Shloka 36
Yoga-kṛtya (योककृत्य) — Vyāsa on Sense-Restraint, Obstacles, and Brahman-Realization
दृश्यन्ते न च दृश्यन्ते वेदा: कलियुगेडखिला: । उत्सीदन्ते सयज्ञाशक्ष॒ केवलाधर्मपीडिता:
dṛśyante na ca dṛśyante vedāḥ kaliyuge ’khilāḥ | utsīdante sa-yajñāś ca kevalādharmapīḍitāḥ ||
Vyāsa berkata: Pada Zaman Kali, Veda di sesetengah tempat masih kelihatan dan dipelihara, namun di tempat lain langsung tidak kelihatan. Ditindas semata-mata oleh tekanan adharma, baik upacara korban suci mahupun tradisi Veda merosot dan tenggelam dalam kesamaran.
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.