In plain words
This was no deed for a king to do. That is why, seeing this sight, Śṛṅgi, the son of that maharṣi, cursed him. "Within seven days you shall die by the bite of this same snake." But since the king had recognised his own fault, he resolved that within those seven days he would not waste even a moment and would make the rest of his life fruitful.
On the day a good saṅkalpa arises in a man, on that very day every kind of welfare comes and gathers round him. Thousands of maharṣis came and joined in it. At that very time Śuka Maharṣi too arrived. Their gathering comes about only in a sacred setting. Not only did the maharṣis hear the principle of the Bhāgavata that this Śuka Maharṣi taught; King Parīkṣit, with his mind turned to one thing alone, wholly one-pointed, listened to it well with tears of joy, and so brought his life to its close. Before he gave up his life King Parīkṣit said, "O noble Śṛṅgi, what you gave me was no śāpa. It was a great gift of grace," he said. So the harsh words the maharṣis speak are only for the good of men, but men do not recognise it. They believe only the words, take them as nothing but a śāpa, and try to revile the maharṣis. Truly, but for that śāpa, King Parīkṣit would not have spent such a sacred time at his end.
Then again, Agastya Maharṣi cursed Devendra too: "May you live as an elephant!" Then that elephant, trusting in many kinds of strength, strength of body, strength of intellect, strength of arm, tried to fight the crocodile. At the very last he recognised his own weakness, recognised the truth that the strength of the body is weakness and the strength of God alone is true strength, and cried out, "Come, O Lord! Save me, giver of boons! Protect me, O auspicious one!" As long as there is Ahaṅkāra, no Vijñāna of any kind arises within man or beast. So as long as this king of elephants was full of Ahaṅkāra, he fell into many kinds of hardship. He lost his footing, he fainted, his body grew weary, he was worn out: his body was spent. His mind's awareness was wholly changed. His life became a life hard to bear.