Markandeya Purana — Adhyaya 4, 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
施与之后，人们后来又乞求；杀害之后，他人亦杀其身。并且使他人堕落者，当其苦行功德之藏（tapas）耗尽之时，那些人自身也必被贬抑、沉沦。
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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.