Shloka 12
Adhyaya 4 — Jaimini Meets the Dharmapakshis: Four Doubts on the Mahabharata and the Opening of Narayana Doctrine
दत्त्वा याचन्ति पुरुषा हत्वा वध्यन्ति चापरे ।
पातयित्वा च पात्यन्ते त एव तपसः क्षयात् ॥
dattvā yācanti puruṣā hatvā vadhyanti cāpare /
pātayitvā ca pātyante ta eva tapasaḥ kṣayāt
施したのち、人はやがて乞う。殺したのち、他者によって自らも殺される。また他者を堕とした者は、苦行の蓄え（tapas）が尽きるとき、まさにその者自身も低く落とされる。
{ "primaryRasa": "shanta", "secondaryRasa": "bhakti", "rasaIntensity": 0, "emotionalArcPosition": "", "moodDescriptors": [] }
FAQs
The verse states a moral symmetry: actions rebound upon the doer. Harm (killing, causing another’s downfall) ripens as harm to oneself; even apparent worldly reversals (a giver later becoming a beggar) are framed as consequences unfolding when one’s accumulated merit/austerity is depleted. The ethical thrust is restraint (ahiṃsā), humility, and vigilance that one’s present status is not permanent.
This verse is not primarily sarga (creation), pratisarga (dissolution/re-creation), vaṃśa (genealogies), manvantara (Manu cycles), or vaṃśānucarita (dynastic histories). It belongs to the Purāṇic didactic layer (dharma-upadeśa) often interwoven with narratives—adjacent to, but not itself, a pañcalakṣaṇa datum.
Esoterically, “tapasaḥ kṣaya” points to the finite nature of accumulated spiritual ‘credit’ when mixed with ego, violence, or adharmic intent. As that protective luminosity wanes, latent karmic seeds manifest as reversal and downfall. The verse thus hints that tapas without ethical alignment does not yield stable uplift; inner purification and non-harm are the sustaining ‘seal’ of merit.