up to Ramanuja. lid/mauuja
graciously scanned them witli his love-moi.stened eyes, and
observing the splendid ajjpearauce and glorious looks of the
infants, bleSiSed them licartily, and addressing Govinda, said:
" Brother, what didst thou ? The smell of the Dvaya-Mantra
comes to me from the babies." " Sire, yes, " replied Govinda,
" as I was conveying the precious charges to you, I shielded
them with the power of that Mantra." " Then brother,"
commanded R&manuja, " as thou hast constituted thyself the
guardian of the bodies of these gems, thou shalt be the guardian
as well of their souls. And these two infants are no
other than the two sentences of the Dvaya itself, made manifest
in their persons thus." So saying he stroked the infants
with his hands, adorning them with the Panch--dyudha ornament
; and in due time made Govinda administer the FaPcha-