Chapter 5 — Birth of Shripad Shrivallabha

Literal. A Brahmin named Apalraj lives at Peethapur with his devoted wife Sumatha. On an Amavasya day, during their household's anniversary ceremony, Shri Datta visits in mendicant form for alms. Sumatha, against the rule that bars almsgiving on anniversary days, serves him. Datta is pleased and grants her a son. Sumatha gives birth to a son named Shripad. He is brilliant from birth, learns the four Vedas by age seven, refuses marriage at sixteen, and announces that he will leave for the forest as an ascetic. His blind brother and lame brother are healed by his glance. He blesses his parents and brothers, leaves for Kashi, then Badrinarayan, and eventually settles at Gokarna.

Symbolic. The Datta-incarnation arrives in response to a single act of dharmic generosity (Sumatha serving the disguised Datta during a ceremony when she should not have served anyone). The book repeatedly stages this: divine response is conditioned on a single act of right-conduct in the face of social rule.

Structural. Shripad's thread ceremony at age seven; his marriage refusal at age sixteen; the parents told their other sons will live a hundred years; the brothers will have sons, grandsons, and great-grandsons. Concrete numerical anchors throughout.