Shloka 21
आत्मदर्शन-उपदेशः (Ātma-darśana Upadeśa) — Mind, Senses, and the All-pervading Self
संध्या और संध्यांशोंसहित अन्य तीन युगोंमें यह (चार हजार आठ सौ वर्षोकी) संख्या क्रमश: एक-एक चौथाई घटती जाती है-
sandhyā ca sandhyāṁśaiḥ sahitā anyeṣu triṣu yugeṣu idaṁ (catuḥsahasra-aṣṭaśata-varṣāṇāṁ) saṅkhyā kramaśaḥ eka-eka-caturthāṁśena hīyate
Vyāsa dit : En comptant les périodes de crépuscule (sandhyā) et leurs portions (sandhyāṃśa), dans les trois autres yugas ce total — évalué ici à 4 800 ans — diminue, selon l’ordre, d’un quart à chaque fois. L’enseignement fait voir que le temps lui-même obéit à un rythme moral : à mesure que les âges se succèdent, la mesure du dharma et la durée de l’ordre favorable décroissent progressivement.
व्यास उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse teaches that the durations of the yugas (including their transitional dawn/dusk periods) follow an ordered pattern of decline: starting from a stated total (here 4,800 years), each subsequent yuga is reduced by one quarter. This numerical scheme expresses an ethical idea—dharma and stability diminish as time moves through the ages.
In Śānti Parva’s instructional setting, Vyāsa is explaining the structure of cosmic time. He specifies how the measure assigned to one yuga, together with its sandhyā and sandhyāṁśa, becomes progressively smaller in the remaining three yugas by a fixed fractional reduction.