Traditional invocatory verse, Mahabharata tradition

Om, salutations to Narayana.

Of tranquil form, resting on the serpent-couch, lotus-navelled, lord of the gods; support of the universe, boundless as the sky, cloud-dark and radiant of limb; beloved of Lakshmi, lotus-eyed, reached by sages only through meditation — I bow to Vishnu, remover of worldly fear, sole lord of all realms.

Whom Brahma, Varuna, Indra, Rudra and the Maruts praise with celestial hymns; whom the Sama chanters sing through the Vedas with their limbs, syllables, sequences and Upanishads; whom yogis behold with minds fixed in meditation; whose end neither gods nor demons have known — to that God, salutations.

Whatever I do — by body, speech, mind, senses, intellect, or simply by the nature I was born with — I offer all of it to the Supreme, to Narayana.