Kaayena Vaachaa – Learn Sanskrit through Slokas

Welcome back to the series of learning Sanskrit through Slokas! Today we shall see the popular sloka (Kaayena Vaachaa) that is chanted at the end of rituals/functions and other spiritual activities. It is also chanted at the end of Vishnu Sahasranama.

The sloka is given below:

kaayena vaachaa manasendriyair vaa
budhyaathmanaa vaa prakruthey: swabhaavath |
karomi yadyat sakalam parasmai
narayanaayeti samarpayami ||

Let’s see the word-by-word meaning of the above sloka.

kaayena vaachaa manasendriyair vaa

• kaayena – kaaya is body (‘kaayakalpa‘ is body transformation). The word, kaayena  means ‘from the body’
• vaacha – vaak is speech, vaacha is ‘from speech’
• manasendriyair vaa – the first word can be split as ‘manasaa‘ and ‘indriyaihi‘. ‘manas’ is the mind and indriya is the sense organs.

budhyaathmanaa vaa prakruthey: swabhaavath

• budhyaathmanaa vaa – the first word can be split as ‘buddhyaa‘ and ‘aatmanaa‘. Buddhi is intellect and aatman is self. The full phrase means ‘either from intellect or from self’
• prakruthey: swabhaavath – prakruti is ‘nature’. ‘swaabhaavam‘ is habit or tendencies

karomi yadyat sakalam parasmai

• karomi yath yath – ‘yath yath’ is whatever and karomi is ‘I do’. The phrase means is ‘whatever I do’
• sakalam parasmai – sakalam is all and parasmai is ‘for others’

narayanaayeti samarpayami

• narayanaya iti – this means ‘all are for Lord Narayana’
• samparpayami – this means ‘I offer’ (‘samarpanam’ is offering)

The whole meaning of the sloka will be ,’Whatever I do with my body, words, speech, mind, sense organs, intellect, self or through the natural tendencies of ones mind, all those activities done either for myself or for others, I hereby submit as an offering to Lord Narayana.’ Thus we offer total surrender by dedicating everything to the Lord. This is the sign of a true devotee (Bhaktha).

You can read the meaning of other slokas here.

Also, here is a summary of all the words from the previous slokas for your reference: