Padukasahasra 16

I take refuge in the sandal of the Lord, who created the social orders / from His mouth, arms, thighs, and feet, / and whose arrangement of diverse classes is made evident by its jewels.

O golden sandal, varied with gems white, red, yellow, and black, / you seem to show at one and the same time / the difference of Murāri's colors, apportioned through the distinction of the cosmic ages.

Adorned with the nine jewels on Murāri's feet, O gem-sandal, you shine, / like the earth with its nine continents, / out of love resorting to the place of its origin.

Promptly bringing sinners before Mukunda's foot, / which rests its own steps under your control, / possessing the splendor of pearls joined with rubies, / you seem to smile, O sandal.

O gem-sandal, the ray arising from your many jewels, / having reached the foot of Murāri, I consider / to be a peacock's feather placed to wipe away / the audacity of mounting His crown.

By the blossoming brilliance of emeralds and pearls, O sandal, / you seem to present to the beauty of the lotus feet of Madhujit / a garland fashioned from blue and white water lilies.

O sandal of Mādhava, by the brilliance of your gems, white, black, and red, / O queen, the Gaṅgā on Śiva's crown / carries forests of white night-lotuses, blue water lilies, and day-lotuses.

Through the gleams of different gems, red, white, and black, / we recognize you, O sandal, as primordial nature / attached to the foot of the Lord of Raṅgam / here for the sake of His cosmic play.

O gem-sandal, possessing the dark-green sheen of a tamāla tree through sapphires / and interwoven with pearls, / I perceive you as the shore of the ocean of Raṅgeśvara's splendor, / worthy of His incessant coming and going.

To grant a glory free from dawn and dusk to the two sandals of Raṅgeśvara, / I know that day and night have surely been held captive, / visible under the guise of diamonds and sapphires.

Protector of Murāri's foot, with the luster of pearls touching [other] gems, / it seems you anoint the inner eye of sages with a collyrium-rod of camphor, / endowing it with dark eye-salve.

Charming with streams of rays from pearls, dark with clusters of beams from sapphires, / worthy of honor, joined with playful movement, / O gem-sandal of Murāri, you choose victory, / [just as Subhadrā, sister of Kṛṣṇa, respected and united with playful deeds, chose Arjuna].

O gem-sandal of manifold hues and metrical forms, / a song framed in Sāman chants, resorted to by supreme sages, two-footed, / we recognize you as a certain Vedic verse that makes Murāri known.

Gracious through the prostrations of Indra, breaker of mountains, / O sandal of Raṅgeśvara, under the guise of the blending radiance of jewels, / you largely cherish his bows [of heaven] that are fit for him.

O foot-guard of the Crusher of Bali, this morning sunshine from your rubies, / streaked by the rays of emeralds, / I imagine to be an unearthly ripe rice-field of the virtuous, / made dark by a flock of parakeets entering it.

With the mingled beauty of gems, coral, and pearls, / O gem-foot-guard, you, like an attendant lady, / produce on the lotus foot of King Raṅga / an ointment of musk, saffron, and sandalwood paste.

O foot-guard of the Crusher of Asuras, creating a love-enchantment / for the long-lashed eyes of the women of the inner apartments, / I imagine you bear a playful, bewitching bundle of peacock feathers / consisting of hundreds of thousands of rays from various jewels.

With gems settled in white, dark, and red hues, / possessing light, and never abandoning close contact with the Śruti [ears], / you appear, O Mother, to have accumulated a row of eyes / in order to gaze upon Mukunda's feet with an unblinking stare.

O Mother, sandal of Mādhava, under the guise of rows of pearls interspersed with emeralds, / you yourself carry, for the pacification of misfortunes of the innocent folk, / an auspicious garland fashioned from dūrvā grass and madhūka flowers.

O protector of the feet of the Emperor of Raṅgam, the beauty of pearls and coral / joined with diamonds shines upon you, / like a latent impression of the spheres of sun, moon, and fire, / adhering for long because of dwelling in the minds of the self-restrained.

O protector of the foot of the Consort of Padmā, your rubies / joined with pieces of sapphires / reveal a stream of divine nectar-sap of the lotus foot, / into which black bees have plunged.

O foot-protector, when it is time to enter the inner apartments alone, / you seem to announce to the Lord of Raṅgam, / through lovely corals combined with the net of pearl-rays, / the bimba-lip of His beloveds, accompanied by a special smile.

Attached to the foot of Raṅgeśvara, the Hunter, / worthy of being placed upon the crowns of the demon and monkey kings, / set with varied jewels, O foot-protector, / I imagine you as if fashioned from the skin of the phantom deer.

O sporting sandal of the Lord of Raṅgam, on the crown of the illusory hunter / you bind a fresh wreath of peacock feathers / with variegated rays of gems blending with one another / like fragments plucked from Indra's rainbow.

O foot-protector of Raṅgeśvara, charming with mutually complementing emeralds and rubies, / you shine, making fully manifest, / through the grandeur of your likeness, / the single [half-and-half] form of the Mountain's Daughter and the Mountain-Dweller.

To quell the three afflictions of those who seek refuge, / displaying rows of red, white, and dark jewels, / you sustain, O gem-sandal of King Raṅga, / as it were, forests of red lotuses, white water-lilies, and blue lotuses.

The sapphires reveal the luster of Śauri's body; / your rubies reveal the charm of his lotus foot. / From the mutual enhancement each gives the other, / a distinct brilliance shines forth from them, O gem footwear!

Bestrewn with pearls, emeralds, and rubies, / I meditate on you, foot-protector of the lotus-eyed Lord, / as a colored pillow suitable for resting the heads / of the lovely maidens that are the Śrutis, who delight in resting at his feet.

Your rubies set adjacent to pieces of sapphire / envision for the lotus-eyed Lord, O foot-covering, / at times, an assembly charming with the Yamunā freshly born / from the blazing sun.

With your pearls and sapphires arranged in firm rows, / O footwear of the Supreme Person, / I believe that by your power / the twin shackles of good and evil deeds of those who take refuge are unfastened.

The sapphire fragments radiating dense darkness, / and the pearls bright like exceptional stars, / join the moon upon Śiva's crest with the night / through contact with you, O footwear of the lotus-eyed Lord!

Fastened to the foot of Viṣṇu, O gem sandal, / with the radiant luster of sapphires and the brightness of brilliant pearls, / stirred by the wind as you move at all times, / you shine all around like a bank of clouds with clearly visible water drops.

Accompanied by pearls and possessing the radiance of the Lord himself, / your row of emeralds, O gem footwear, / creates, as it were, another ocean accompanied by the Gaṅgā, / capable of being bathed in forever by every creature.

Constantly resorting to you in the guise of rows of sapphires, / the daughter of the sun [Yamunā], O gem footwear, / seems to mock with the nearby luster of pearls / the Gaṅgā, who clung to Janārdana's foot at first for merely an instant.

Fringed with radiant rubies attached at their edges, / stealing the charm of the red interior of a lotus, / the sapphires on you, O foot-protector, by clinging to you, / attain equality with the Person clad in yellow garments.

Ever attending to the tenderness of Raṅgeśa's lotus feet, / you cast before them, I suspect, O foot-protector, / with the brilliance of your rubies and pearls, / an abundant carpet of fresh sprouts and flowers.

Carried forth by Raṅgeśvara as he goes out / consecrated for battle, O foot-covering, / you produce, as it were, for the lotus eyes of the demon warriors' wives, / a moonlit night through the luster of your white and dark jewels.

Having emerald-green limbs, plump with rubies, / with the beauty of pearls appearing like fresh drops of water, / you manifest on the marshy bank of the golden river, / from the pacing of the dark cloud, a grassy lawn speckled with cochineal insects.

Showing a power superior to the lotus foot of Viṣṇu, / which created the heavenly river, O sandal, / you surely transform into Prayāga, joined with the river Śoṇa, / through the lights of sapphires, pearls, and rubies.

With wings manifest through the varied rays of diverse gems, / I know you, O sandal, as the pet cakorī bird of the ocean's daughter, / drinking continually the moonlight / of the gem-like toenails of the Lord of Raṅgam, forever full.

While the gods devoted to serving the lotus feet of the Lord of Raṅgam / out of great humility set aside their parasols, / you nevertheless foster for them once more, O foot-covering, / an umbrella of peacock plumage through the multi-colored luster of your gems.

With leaves of emerald sheen, smiling flowers of pearls, / and radiant rubies brilliant like fresh sprouts, / you, generous one, at Raṅganātha's foot, / produce for us all fruits, like a wish-granting vine.

Placing you on his own head from the foot of Raṅganātha, / your body charming with many gems, O sandal, / the mountain-lord Śiva recalls in his heart the lovely vehicle of Ṣaṇmukha, / to be fondled by Bhavānī, with its fluttering, dense plumage.

Making simultaneous day, night, and twilight / manifest through the rays arising from your various gems, / we contemplate you, O sandal, celebrated in the Upaniṣads, / as the power of the Lord of Raṅgam capable of accomplishing the impossible.

Resting at the foot of Muramathana, / establishing all this [world] in unfailing governance, / you reveal, O sandal, with your varied forms of pearls and other gems, / the different mature fruits of living beings in pure, dark, and red forms.

Granting delight to the eyes of embodied beings, O sandal, / the row of sapphires matching the hue of the Wielder of the Śārṅga bow, / enclosed all around by the ruby lamps placed nearby, / appears like the intense blackness of collyrium.

Upon your pearls, which are ever free from the loss of even a digit, / there spreads around, O Hari's sandal, / by the luster of the sapphires, / the likeness of the moon being tinged [with a spot].

Bearing foliage of emeralds, sprouting charming coral, / clustered with large pearls, fragrant with the Vedas, / like a goddess of the grove, O foot-protector, / you approach and touch the foot of the Lord of Raṅgam as he desires to stroll.

Ever lofty, attached to the foot of the Lord of the land of Raṅgam, / in your sight turbid with the mixture of rays from diverse gems, / the crocodile on the diadems of bowing immortals, / flowing against the current, cannot brook the unhindered flow of fresh water showing diverse hues.

O foot-protector, through the luster of pearls, rubies, and sapphires, / you bring about for Śauri the magnificence of his sword Nandaka, / lovely with the continuous brilliance of his toenails.

Thus ends the sixteenth section, on diverse jewels, in the Thousand Sandals of Raṅganātha composed by the venerable Vedānta teacher, the venerable Veṅkaṭanātha, the lion among poets and logicians, the master of all systems.

17. The Section on Rubies (30)