Krishnarpana – Shloka 16

कायेन वाचा मनसेन्द्रियैर्वा
बुद्ध्याsत्मना वाsनुसृतः स्वभावम् |
करोति यद्यत् सकलं परस्मै
नारायणायेति समर्पयेत्तत् || 16 ||

Whatever activity one performs, be it through the body, words, mind, senses, through the application of intellect, or driven by one’s inherent nature – all of the activities are to be offered to Sri Narayana, the Supreme amongst all.

Notes:

Till the previous shloka, Srimadacharya has given details about the daily activities one should undertake, from morning till night, to lead a noble life. In this shloka, he gives the well known shloka from Srimadbhagavata in order to drive home the point that all of the activities performed by an individual, irrespective of the nature or form of the activity, has to be offered with an ‘anusandhana’ of offering to Narayana. In other words, one must do ‘krishnarpana’ of every activity in life.

Here ‘offering to Sri Narayana’ or ‘krishnarpana’ essentially means that the individual thinks that the purpose of the activity is to please Sri Vishnu, and that the real doer of every activity is Sri Vishnu (by virtue of residing in our body and doing it on our behalf) and the real reason/motivation behind every activity is Sri Vishnu. With this outlook, none of the activities performed result in accrual of karma for the individual. Eventually the jeeva, through the continuing application of this philosophy, frees himself from the bindings of karma and gets relief from samsara.

In the next several shlokas, Sri Madhwacharya quotes the Bhagavadgita to show the purpose behind doing krishnarpana of all activities.