by the name of Damodara.  The word Prisni includes food, the Vedas, water, and nectar.  These four are always in my stomach.  Hence am I called by the name of Prisnigarbha.  The Rishis have said that once on a time when the Rishi Trita was thrown into a well by Ekata and Dwiti, the distressed Trita invoked me, saying,—­O Prisnigarbha, do thou rescue the fallen Trita!  That foremost of Rishis, viz., Trita, the spiritual son of Brahma, having called on me thus, was rescued from the pit.  The rays that emanate from the Sun who gives heat to the world, from the blazing fire, and from the Moon, constitute my hair.  Hence do foremost of learned Brahmanas call me by the name of Kesava.  The high-souled Utathya having impregnated his wife disappeared from her side through an illusion of the gods.  The younger brother Vrihaspati then appeared before that high-souled one’s wife.  Unto that foremost of Rishis that had repaired thither from desire of congress, the child in the womb of Utathya’s wife, O son of Kunti, whose body had already been formed of the five primal elements, said,—­O giver of boons, I have already entered into this womb.  It behoveth thee not to assail my mother.  Hearing these words of the unborn child, Vrihaspati, became filled with wrath and denounced a curse on him, saying,—­Since thou obstructest me in this way when I have come hither from desire of the pleasures of congress, therefore shalt thou, by my curse, be visited by blindness, without doubt!  Through this curse of that foremost of Rishis. the child of Utathya was born blind, and blind he remained for a long time.  It was for this reason that, that the Rishi, in days of yore, came to be known by the name of Dirghatamas.  He, however, acquired the four Vedas with their eternal limbs and subsidiary parts.  After that he frequently invoked me by this secret name of mine.  Indeed, according to the ordinance as laid down, he repeatedly called upon me by the name of Kesava.  Through the merit he acquired by uttering this name repeatedly, he became cured of his blindness and then came to be called by the name of Gotama.  This name of mine, therefore, O Arjuna is productive of boons unto them that utter it among all the deities and the high-souled Rishis.  The deity of Fire (Appetite) and Shoma (food) combining together, become transfused into one and the same substance.  It is for this reason that the entire universe of mobile and immobile creatures is said to be pervaded by those two deities.[1853] In the Puranas, Agni and Soma are spoken of as complementary to one another.  The deities also are said to have Agni for their mouth.  It is in consequence of these two beings endued with natures leading to the unification that they are said to be deserving of each other and upholders of the universe.’”

SECTION CCCXLIII

“Arjuna said, ’How did Agni and Shoma, in days of yore, attain to uniformity in respect of their original nature?  This doubt has arisen in my mind.  Do thou dispel it, O slayer of Madhu!’