Shloka 36
Yoga-kṛtya (योककृत्य) — Vyāsa on Sense-Restraint, Obstacles, and Brahman-Realization
दृश्यन्ते न च दृश्यन्ते वेदा: कलियुगेडखिला: । उत्सीदन्ते सयज्ञाशक्ष॒ केवलाधर्मपीडिता:,कलियुग आनेपर तो कहीं वेदोंका दर्शन होता है और कहीं नहीं होता है। उस समय केवल अधर्मसे पीड़ित होकर यज्ञ और वेद लुप्त हो जाते हैं
dṛśyante na ca dṛśyante vedāḥ kaliyuge ’khilāḥ | utsīdante sa-yajñāś ca kevalādharmapīḍitāḥ ||
Vyāsa said: In the Kali age, the Vedas are, in some places, seen and preserved, and in other places not seen at all. Overwhelmed solely by the pressure of adharma, both the sacrificial rites and the Vedic tradition decline and fall into obscurity.
व्यास उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse teaches that when adharma becomes dominant, it does not merely corrupt individual conduct; it erodes the social and spiritual institutions that sustain dharma—especially Vedic learning and yajña—so that sacred knowledge becomes unevenly preserved and may disappear from many places.
In Śānti Parva’s discourse on dharma and the ages (yugas), Vyāsa describes the characteristics of Kali Yuga. Here he notes a fragmented survival of the Vedas—present in some regions, absent in others—and explains that the spread of adharma causes sacrificial practice and Vedic transmission to wither.