Shloka 656
पुण्यक्षयमनुप्राप्य पतन् स्वर्गादिव च्युतः । पुण्य समाप्त होनेपर स्वर्गसे भ्रष्ट हो नीचे गिरनेवाले जीवकी भाँति उसका वह कुण्डलसहित मस्तक रथसे भूतलपर गिरता देखा गया
puṇyakṣayam anuprāpya patan svargād iva cyutaḥ | puṇye samāpte svargād bhraṣṭo ho nīce giranevāle jīva kī bhānti usakā vah kuṇḍala-sahita mastaka rathase bhūtalapar giratā dekhā gayā |
Sañjaya said: As though a being, its merit exhausted, falls after being cast from heaven, so was his head—still adorned with earrings—seen to drop from the chariot onto the earth.
संजय उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse uses a vivid simile to express the doctrine of impermanence governed by karma: when puṇya (merit) is exhausted, even a lofty condition—symbolized by heaven—cannot be sustained, and decline follows. It cautions against complacency in power or fortune and points to the transient nature of worldly and even heavenly attainments.
Sañjaya describes a battlefield moment in which a warrior’s severed head, still wearing earrings, is seen falling from a chariot to the ground. The narrator frames the scene with a moral comparison: the fall resembles that of a being dropping from heaven after its merit runs out.