Padukasahasra 17

I take refuge in the sandal of Raṅganātha, adorned with rubies, / dedicated solely to his foot, / like another Lakṣmī, dwelling in a lotus, devoted exclusively to his state.

Reflecting on the tenderness of Śauri's lotus foot / beyond the reach of speech and mind, O foot-covering, / you furnish his path with the luster of rubies, / as if it were strewn with fresh sprouts.

With rubies attached to his tender foot, / ablaze and brilliantly shining, O Mother sandal, / you seem to verify the report / that Murāri at times sleeps in fire.

O gem sandal of the Lord of Raṅgam, the auspicious row of ruby gems / upon you reveals, as it were, / the residual smell of the muddy blood of Madhu and Kaiṭabha, / flowing out when crushed by the pressure of his tight thighs.

O Raṅgapati’s sandal! People consider the stream of rays from your rubies / to be the spray of blood dripping from the mass of sins of those who approach, crushed by your majesty.

O Raṅgeśvara’s sandal! The city women look upon you, who kindle passion, / through your radiant rubies as if through glowing heaps of coals from the fire of love.

I know you, O gem-sandal, as the dawn that precedes the rising of the sun that is Raṅgeśa, / the cause of night’s departure, dispelling darkness, filled with red lotus-radiance, worshipped by all.

O foot-protector! Finding the splendor of a bed of sprouts in the lotus-feet of the Lord of Raṅgam, / the gleams of your rubies assume the nature of the fire of time's end for the ocean of our sins.

O gem-footwear! The naturally reddish color of the foot of the Lord who delights in his home at Raṅgam / is reiterated by your rubies, which possess the hue of the morning sun.

O gem-footwear! For Murāri protecting the universe with his foot alongside his consort, / your rubies create the splendor of coral within the ocean of his fame.

O golden footwear! Your radiant row of pale-red gems / proclaims the wealth of brilliance of the discus marked in line, situated in the middle of Raṅgeśa’s lotus-foot.

O foot-protector! Surely it was by you alone, radiating the morning sunlight with your red gems, / that the line-drawn lotus grown upon the sole of Padmā’s husband remained ever sleepless.

O Mādhava’s footwear! Constantly bestowing welfare upon those who enter the path of your sight, / endowed with rubies, we consider you the exalted deity of auspiciousness endowed with Lakṣmī.

O foot-guard! Having first offered yourself at the lotus-foot of the Lord who delights in Raṅgam for his sport, / you seem to offer him the lotus-bud of dawn through the gleams of your red jewels.

O divine Mukunda’s foot-protector! For sages who know the supreme truth to offer with the Praṇava / the oblation consisting of the inner self, we recognize you, through your rubies, as the supreme, blazing crest of sacrificial fire.

O foot-protector! Through your rubies is brought about the splendor of the fire for the auspicious departure-sacrifice, / wherein the charming stream of rays from Raṅgeśvara’s nails becomes the Gaṅgā of doubts, an offering of milk.

O foot-protector! Due to the radiance of your red stones, which takes on the beauty of red lac paste, / the lotus-nails on the feet of Padmā’s consort attain the beauty of the moon’s orb reddened by twilight.

O Acyuta’s foot-protector! It is proper that your rubies, full of light, quell my darkness; / yet this is a wonder here, that through their reddish brilliance they constantly cause the cessation of passion.

O foot-protector! Drinking the nectar in the lotus-foot of the Lord of Raṅgam that blooms in the midst of Padmā’s hands, / you bear, with charming gait, a great flushing splendor of intoxication composed of the luster of red gems.

O foot-protector! To prevent the entry of the spreading Kali age now, / the light arisen from your red stones seems to construct an fiery rampart around the border of Śrīraṅgam.

O gem-footwear! When Raṅganātha strolls inside his pleasure-mansion, / you, like an attendant maid, seem to redden his pair of lotus-feet with lac-juice marked by the rays of red jewels.

O gem-footwear! When the Lord of Raṅgam takes his stroll, the flowers scattered in the street, / tinged by the rays of your rubies, attain the beauty of a row of stars veiled by twilight glow.

O foot-guard of Raṅgam’s sovereign! When you are borne upon the crown of the mountain-lord, pure with the waves of the Gaṅgā, / your rubies with their luster enhance the beauty of the red-lac paste from the feet of the mountain’s daughter.

O sandal! To dispel the darkness of delusion for those who take refuge, / we deem your rubies—their redness ripened through contact with the lotus-foot of Raṅganātha—to be morning suns risen in the east.

O sandal! Surely the crescent-moon-crowned Śiva, having hair braided like ears of dark rice, / retains upon his matted locks the very fragrance left at the moment of prostration by your clusters of red gems gleaming at Hari’s feet.

O sandal! At every stroll of the Lord of Raṅgam, these rubies of yours, having the fragrance of his lotus-foot, / through their rays bearing friendship with the youthful sun, establish the unsteady glory of land-lotuses.

O Madhuripu's foot-guard! This light of your clusters of red gems, pleasing to those devoid of passion and giving joy not found elsewhere, / blazing forth swiftly, turns people's eternal mass of sins into moths.

O sandal! Carrying the abundant scent of the Upaniṣads, daily meditating on the prosperity of the lotus-foot of the Lord of Raṅgam, / and shattering the deep darkness within, your rubies display a fitting dawn-redness.

O foot-guard of the Lord of Raṅgam, sweet and delightful with the beauty of red lac! O goddess, the luster of your rubies / generates a flush of passion upon his lotus-face, the charm of tender sprouts near the ears, and the beauty of red lead on the hair-parting of the celestial maidens bent in homage.

O foot-guard! These red gems of yours, their glory attained through affection for Hari's feet, / reduce the multitude of suns to fireflies.

Thus ends the seventeenth section, on the rubies, in the thousand verses on the sandals of Śrī Raṅganātha, composed by the Lion of poets and logicians, the master of all systems, the venerable Veṅkaṭanātha, the revered Vedānta Teacher.

18. Section on Pearls (50)