Padukasahasra 11

“I will go before you, crushing the grass and thorns”:
I bow to that [sandal] whose conduct even Sītā desired [to emulate].

O Mother, O sandal, may I live a hundred autumns, / watching in the jeweled pavilions the coming and going of the Lord of Raṅgam, / praise-sung by the Grandsire who was summoned at the proper hour, / movements that depend entirely upon you.

Mukunda's pacing depends on you; / your sport, O sandal, depends on him. / In this way, mutual dependence is established / between the two of you, whose greatness depends on nothing else.

In my mind, a dense forest where sattva is corrupted by rajas and tamas, / Mukunda, wishing for a fitting hunting sport, / has taken resort to you, O sandal, with both his feet.

O divine foot-protector, only through you, who are endowed with patience / to protect the three worlds, / Mukunda, though the ultimate goal of approach for his dependents, / himself goes out to approach them.

One bears you on his head; / another is supported by you as you touch his feet. / The virtuous declare that for both of them, O footwear of the enemy of Madhu, / their course depends upon you.

With a view to movement, two beings touch you, O Mukunda's sandal, / one with his head and the other with his foot: / the latter descends from his station, / while the former, freed of sin, ascends precisely to it.

Under the pretext of an expedition of victory at appointed times, / having slipped past the snares of the varied inner apartments, / the Emperor of Raṅgam without fail / takes delight with you, O jeweled sandal, on the open road.

Raṅganātha, mounting you, walks with a dance-like rhythm / that is matched to his own bodily frame; / O foot-guard, let his purifying power be! / Beyond this, we know no higher relish for connoisseurs.

You alone, O jeweled sandal, are the ornament / for these two feet of the Supreme Person, / or for the path of sport to be blessed by him, / or for the head of the Śrutis, or for my mind.

Out of grace, O footwear of the enemy of Madhu, / in order to sport in my hard heart, / you make it your practice [to tread] on the crowns of the gods, / uneven with jewels.

The two feet of infant Śauri, / possessing the charm of autumn lotuses, / were surely protected by your power, O sandal, / even when kicking the cart-demon.

As he who reclines in Raṅgam rises from Śeṣa / wishing to ascend the throne of the assembly, / I take refuge in you, O jeweled sandal, within the palace, / the companion of his playful pacing.

The lords of creatures who have attained their offices, / having placed you, O supreme sandal, upon their heads, / unite you to the pair of lotus feet / of the Lord of Raṅgeśa at the time of his free strolling.

Observing the graceful gait of the Person who reclines in Raṅgam / connected with you, O jeweled footwear, / [the wise] do not again experience / the comings and goings in the wilderness of saṃsāra.

Attaining, through the progression of his steps, / sporting movements charming with the order of the vyūha manifestations, / you, O jeweled sandal, constantly support the three worlds, / like the forms of Muradviṣ.

Whether Murāri takes slow strides or great ones, / you remain in seamless contact with him; / surely, O sandal, you display your natural power / to convince us.

Endowed with forgiveness through exceptional grace, / moving forth for the prosperity of the world, / I constantly understand you, O jeweled sandal, / to be the uncaused benevolence of the Lord of Raṅgam.

Bearing a movement easy to enter, for the quelling of the distress / of those who have approached, / I see you as the stream of Śauri's feet, / indifferent to hollows and heights.

Always going along on his journey, / resting on the footstool when he is seated, / impassable through innate greatness, / you, O jeweled sandal, are like the shadow of Śauri.

Touching you with his feet, the Lord of Raṅgam / strode over this universe in an instant; / therefore, O jeweled footwear, I think / his fame as “the wide-strider” was won entirely through you.

Moving his steps, you alone, O Mother, O jeweled footwear, / performed the duty of an assistant / for the protector of Manu's lineage, / as he protected the wife of Gautama.

Leaving you, Śauri mounts Garuḍa to rid heaven's dwellers of their rivals, / and having dismounted in an instant, / he rests upon you again in the grounds of the inner chambers, / O jeweled footwear, yieldingly engaged in sport.

When the Lord, having measured the entire earth given by Bali, / wished to measure the sky, O foot-protector, / you stood above to protect his lotus foot / from the burning torment of the sun's rays as he drew near.

Was it not through contact with you once, when dispatched by Brahmā, / that the Gaṅgā attained supreme purity, the cause of auspiciousness? / O foot-guard of the Sovereign of Raṅgam, what must she have become / through your continuous coming and going?

When Kṛṣṇa, who relishes the stage of Raṅgam, enjoyed his sports to make the cows prosper, / he took shelter in you; / as you moved then, O jeweled footwear, / Vṛndāvana at once became equal to the garden of heaven.

O Mother, since you consist of the three Vedas, you are the measure of his feet; / you are his two companions in his diverse strides; / you are the king of birds in the task of protecting the virtuous, / and in the states of destroying the wicked.

O foot-protector, in some acts of valor the five weapons of his arms / admit an alternative with his fingernails; / but you alone are forever fixed upon Murāri's feet: / therefore, you are truly worthy of non-alternative concentration.

O Mother, O foot-protector! With a mind subdued by tender love, / you have surrendered this limitless, immeasurable treasure to the people in the streets, / [a treasure] attached to Raṅgam, whose nature is impossible to be attained by those ignorant of the field.

Even the movement of the Lord, who follows a fitting step along the virtuous path, / is accomplished through you, O foot-protector! / Who else, then, is capable of turning others away / from proceeding along rough, wrong paths?

O jewel-footwear! On your jeweled stone surfaces suited for sport, / having shared a special dance together with the Lord of Raṅga, / you pause for a few moments in the middle— / thus we imagine: in order to question the courtiers about its distinction.

Ever placing his foot upon you, O foot-protector, / the delicate comings and goings of the Lord of Raṅga at the [proper] time— / whose limited attendants are almost motionless— / become exceedingly cool with erotic love.

O golden sandal! Gratefully accepting the offerings of enjoyment / prepared by the skilled devotees, / while his other retinue looks on at all times, / the King of Raṅga approaches you with close intimacy.

O jewel-sandal! At the time of pleasure strolls of the connoisseur of Raṅga, / the blessed ones, by turns, place you [on their heads]— / heads that inwardly possess a third eye, / or heads that are their own lotus-faces that will manifest as extra ones.

O jewel-sandal! When the Lord of Raṅga mounts the king of birds, / the denizens of heaven, holding charming white parasols, / with their hands trembling with auspicious fly-whisks, / attend upon you as you are borne by the lord of elephants.

O sandal of the one whose banner bears Garuḍa! / Not abandoning the step of Viṣṇu on account of your movement, / having an even course amidst worlds that are ever uneven, / borne by all the chiefs of gods, / how indeed can the Gaṅgā be worthy to follow you?

O foot-protector! Of the Lord of Raṅgam who set out for the demon king's house seeking alms, / who wandered about for the protection of cows, and who carried out the task of an envoy— / deeds such as those became charming through their union with you.

O jewel-sandal of the King of Raṅga! / By the expanse of newly manifested rhythms and tempos, / through the unrestrained course of your own pacing, / you crush the sprout-like sins, consisting of suffering, of those who bow down.

O jewel-footwear! He who alone is ever the supreme cause / of the existence, maintenance, and effort of the universe— / even he, of independent deeds, has his movement dependent on you; / what talk can there be of others, who are petty-minded?

O foot-protector! When the Supreme Person, who has enjoyed the serpent couch, / sets his foot on you for the sake of the world, / the domains of the denizens of heaven, intent on running after you, / instantly become free of misfortunes.

O queen! At the coming of autumn, abandoning his yogic sleep, / setting out to protect those who have taken refuge, / lifting his foot gently from the lap of the daughter of the ocean, / Raṅganātha truly places it upon you.

O sandal, O queen! You touch his lotus foot without obstruction, / and enter the entire inner apartment; / moreover, formerly, during the acts of Murāri's rendezvous with the cowherd girls, / you were the foremost witness.

O sandal, peerless one! When, by your power, in every home the God had different bodies, / at the time of playful gambling, / the sixteen thousand women in secret staked you as a wager / to obstruct his journey to the house of a desired co-wife.

When Mukunda remained hidden on the bank of the Yamunā, / your path, marked by the conch, discus, and other emblems, / was sufficient to allay the doubt at every step / of the youths who were bewildered in seeking to find him again and again.

O sandal! In order to capture, for the delight of the dweller in the lotus, / the sweetly speaking parrots and others that have mastered many branches, / the sport of the Kinsman of Raṅga, displaying a web of virtues, / in the forests of the Upaniṣads has you for its master.

O foot-covering! The sweetly chirping birds in the Daṇḍaka forests, / rising from their nests at dawn, / constantly recollecting your protection of Gautama's wife sung in the assembly of sages, / themselves repeat it freely.

Whom they do not see even with minds purified by restraints and observances, / whose majesty is seen in the Śruti as merely a sip [from the palm]— / you yourself present that Person, whose entire nature is easily accessible, / to people endowed with mortal eyes, O sandal!

Disregarding you, who are like an imperishable treasure, out of delusion, / imagining my fault to be a petty matter, like an 'I', / when I am a full vessel for compassion, / must Raṅganātha be brought to another by you, O sandal?

May I constantly experience, O sandal, dependent on you, / that indescribable one who strolls on the sand of the golden river, / who has placed his hands in those of the daughter of the milky ocean and of the Earth, / the culmination of virtuous deeds, worthy of being served by the sages!

O Mother! Come into our proximity and see: / when discernment is terrified by distress from the dissolution of the organs, / bring before us, O sandal, the lotus-eyed Person, / the severed of the torment of living again in a womb!

May you, O sandal, instantly bring peace to my torment— / you, mounted upon whom, attended by auspicious winds as if by deities, / together with Kamalā as lightning, causing the river Sahyajā to swell, / the dark cloud raining compassion wanders from time to time.

O Mother! I suspect that the sandbank of the Sahyajā has greater virtues / than the world of truth or the place of the Raghus, honored by all; / for, O sandal, leaving each preceding long-familiar place, / you brought the Lord to this one, but you do not take him elsewhere.

O queen! When you are placed before him by the foremost intimate devotees among the gods / [taken] from their best of limbs bowed with the weight of modesty, / the glorious God, slayer of demons, who has no equal on his triumphant expeditions, / apprehensive of your majestic power, places his slightly unclosed foot [upon you].

O sandal! Of the Lord of Raṅgam who roams about to learn the news of the citizens, / your placing, visible and invisible, occurring along the path of sense-subduing ascetics, / becomes clearly manifest at dawn through limitless Vedic fragrances, / visible in the arrangement of the crests of the assembly of wise gods.

Constantly practiced by the assembly of twice-born from their initiation, / the cause of welfare, resting upon the head of the universe by its own glory, / when the Sovereign of Raṅgam arises in person to dispel blind darkness, / you, O sandal, having three or four steps, are counted like the Gāyatrī.

O jewel-sandal! We consider you to be the very glory / of the Supreme Person, the Lord of Raṅga; / how else could the Lord, established in his own glory, / stand upon you from step to step?

O gem sandal, bringing forth along the streets him whose advent's majesty
made the eighth lunar day become the very first for the three worlds,
you make him a guest to the eyes of those who look to none but him.

By your boundless fame as the refuge for the refuge-less,
are you not the refuge even for the lotus foot of Raṅga's moon?
For through you, even the lame and others reach that boundless treasure
of flawless words, right at the boundary of Raṅganagara's streets.

Fond of the courtyards of each diverse chamber, the gallant of Śrīraṅga
moves with a slow gait undivided from you out of his affection: you, O sandal, are my resort,
where the variety of fragrance, rising from the sprinkling of nectar
falling from sporting lotuses, red water-lilies, and blue lotuses, reveals the roster of the inner apartments.

Let the retinue of mounts beginning with truthful Suparṇa exist, O footwear:
yet in the journeys of the Lord of Raṅgam, you alone are the cause of the very first movement.

Thus ends the eleventh section, the Section on Movements, in the Thousand Sandals of Śrī Raṅganātha, composed by Śrīmad Veṅkaṭanātha, Śrīmad Vedāntācārya, the Lion among poets and logicians, the master of all systems.

12. The Section on Flowers (30)