Padukasahasra 20

I take refuge in the jeweled sandal, ever adorned by Hari and by sapphires, / through which liberation is attained without effort.

These rays of your sapphires, whose hue is indistinguishable from fresh indigo juice, / become, upon the head of Śruti, O Śauri’s footwear, / a medicine preventing the emergence of grey hair.

With your sapphires casting rays upwards, like reflected ringlets of the Śrutis, / you create sprouts of moss, O footwear of Padmā’s beloved, / in the ocean of his compassion.

O jeweled sandal, through the faultless, extending rays of your sapphire rows, / you make lower the immeasurable luster / of the discus-handed Lord who stands above.

O foot-protector, intermingled with the splendors of your sapphires, the daughter of the Sahya mountain / shines like the Yamunā itself, come in person close to the Son of Vasudeva dwelling in Raṅgam.

O jeweled sandal, by the stainless rays arising from your sapphires, / you effortlessly grant similarity of form with Hari / to men who have set aside other deities.

When collyrium is placed in the eyes of men by the luster of your sapphires, O footwear, / the treasure that resorts to the chest of Raṅga, along with Śrī, / spontaneously reveals itself forever.

O footwear of Acyuta, I consider your imperishable, venerable luster of great sapphires / to be for us the lifting-key / for the leaves of the doorway to the highest beatitude.

O sandal of the foe of Danu’s sons, your row of sapphires, like a dark raincloud / raining nectar, reviving creatures and dispelling the fierce summer heat of saṃsāra, / [acts as an unbolter of doors].

Captivating with fragments of Indranīla gems, O sandal of Mura’s destroyer, / you disport on the masses of jeweled crowns of the gods / like a female bee upon charming rows [of lotuses].

For those seeking that indescribable Reality unperceived by any other, / generating clear light, assuming the dark form, / charming with Indra's gems, O foot-protector, you gleam / like the pupil in the eye of contemplation.

O Mother golden sandal, playfully reaching the hour of excursion, / you display brilliance through your sapphires lovely as the glances of Lakṣmī, / as though with drops from the ocean of beauty of the Abode of Raṅga.

O jeweled footwear, with a veil fashioned from the dark blue rays arising from your Indranīla gems, / the intellect of the sages unites in absorption, / like a night, with Lakṣmī’s lover, the delight of all the worlds.

O foot-protector, never can a living being behold the eternal treasure placed in the secret cave, / to whose sight you, O goddess, visible through special sapphires matching Kṛṣṇa, / are not the magical collyrium.

O jeweled sandal of King Raṅga, by your sapphires brilliant with Kṛṣṇa’s inner affection, / I consider you as resorting at the proper time to his foot / like the venerable Earth-goddess, in order to forgive the offenses of the world.

Considering ink other than yourself to be limited, O jeweled sandal delighting in Vaikuṇṭha’s feet, / you personally inscribe your charming letters of glorious deeds upon the boundaries of the directions / with your sapphires spreading rays.

Through the splendors of your Indranīla gems, O footwear of Madhu’s foe, / which are untouched by daytime, there arose for the cowherdesses intent on rendezvous / a certain singular night, its suffering of intense fear allayed.

Bestowing equality with Raṅganātha upon those who have taken refuge / by your ray-shooting sapphire facets, O sandal, you proclaim in the world / to dialecticians the principle of the Tatkratu maxim sung in the Upaniṣads.

While the Creator attends upon you, O sandal of the Lord of Raṅgam, / with your brilliant sapphires resembling bees around his lotus foot, / having revealed a flood of the Yamunā, you transform the river from Viṣṇu’s foot on the crest of Śambhu, bowed in devotion, into a Prayāga.

Possessing leaf-like beauty through contact with his sprout-like foot, / with blossoms ever produced by your noble toe-nail gems, / dark with Indra's gems, O sandal, you are an extraordinary coastal grove of dense Tamāla trees / beside the ocean of Śauri’s loveliness.

Some dull persons see this set of sapphires placed on you, O footwear of the bow-wielder; / we know it here as the blind darkness / drunk from the cave-houses of the hearts of blessed souls.

Rendered dark by blue gems, favored by the dark fortnight, / bearing a southern course, you produce the highest good for mortals; / thus to us, O sandal, you reveal the absence of restricted time for liberation / seen upon the head of the Vedic words by knowers of the Truth.

Attended by the virtuous, with risen moon, / spreading a flawless night with masses of sapphire beams in your victorious pleasure-processions, / it is wondrous that, renowned from a cluster of night-lotuses, O sandal, / you foster the blossoming of the lotus-faces of the wives of the gods.

Ever embellished by the sapphires possessing the luster of Lakṣmī’s eyes, / just as the land of Śālagrāma is adorned with auspicious manifested forms of the Bow-bearer, / demonstrating a wealth surpassing Ayodhyā and other cities, / you are praised by all sages, O sandal, as a realm of liberation.

O sandal, beloved companion in his footsteps! When Raṅganātha,
having mounted you, steps out three or four paces from the bedchamber,
the palace becomes dark-hued with the rays of your sapphires,
glossy inside and akin to the waving braids of asura women.

The spread of sapphire radiance that glitters, O sandal,
as the Lord of Raṅgam strides forth towards the outer courtyard,
is understood by Viṣvaksena and the rest, cane in hand,
to be your brow's gesture summoning the gods.

An application of collyrium for the eyes, a curtain for the gait that gives birth to dance,
the Yamunā to the Gaṅgā of pure consciousness, the forest of tamāla trees along the shore of the ocean that is Mukunda,
a cascade of a lovely woman's locks, a musk ornament for the bride that is the Śruti—
thus, O jewel foot-protector, your blue row of gems ever shines.

O gem sandal, I understand your luster, arising from dense sapphires,
which accompanies the path of the Sovereign of Raṅgam,
to be the collyrium darkness rich with gushing streams of rut
flowing from the cheeks of the champion elephant of his fresh youth.

O foot-protector, we perceive you in this way as the solidified
transformation of the honey from the lotus feet of the Lord who dwells in Raṅgam,
wherein these glittering sapphires around your rim produce
the semblance of bees motionless from the intoxication of honey.

O sandal of Mukunda, for those who bow,
you dispel darkness with darkness
born of your own sapphires,
just as a thorn is removed by a thorn.

Thus ends the twentieth section, on Sapphires, in the thousand verses on the sandals of the holy Raṅganātha composed by the Lion among poets and logicians, the master of all systems, the venerable Veṅkaṭanātha, the venerable Vedāntācārya.

21. The Section on Images and Reflections (20)