Padukasahasra 3

I praise that venerable pair of sandals of Raṅganātha, / where the lofty find humbling and the humble find elevation.

If the entire expanse of the sky were the leaf, if all seven oceans united to become the ink, / and if the thousand-faced Puruṣa himself were the speaker, the splendour of the sandals of the Lord of Raṅgam might be written down.

O footwear of Madhusūdana, what was composed by the great sage born from the earth's ear, eager to elaborate the Veda, / and what was composed by Vyāsa, are the two eyes for us to behold your majesty.

Those of purified intellect behold directly, as it truly is, in the Rāmāyaṇa, O footwear of the Indra of the Raghu line, / this majesty of yours constantly unfolded in supreme fashion, in concise and extended states.

Even people of little learning infer you, O sandal of Raṅgeśa, as eternally celebrated in the Upaniṣads; / for the Rāmāyaṇa, composed to amplify their essential meaning, is the authority on your greatness.

Let the Śrutis stand aside; more exalted even than them, the Rāmāyaṇa awakens to proclaim the host of your virtues of such kind, / whose poet was the ant-hill-born [Vālmīki], whose verse was bound in meter vying with the tinkling sound of the anklets of the bride born from the lotus.

We praise the sandals dense with the fragrance of the aragvadha blossoms glowing on the crest nestled within the forest of matted locks of the destroyer of the cities, who bows down in devotion; / which the wise, whose wealth is peace, determine to be the crown and the fruit of complete surrender at the lotus-foot pair of the Mountain of Raṅgam.

O mother, sandal of Mādhava, what man of abundant intellect could praise your virtues? / For the gods desiring you upon their crowns in the moment of service, / jostling and clamouring to be first, are only slowly quieted by the trembling cane-wand of Viṣvaksena at play.

Transforming a stone into a woman, destroying the stability of the cart, bringing forth the river of the sky-dwellers, and reviving the ash of Parīkṣit— / deeming these difficult deeds of the feet to be hard to speak of, even in embassies and the like,

I choose that very foot-guard of the Lord of Raṅgam, which bears his affection.

I praise that pair of foot-coverings, the friend to the feet of the enemy of Madhu and Kaiṭabha, which the host of the gods, their fortitude shaken by the trembling terror of a momentary lapse of office lasting two or three moments of Brahmā, / bear anywhere with heads bent low under the weight of devotion.

I worship the foot-covering, swollen with the intimate glory of the feet of Padmā's beloved, / placed upon the crests of the dwellers of heaven bowing in devotion,

which, having constantly drunk the nectar of the moon-like radiance of his nails, truly vomits it forth under the guise of the Śeṣa-cloth resting close by, unable to contain it within.

May that supreme pair of foot-coverings of Viṣṇu, reaching to the summit of the Upaniṣads, whose power surpasses thought, bestow abundant blessings upon us— / which, as if out of friendship with the river flowing from his foot raised in the act of striding, takes up its station upon the head of Śiva, who is ever bowing down.

How far can fish go in the water of the ocean, having nowhere else to turn? How far was crossed, even with difficulty, by the monkey chiefs leaping with violent speed? / And how much depth was fathomed by the mountain used as a churning-rod? What of them? We stand merely on the shore of the vast ocean that is the virtues of Keśava's sandals.

Those who bear the sandals of the Lord of Raṅgam, perfumed by the dust of his lotus feet and familiar with the Upaniṣads, / crown themselves with the crescent moon of unknown maturation, or sit upon that lotus in which the worlds are contained.

A mortal who carries you, O sandal of the bow-wielding Lord, on his head even once in this world,

when the bondage of the body dissolves, your divine host attends upon him as is fitting, / while Death, his servants held in check, remains silent.

This lotus foot of the Lord of Raṅgam enters upon the status of your representative through its own greatness;
if this were otherwise, how indeed could the great, knowing the truth, worship you while he stands there forever?

O sandal of Murāri, the learned man ridicules the titular sacrifices of the foolish, which culminate only in the slaughter of beasts,
because they are unable to grasp that the culmination of all prescribed rituals is hidden in the crest of the Śruti as terminating in you.

O footwear of the Conqueror of Daityas, when the great god bows down,
your shattered waves of water from the heavenly river, reduced to light droplets by repeated impact against the crest jewels on the head of the serpent king, are fit to make an arghya offering.

O sandal, you dwell on the lotus feet of the Lord of Raṅgam, in the mind of the sages, on the crest of the Vedas,

on the crowns [of gods], and in the speech of true poets; ever one, your eternal cosmic form is thus understood.

O sandal of Śauri, you transform the line of bad letters upon the heads of those who bow beside you into gold;
where indeed did you learn this wonderful alchemy, when you keep to the righteous path far from deceptive folk?

O foot-protector, immeasurable even by the strides of Viṣṇu that surpassed everything as he expanded in the play of subduing Bali,
my heap of sins, finding no limit, has found its limit through your greatness.

O sandal of the Lord of Raṅgam, see how that pair of lotus feet, resting upon which on the bank of the Yamunā a kadamba branch enjoyed the grandeur of a Vedic recension,
attains through you a glory that spreads branch upon branch.

When you are placed upon the heads of those bowed in devotion,

embodied beings instantly attain such height, O foot-protector of the foe of Madhu,
that solely by its power, that abode difficult for anyone else to reach can be gathered by their very hands.

Bearing you even once in this world with heads equal to the Upaniṣads, O sandal of the wielder of the Śārṅga,
the great pass over heaven as if it were hell and enter into the assembly of ancient gurus.

O sandal, this lotus foot of Mādhava—the refuge for the shelterless like me who are strangers to the news of self-control, restraint, and virtues—
was to be protected by you, being the treasure of the beginningless and endless scriptures.

O sandal, respectfully bearing on their heads you who are familiar with the lotus feet of the Lord of Raṅgam and worthy of worship by the three worlds,
the gods seem, O goddess, to perfume with the fragrances of the Veda the mandāra garland resting on their own heads.

O sandal, clinging to the sprout-like foot of the wish-fulfilling tree that flourishes on the bank of the golden river, you are a blossom cluster
that gives birth to fruits sweet in their maturity and, through hosts of Vedas, bears the wealth of bees.

O sandal of the Lord of Raṅgam, if you unite me to the pair of lotus feet served by Lakṣmī who dwells in the lotus,
surely your power to accomplish the impossible would be revealed for people like us who are ignorant of the Vedas.

I praise the two gem-sandals of the Sovereign of Raṅgam, which are the crest ornament upon the head of hundreds of Vedic texts, able to crush those vast torrents of the rivers of sins that spread unfailingly,
and whose soles are smoothed by friction against the crest jewels of the successive rows of Brahmas as they bow.

I honor the most holy pair of foot-guards belonging to the Lord of Raṅgam, who is engaged in the task of creating and protecting the world—
where the Master places his own foot after washing it, having contact with the heavenly river capable of conferring auspiciousness.

May that head-covering be mine, which is capable of firmly joining the heads of the gods and the pair of feet of the Lord of Raṅgeśa through their relation of servant and master—
that wondrous pair of foot-guards that swallows the ocean of sins like a handful of water and is capable of destroying evil paths.

O gem-sandal of Mukunda, the residual impression of worshipping you, firmly planted in the mind,
casts out again and again the allurements of the celestial courtesans, which are harsh in the end, magnified by every joint, and pregnant with hundreds of calamities.

O protector of the feet of the Lord of Raṅgam, those who bear you inwardly even once with their collection of worn rags cast aside
enter the courtyard noisy with bees hovering in the torrent of rut-juice trickling from the temples of rut-crazed elephants.

May that indescribable compassion of the Lord of Raṅgam, which has taken the form of a sandal—
the tutelary deity of the Creator Brahmas who assume authority over the coming aeons—protect us.

You are surely the chain for the elephant of my senses, or the bolt barring the gate of hell,
or the ladder to climb to the abode free from sin, O sandal for the recreation of the Lord of Raṅgeśa.

We worship you in Raṅgam, O venerable gold sandal of Murāri,
who are accustomed to leading caravans of those who seek refuge and are worthy of adorning the parted hair of the Śruti.

O sandal of Keśava, tell me, Mother: do those fortunate ones engaged in worshipping you with devotion in this world
have a concealed third eye or three [extra] faces?

O gem-sandal, among the possessions of the foe of Madhu you are ever endowed with patience;
even so, why do you not endure others being placed upon the crown of the lord of the gods?

O golden sandal, some recognize two things of the Lord of Raṅgam as their refuge:
either the forward hand marked with the gesture of safety, or the lotus foot crowned by you.

O sandal, in the consolations of Bharata the eminent sage born from the earth's ear reads the word 'foot' as meaning you;
therefore, your glory is certainly nondifferent from Rāma's foot.

Resting on the crowns of the guardians of the directions, and attaining the very rank of the Lord of Raṅgam,
you protect his domain, O sandal; where indeed could the majesty of the great ever fail?

O gem-sandals, while you two exercise the authority of protecting the three worlds,
I understand that the pair of feet of the Lord of Raṅgam merely forms the edge of your embellishment.

O foot-protector, you are exceedingly more affectionate than even the lotus foot of the hero of the Raghus,
because that Bharata, having you as his portion, never again experienced such separation.

O sandal of Mukunda, having approached you with heads bare of parasols,
the lords of the directions attain spotless shade and enjoyments difficult for others to obtain.

Discarding white and black means, O sandal of the lotus-eyed Lord, the great
maintain their livelihood through undivided devotion to you, desiring the unique enjoyment that belongs to you.

Those who bow, and those who do not bow, through the fruition of fate, to you, O sandal of the king of Raṅgam— / for both of these, it is a wonder: the head born upon them is no [true] head, and an unsurpassed head.

O sandal of Keśava, your glory and my evil deeds are indeed boundless in power; / nevertheless, we understand invariably that the defeat of the latter comes through the former alone.

He who supports this entire universe merely as his weapons and ornaments— / even he is borne effortlessly by you, O gem-sandal, as your crest-gem.

A companion in duty to Rāma's feet, destroying all sins, / I meditate upon you, sovereign lady of all worlds and the tutelary deity of Bharata.

As if intending to remove the fault of contact with the skull on his crest, / [Śiva] adorned with the crescent moon, showing reverence, bears you, the river of Viṣṇu's foot, O Keśava's footwear.

By you alone, O gemmed footwear, is this creation of living beings constantly blessed with a righteous king; / surely, to extinguish the defect of a kingdom ruled by a woman, you are designated by the masculine title [Śrīraṅganātha].

You constantly bear by your own greatness, O gem-sandal, the all-supporting abode; / this glory of yours is sipped like a handful of water by the devotees who perpetually bear you.

Sharing equal privilege with you in proximity to the feet of the Supreme Being, O gem-sandal, / Śeṣa, Garuḍa, and the others themselves place you as a crest on their own heads, unequalled by Śeṣa.

O bearer of Mukunda's lotus-foot, for those men who do not adorn their crests with you out of delusion, / the lines of praiseful syllables become ill-omened inscriptions inscribed upon their foreheads.

The ground of the Vedas, mother of the universe, endless in virtues, vast in divine majesty, / firm herself, capable of protecting us, all-enduring—you are the earth itself, O foot-protector of Śauri.

You bestow stability upon the noble mountains, and Śeṣa and the others bear you on their heads; / born of the foot of the Supreme Being, you are the earth herself in majesty, O gem-sandal.

If the crowns of the mighty demon lords did not welcome the placing of your step, / having become the steps of the abode of Raṅgam, they now bear you, O foot-protector of Raṅgeśa.

Śeṣa, Garuḍa, the jeweled footstool, and you—all revered by the world, O foot-protector; / yet even if of equal authority, the virtuous constantly bear you alone upon their heads.

You constantly bear that highest realm, that supreme foot of the Supreme Being, O gem-sandal;

O gemmed footwear, it is no wonder that the stations of the other heaven-dwellers depend upon you.

The two feet of Murāri are the refuge for creatures, and you are just that for those two, O foot-protector; / you are seen as the sole resting-place of protectiveness, needing no other protection.

While the Lord of Raṅgam's other limbs are resorted to by Padmā, the lotus-seated Brahmā, and the rest, / Murāri's foot, having attained you, O foot-protector, has become our presiding deity.

He who, showing reverence, acts as your servant for even a moment, O lotus-eyed Lord's sandal— / for him, even if destitute, Purandara and the gods quickly become servants at the beckoning of his brow.

Those who bear you, O sandal of Mādhava, are carried unobstructed in the sky / perpetually by a swan shining like an autumn cloud, or by a bull white as Kailāsa.

The host of gods resorts to Rudra; that Rudra resorts to the lotus-seated Brahmā, and he to Padmanābha; / he resorts to you, unending one, but you resort to no other—what kind of glory is this of yours, O foot-protector!

They speak of you, O gem-sandal, as the vidyā capable of bestowing the Supreme Abode; / for immediately upon attaining you, both past and future sins depart far from creatures.

Fortunate is he through contact with Mukunda's foot, and he who is rich through having worshipped you; / his dwelling, O gemmed footwear, surpasses even Alakā through its splendour.

Abandoning contact with all others through the foot of Viṣṇu, they devoutly attend upon you;

do you not in time make those who worship you, devoid of personal desire, possessors of true desires, O foot-protector?

By knowers of the Self, through minds turned inward and restrained by the discipline of meditation, / you, O mother, whose foot is concealed, are sought through your power as the treasure revealed by the scripture.

Some say you, O gem-sandal, are borne on the head by the power of his hidden feet, or that the Lord is crowned by you; / we, however, declare you to be directly our presiding deity.

Joined below with the heads of the virtuous and above with the foot of Viṣṇu, / they recognize you, O sandal, as the path of liberation that is not far.

Thus ends the third section, "Glory," in the thousand verses on the sandals of the holy Raṅganātha, composed by Śrī Veṅkaṭanātha, the Lion among poets and logicians, the master of all systems, the venerable Vedānta teacher.

4. Section on Surrender (20)