Shloka 34
तामसं युगमासाद्य कृष्णो भवति केशव: । वेदाचारा: प्रशाम्यन्ति धर्मयज्ञक्रियास्तथा,इस तमोगुणी युगको पाकर भगवान् विष्णुके श्रीविग्रहका रंग काला हो जाता है। वैदिक सदाचार, धर्म तथा यज्ञ-कर्म नष्ट हो जाते हैं
tāmasaṁ yugam āsādya kṛṣṇo bhavati keśavaḥ | vedācārāḥ praśāmyanti dharmayajñakriyās tathā ||
Bhīma said: “When a dark, tamasic age arrives, Keśava (Viṣṇu) is spoken of as becoming ‘Kṛṣṇa’—dark in hue. In such a time, Vedic good conduct grows faint, and with it dharma and the rites of sacrifice and religious duty also decline.”
भीम उवाच
Educational Q&A
The verse links the onset of a tamasic age with the weakening of Vedic ethical discipline and the collapse of dharma and sacrificial/religious duties, portraying social and spiritual order as vulnerable to the dominance of tamas (darkness, inertia, confusion).
Bhīma is describing the characteristics of a degenerate epoch: as the tamasic yuga arrives, the world’s adherence to Vedic norms fades, and religious rites and dharmic practice diminish; he frames this decline with the epithet of Viṣṇu/Keśava as ‘Kṛṣṇa’ (dark-hued) in such a time.