Padukasahasra 19

I bow to the sandal, which is like Garuḍa in its action and composed of heaps of emerald gems, / by which Hari’s sovereignty—just like greenness through the tulasī—is eternally revealed.

Excluded from the graceful gaits of the Lord of Raṅgam, / which are dependent upon you, Garuḍa / somehow attains contentment, O sandal, / through his own jewels set within you.

At the appointed time, O jeweled sandal, the innocent maidservants / in the inner apartments of Murāri / repeatedly strew the green rays of the emeralds, / suspecting them to be sprouts of tulasī.

O foot-protector of the king of Raṅgam, by the luster of your emeralds, / the heap of blossoms offered upon you by devotees / instantly assumes a green hue, / taking on the rich splendor of tulasī leaves.

Enlivening the time of pleasure-strolls by the movement of tossing forward, / charmingly green, you appear, O jeweled sandal, / like a cluster of moss upon the ocean of Hari's luster.

O foot-protector of the Lord of Raṅgam, through the gleaming luster of your emeralds / you bind, upon the crests of the belles that are the Śrutis, / a row of auspicious garlands made of sprouts of dūrvā grass.

Formed with green stones whose unbroken rays are restrained, / moving along the path of the virtuous, O jeweled foot-protector, / you appear like another splendid chariot / of the Lord of Raṅgam who resides in the center of the solar orb.

O foot-protector, the emeralds belonging to you, / whose vicinity to the forest of the Upaniṣads makes them dark, / fittingly manifest eternally the charming Gaṅgā of the rays of Nārāyaṇa's nails / as possessing grassy banks on its borders.

Fixing your nature at the foot of the Lord of Raṅgam with a view to a certain movement, / having formed a firm bond of devotion, O jeweled foot-protector, / you manifest forests of tulasī, as it were, through the luster of your emeralds.

Upon the heads, adorned with multitudes of crest-jewels, / of the lords of the gods who have come to serve, / you display, O foot-protector of the slayer of asuras, / the beauty of a flock of parrots through the innate luster of your emeralds.

Through the dense mass of rays of your emerald pieces, / which are indistinguishable from tenderly grown dūrvā tendrils, / held upon the head of the Lord of creatures, you deceive, / O foot-protector of Madhu's foe, the young fawn resting in his hand.

The tulasīs, desiring to attain a superior green hue / worthy of being offered to Hari's lotus feet, / resort daily, by way of tribute, O sandal, / to the rays of your emerald fragments.

Endowed with an innate spiritual fragrance through the rays of your green gems, / you, O foot-protector, filled with curiosity, / bestow, O queen, an abundant row of damanaka leaves upon the crest of the Śrutis, / the playful maidens of the slayer of Danu's sons.

Through the dark-blue and green masses of rays arisen from your emeralds, / which have reached many branches, O foot-protector of Madhu's foe, / you create an impenetrable fortress of bamboo forest / for the hermits of the forest who have no other refuge.

You, O sandal of the Lord of Raṅgam, possessing abundant branches of the Vedas, / connected with lovely blossoms through the rays of the toenails, / delightful with emerald leaves, / we regard as a certain beauty of a pleasure garden moving along the bank of the golden river.

With your dark rays, having lotus stalks ever visible through the masses of nail-beams, / and possessing an exalted special charm, O sandal, you fashion a lovely row of lotus leaves beside the lotus foot of the Lord of Raṅgam.

When Raṅganātha sportively placed his foot upon you / to quiet the cries of distress of the goddesses, O footwear, / the mansions of the demons surely bore blades of dūrvā grass at once through your emerald rays.

That foot of Viṣṇu—its association with blemish gone because of its immense radiance, its shining blueness above, / O Goddess foot-protector—upon attaining you, charming with broad emeralds, / manifests an alliance with the quarters of space on all sides.

Where the course of affection for Padmā and Earth has no interruption, / and by whose contact, O sandal, actions at will become free from guilt, / the ancient words of the Vedas, ever dark through your emeralds, / surely delight that Youth attached to Tārā here.

O foot-protector, you shine as some land-lotus of the Lotus-Dweller, / within whose emerald petal is beheld that wondrous Śauri.

Thus ends the nineteenth section, the Emerald Section, in the Thousand Sandal Verses of Śrī Raṅganātha composed by the Lion among poets and logicians, the master of all systems, Śrīmad Veṅkaṭanātha, the revered Vedānta Teacher.

20. The Sapphire Section (30)