Padukasahasra 15

Your outer gems that send up bright rays, O foot-protector of Raṅga's king, / appear to me, upon hearing the sound of the inner gems, / to have their hair standing on end.

With clusters of rays, O jeweled sandal of Śauri, / when I am in danger, fashion reed canes / that terrify the servants of Yama / as they draw near.

O foot-protector of Mukunda, for the seeker of liberation departing / through the central channel that crowns the head, / your jewels project a mass of rays / to provide a support all the way to the world of Brahmā.

Dispelling by your mere glance / the night impenetrable to the sun that envelops living beings, / unerring in your action, O jeweled footwear, / you are the embodied compassion of Muradviṣ.

O foot-protector of Raṅgeśa, the gleams of your precious stones shine forth / like imperishable supporting branches / for the creepers of the Śruti / whose fruits are the highest good.

Staying beside that extraordinary person / who rests playfully on the sacred sands of the golden river, / you seem, O jeweled sandal, / to massage his foot with your rays.

For him who desires to see the supreme treasure / in a special state of yoga endowed with love, / your beams, O jeweled footwear, / seem to kindle the lamp of consciousness.

O foot-protector of Raṅgeśa, your row of jewels / performs with its great luster the office of a lamp / for those engaged in absorption, / so that they may journey to that realm beyond darkness.

O footwear of the sovereign Lord of Raṅgam, with the rays of your gems / you bind, I think, as is fitting, / the remnants of garlands near the diadems / of the lords of the gods bowed in worship.

O footwear of the sovereign Lord of Raṅgam, your radiant gems, / bestowing varied aims of life upon those who meditate on them, / assume the nature of wish-fulfilling jewels.

The daughter of the king of rivers gives you, O sandal, / who have assumed wings with the lusters of your gems, / as if a pet cakora bird, / to drink the auspicious moonbeams from the toenails of her Lord.

O sandal of the sovereign Lord of Raṅgam, taking pity on a person, / you effortlessly cause their eyes, / drawn from afar by the masses of rays from your gems, / to look upon nothing else.

Touched even once, O foot-protector of Raṅgeśa, / by the snares of light from your gems, / people never again suffer in the confines of prison / the dreadful lash of Yama.

The jewels set in you, O footwear of the sovereign Lord of Raṅgam, / with their unimpeded rays bestow the beauty of colored bodices / upon the fair maidens of the Śruti / who have drawn near.

Approaching the side of Raṅgeśvara / who is fond of the bliss of slumber, / you form all around the serpent lord of the couch, O jeweled footwear, / a lovely curtain, as it were, with the beams of your jewels.

O gem sandal, when the court-damsels of Padmā's consort bow their forms
the moment you are lifted up, their garments slip down;
with your own radiance, as if with silk clothes,
you immediately cover their breasts.

O gem sandal, with the network of gem-rays that step forward
in front of the Lord residing in Raṅgam, dispersing all darkness,
I consider you a spark of an auspicious lamp
for his entry into the shrine of my heart.

O gem sandal, we recognize you, scattered with heaps of jewels,
as the charming market of Raṅgeśa;
resorting to which, the liberation of isolation, whose price is firm devotion,
becomes fit to be bought and sold by the worlds here.

Capable of manifesting the Lord's supreme sovereignty over the world,
marked with thunderbolt, goad, banner, lotus, and discus,
embracing you of intense splendor, O gem sandal,
his lotus foot was beautiful even without ornaments.

Charming with a wheeling mass of gem-light, you are the discus;
this foot of the Lord of Raṅgam upon you is red as a lotus;
I think that both together, O footwear of gems,
are a circle of discus and lotus meant to protect the destitute.

With the crest-jewels of the demon lords who bow down themselves in fear,
and of those whose heads are severed in battle,
the edge of Muravairi's sword, like a tire-woman,
adorns you every moment, O gem sandal.

Resting upon you, which assail the crest-jewels of the lords of the gods,
O footwear of the Slayer of Asuras,
your jewels surely serve as touchstones
for poets to test the gold of their praises.

O foot-protector, bearing Śauri's foot like a play-lotus,
you bestow all objects desired by lovers;
attaining splendor from the heaps of inlaid jewels,
I behold you as the presiding deity of Mount Rohaṇa.

That very splendor which you bestow with jewel-rays
upon the crowns of embodied beings, O footwear of gems,
they display back on you alone through your feet
reddened by the crest-gems of gods beginning with Śakra.

Dense with jewel-sprouts, surrounded by crops
of the aims of human life ripe for harvest, O footwear of gems,
you are fashioned through grace by the divine Raṅgapati
like a fertile field for the prosperity of the worlds.

Their darkness of delusion dispelled by your jewel-lamps,
fixing the bond of their contemplation upon you, O foot-protector,
they perceive before their eyes the Reality concealed in the Upaniṣads,
whose majesty is enjoyed by the daughter of the ocean.

This arising of a mass of gem-stones from afar,
O foot-protector of the Sovereign of Raṅgam,
shines like your outstretched hand
to console creatures whose minds are distressed by fresh transgressions.

My senses, like young deer wandering bewildered
in the mirages produced by the heat of saṃsāra,
O foot-protector, draw them back with the straight rays of your jewels
and give them rest in the ocean of Keśava's beauty.

Kept within and protected by the sages,
multiplied by your own rays, O footwear of gems,
stamped with the seal of Raṅgeśa's lotus foot,
I know you as the capital knot of the words of the Upaniṣads.

Possessing supreme purificatory power that has reached the summit
through contact with the feet of Rāma residing in Raṅgam,

purifying the world, constructed of many jewel-stones,
O foot-protector, you are the bridge for mortals to cross saṃsāra.

Moving across the crowns of the gods,
your abundant light, O gem sandal,
shines like a festive garland of welcome
stretched across the sky for the great festival of Raṅgapati.

By their very nature, O footwear of Mukunda,
your jewels are capable of attracting from far away
the hardened minds of men,
just as loadstones attract iron.

While Lord Raṅganātha looks on, O goddess,
sitting near Lakṣmī in secret,
with your jewel-splendors you nourish her charming cosmetic paste,
as if you were Anasūyā herself.

Taking hold of a fresh, enduring, and lovely garment
offered by your jewel-rays, O sandal of Keśava,
the virtuous happily cast off the body
like an old, worn-out cloth.

Made specially consecrated by the jewels
bound all around you, O gem sandal,
you render the foot of Murāri
fit to be placed within this hard heart of mine.

Brushing aside my sins with the fringes of your jewel-rays,
having granted me equality [with them],
O sandal, yourself place me at the feet
of the Lord of Raṅgam accompanied by Ramā.

Charming with halos of light-beams,
O gem-sandal of the King of Raṅgam,
you shine like a spread-out net
that captures the birds that are the eyes of the universe.

Served by clusters of gems that cause the lotus of the mind to bloom,
which are makers of light, O sandal, O goddess,
you bear the fresh fortune of Viṣṇu's foot,
resorted to by the virtuous, just as the sky is accompanied by the sun.

When Śauri reclines upon the Lord of Serpents,
having yourself mounted beside the footstool,
with a hand adorned with gem-bracelets
you gently stroke that pair of feet, O foot-covering.

At the end, for the creature that has bowed to you,
its house glows at the tip from your radiances,
O footwear of Keśava, from which issuing through the central vein,
it may attain its goal.

Firmly tied with the nets of jewel-rays,
bringing us to the shore so difficult to reach,
having the Lotus-Eyed, primal Lord as your helmsman,
O sandal, you become the vessel across the ocean of worldly existence.

In the thicket formed by the rays of your clusters of gems,
keeping you, an auspicious doe, before him like a hunter,
Raṅganātha captures the herd of deer that are the hearts of living beings
held fast in the snare of devotion, O foot-guard.

O sandal, you are familiar with the soles of Raṅgin's feet;
even so, this Kaustubha gem, though prevailing upon his chest,
remains far inferior in splendour to the glorious mass of your jewels,
which make moths of all sins.

At the close of the day of a series of kalpas, when all creatures sleep
and the universe is enveloped on all sides by such darkness,
your jewel-clusters with their concentrated radiance
become the bedroom lamps for the Youth who stays awake with Kamalā, O sandal.

When you, out of pride in serving the lotus-foot pair of the Moon of Śrīraṅgam,
mount the bowed heads of the gods who consume sacrificial offerings,
a hair-pulling battle breaks out between your fearless jewels
and their faultless crest-gems.

Wearing a constant body-armor of the net of rays from your jewels, / O Mother, sandal of Mādhava, never again do their hands, bewildered, touch / a body seized by the throat by harsh canes that fuel the flaming wrath / of gatekeepers at the winding holes of deeply arrogant bad rich men.

O foot-protector of Raṅgeśa, you send forth an intense burst of light from clusters of fine jewels, / resembling ten million suns arisen at world-dissolution; / so, to seat us amidst the assembly of sages devoted solely to you, / I think it will swiftly shatter our blinding darkness, even on such a day.

O foot-guard, when Hari, who delights in the stage, steps out playfully / and places His foot gracefully upon you and roams at will, / you produce in all eight palace-quarters an intertwining array of banners / fashioned densely from the illusion-bearing shades of gems blending closely together.

O Mother, embraced by priceless gems that surpass the sun, / your station somehow attained by the embodied souls, / placed at the root of Mukunda's lotus foot to protect it, / I consider you an unassailable, boundless treasure of faultless utterances.

It obstructs the three afflictions, cooks away the passions, dries up the mud of sin; / this threefold light of yours, O sandal of Raṅgendra, / I consider to be a splendor [of the three sacred fires].

Thus ends the fifteenth section, on jewels in general, in the Thousand Verses on the Sandals of Śrī Raṅganātha, composed by the Lion among poets and logicians, the master of all systems, the venerable Veṅkaṭanātha, the venerable Vedānta teacher.

16. Section on Diverse Jewels (50)