Shloka 4
महाभिष-गङ्गा-दर्शनं वसूनां शापकथनं च
Mahābhiṣa Encounters Gaṅgā; The Vasus Explain Their Curse
ययातिरुवाच इमं भौम॑ नरकं ते पतन्ति लालप्यमाना नरदेव सर्वे । ते कड़्कगोमायुबलाशनार्थ- क्षीणा विवृद्धिं बहुधा व्रजन्ति,ययाति बोले--नरदेव! जो अपने मुखसे अपने पुण्य-कर्मोंका बखान करते हैं, वे सभी इस भौम नरकमें आ गिरते हैं। यहाँ वे गीधों, गीदड़ों और कौओं आदिके खानेयोग्य इस शरीरके लिये बड़ा भारी परिश्रम करके क्षीण होते और पुत्र-पौत्रादिरूपसे बहुधा विस्तारको प्राप्त होते हैं
yayātir uvāca: imaṃ bhaumaṃ narakaṃ te patanti lālapyamānā naradeva sarve | te kaṅkagomāyubalāśanārtha-kṣīṇā vivṛddhiṃ bahudhā vrajanti ||
Yayāti dijo: «Oh rey, todos aquellos que, ávidos de alabanza, proclaman con su propia boca sus obras meritorias caen en este infierno terrenal. Allí, consumidos por un duro afán sólo para sostener este cuerpo—apto para ser devorado por buitres, chacales y cuervos—se agotan, y aun así, por medio de hijos y nietos, se extienden en muchas nuevas ramificaciones.»
अष्टक उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse warns against self-glorification: publicly advertising one’s own good deeds out of a desire for praise undermines their moral worth and leads to painful consequences. True merit is aligned with humility and restraint in speech, not with self-promotion.
Yayāti addresses a king and describes a specific punishment: those who boast about their own पुण्य (merit) fall into an ‘earthly hell,’ where they are exhausted by struggle for bodily survival and become subject to the harsh cycle of bodily decay and continued worldly proliferation through descendants.