Devanagari
धर्मश्चतुष्पान्मनुजान् कृते समनुवर्तते ।
स एवान्येष्वधर्मेण व्येति पादेन वर्धता ॥ २१ ॥
Verse text
dharmaś catuṣ-pān manujān
kṛte samanuvartate
sa evānyeṣv adharmeṇa
vyeti pādena vardhatā
Synonyms
dharmaḥ
—
religion
;
catuḥ
—
pāt — complete four dimensions
;
manujān
—
mankind
;
kṛte
—
in the Satya-yuga
;
samanuvartate
—
properly maintained
;
saḥ
—
that
;
eva
—
certainly
;
anyeṣu
—
in other
;
adharmeṇa
—
by the influence of irreligion
;
vyeti
—
declined
;
pādena
—
by one part
;
vardhatā
—
gradually increasing proportionately .
Translation
O Vidura, in the Satya millennium mankind properly and completely maintained the principles of religion, but in other millenniums religion gradually decreased by one part as irreligion was proportionately admitted.
Translation (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)
In Satya-yuga complete dharma gives shelter to mankind. In each of the succeeding yugas, dharma decreases by a quarter because of the increase of adharma by a quarter.
In Satya-yuga, complete (catuḥpāt) dharma is aimed at mankind. Because adharma gradually increased by a fourth in the following yugas, dharma gradually decreased by a fourth.
Purport
In the Satya millennium, complete execution of religious principles prevailed. Gradually, the principles of religion decreased by one part in each of the subsequent millenniums. In other words, at present there is one part religion and three parts irreligion. Therefore people in this age are not very happy.