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स्पर्शं ययोः समधिगम्य झटित्यहल्या देवी च भूरभवदुज्झितसर्वपङ्का ।
ताभ्यां घटेत समता भवतः पदाभ्याम् आजन्मपङ्कवसतेः कथमम्बुजस्य ॥४४॥
T: How do we reconcile this: After the touch of Bhagavan's feet, Ahalyā and Bhūdevī were completely cleansed of all sinin an instant. The very same feet are indeed being compared to lotuses, but the lotuses of the world are far from clean or cleansing, as they are always immersed in slush (punned as sin)!
Explanation: In His incarnation as Śrī Rāma, when the Lord stepped on the dormant petrified Ahalyā (the accursed wife of Riṣi Gautama), the mere touch of His feet instantly cleansed the lady of all her accumulated sin and released her from the curse. In His incarnation as Śrī Kṛṣṇa, His stepping on Earth (Bhūdevī) resulted in the entire earth being similarly cleansed.
Now we are comparing the Lord's feet to earthly lotuses. The poet sees an irreconcilable contradiction here because lotuses remain forever in slush. The word पङ्क Paṅka means slush as well as sin. So they are themselves never cleansed, unlike the all-cleansing lotus feet of the Lord! This clever pun श्लेष Śleṣa is indulged in by the poet to extol the incomparable qualities of the Lord's lotus feet.
