Shloka 39
Yoga-kṛtya (योककृत्य) — Vyāsa on Sense-Restraint, Obstacles, and Brahman-Realization
यथा विश्वानि भूतानि वृष्ट्या भूयांसि प्रावृषि । सृज्यन्ते जड़मस्थानि तथा धर्मा युगे युगे,जैसे वर्षाकालमें जलकी वर्षा होनेसे स्थावर और जंगम समस्त पदार्थ वृद्धिको प्राप्त होते हैं और वर्षा बीतनेपर उनका हास होने लगता है, उसी प्रकार प्रत्येक युगमें धर्म और अधर्मकी वृद्धि एवं हास होते रहते हैं
yathā viśvāni bhūtāni vṛṣṭyā bhūyāṃsi prāvṛṣi | sṛjyante jaḍam-asthāni tathā dharmā yuge yuge ||
Vyāsa said: “Just as, in the rainy season, all beings—moving and unmoving—grow and multiply through rainfall, and then, when the rains pass, begin to wane, so too in every age dharma rises and declines, and with it adharma also alternately increases and diminishes.”
व्यास उवाच
Educational Q&A
Dharma is not static: like growth driven by seasonal rains, it waxes and wanes across the yugas. The verse frames ethical order as cyclical—periods of strengthening are followed by decline, and this alternation is part of the world’s temporal rhythm.
In the didactic discourse of the Śānti Parva, Vyāsa explains a general principle about time and morality. Using a natural analogy (monsoon-driven flourishing followed by post-monsoon waning), he illustrates how dharma (and correspondingly adharma) undergoes rise and fall in every age.