Padukasahasra 25

I ever take refuge in the sandal which is smaller than the smallest and greater than the greatest, / of Viṣṇu, measured only by his foot.

O gem-encrusted sandal! Mukunda rests constantly upon you who are measured to his foot; / whereas his other accessories only serve to display his majesty.

O footwear of the king of Raṅgam! The king of serpents, though being the original matter [of your form], / bears you, as it were, through dependence on devotion, / upon his heads that bear the well-known svastika markings.

O sandal of the Lord who reclines in Raṅgam! Adepts of the Pañcarātra, / under the designation of marks on the body that ward off sin, / apply you, representing the placement of the feet of the Supreme Person, onto their limbs.

O sandal! Reflecting that you rest upon the head of Śruti who selects the Lord of Raṅgam as her groom, / the elders, in times of wedding, bind ornaments stamped with your image / upon the heads of the brides.

O footwear of the Lord of Raṅgam! The noble women of the inner apartments of the guardians of the directions, / manifesting their bond of devotion, / wear your seal with auspicious golden cords to gain long life.

O gem-encrusted sandal! Displaying at your tip a spoke made evident according to the order of manifestation, / I recognize you, which resorts to his lotus foot to protect the three worlds, / as Śauri's Sudarśana power.

O gem-encrusted sandal of the foe of Mura! Seated firmly on the pericarp of a golden lotus, slender in the waist, / you appear as another form taken by the goddess seated on the lotus, / suitable for sporting in Raṅgam.

O footwear of the lotus-eyed Lord! Reflecting, 'Let there never be poverty for my dependent people / who deserve honor,' / you have surely taken slenderness prisoner, I know, in the region of your waist.

O gem-encrusted footwear! Seeing you slender in the waist and expanded at both ends, / the wise, I think, determine the ultimate bounds of happiness and sorrow / from your constant contact with and separation from Mukunda's foot.

Assuming a state fit for both protection and adornment / of the lotus feet of the Lord of Raṅgam, / of venerable form, O jewel-footwear, you take your place / right in the middle between the retinue and the ornaments.

The various ornaments placed upon His other limbs / readily admit of alternate arrangement; / but you, O Mother, are the attire pleasing to the eye / that eternally matches the sole of Mukunda's lotus foot.

Those who, having enjoyed your graceful configuration / with their pairs of eyes fixed in devotion, are never satiated, / in course of time, O lotus-eyed Lord's footwear, / generally transform into thousand-eyed beings [like Indra].

Lest the thesis of the debaters who hold that 'a word (pada) is not a means of valid knowledge (apramāṇa)' / apply to the supreme foot (pada) of Madhujit, / your equal measure and authority (samapramāṇatā) with His foot was established by you, / O foot-guard, you who are the very embodiment of the Vedas (nigamātman).

To measure the three worlds, which were too small / for Him who rose up, O sandal, / His immeasurable, infinite foot / has indeed been forever measured by you.

O sandal, you appear as the watering-basin / for the tree that is Muradviṣ, / near which the stream atop the head of the trident-bearer [Śiva], / bowing down, becomes an irrigation canal.

There shines an extraordinary pericarp made of golden sandals / on the lotus foot of the King of Raṅgam, / where the bees are the joyful assembly of sages, / and which rains down the nectar of liberation.

As many distinct forms as the Lord of the Yadus assumed at once / to accommodate each maiden of identical love, / assuming this very configuration of manifold variety, / so many indeed, O foot-covering, were your bodily forms.

When the stage-manager whose glory is renowned in the theatre of Raṅgam, / to suit this or that action, takes up the dwarf role or the all-pervading role, / I think, O sandal, that desiring to direct the great drama of the world's maintenance, / you become like an actress assuming various forms.

Between Hari's foot and you there is supreme equality in measure, / verified by perception and by scripture alike; / yet there is also a distinction between you two: / that of being the protected and being the protector.

Thus ends the twenty-fifth section, the Section on Configuration, in the thousand verses on the sandals of the glorious Raṅganātha composed by the glorious Vedāntācārya, the venerable Veṅkaṭanātha, the lion among poets and logicians, the master of all systems.

26. The Section on the Toe-Peg (10)