Gita Explained
Krishna speaks2.42

यामिमां पुष्पितां वाचं प्रवदन्त्यविपश्चितः।वेदवादरताः पार्थ नान्यदस्तीति वादिनः॥

yāmimāṃ puṣpitāṃ vācaṃ pravadanty-avipaścitaḥveda-vāda-ratāḥ pārtha nānyad astīti vādinaḥkāmātmānaḥ swarga-parā janma-karma-phala-pradāmkriyā-viśeṣa-bahulāṃ bhogaiśwarya-gatiṃ prati

Word by word
yām imām — all thesepuṣpitām — floweryvācam — wordspravadanti — speakavipaścitaḥ — those with limited understandingveda-vāda-ratāḥ — attached to the flowery words of the Vedaspārtha — Arjun, the son of Prithana anyat — no otherasti — isiti — thusvādinaḥ — advocatekāma-ātmānaḥ — desirous of sensual pleasureswarga-parāḥ — aiming to achieve the heavenly planetsjanma-karma-phala — high birth and fruitive resultspradāṃ — awardingkriyā-viśeṣa — pompous ritualistic ceremoniesbahulām — variousbhoga — gratificationaiśwarya — luxurygatim — progressprati — toward

The verse says

There are people who go in for flowery talk and take delight in the letter of the scriptures, Arjuna, saying there is nothing more to it than this.

In plain words

Krishna starts criticising religion — specifically, a way of doing it.

Flowery words. Delight in the text itself. And the giveaway phrase: there is nothing else.

These are not irreligious people. They are the devout, and that is the point.

Where you've felt this · in creative work

Someone who knows every rule of the craft and has never made anything anyone wanted. The knowledge is real and complete. It has become the whole of the thing rather than the way into it.

Going deeper

It surprises readers that the Gita, a scripture, contains a sharp critique of scripture-following. It is worth understanding what is being attacked.

Veda-vāda-ratāḥ — delighting in the words of the Veda. The target is a specific religious style: the performance of rituals in order to obtain results, with the text treated as a reliable machine for producing them.

What Krishna objects to is not the Veda. It is the transaction. Do this rite, receive that reward — which makes the whole of religion an extension of wanting things, with better vocabulary.

Na anyad asti — there is nothing else. That is the real charge. Not that they are wrong about the rituals working, but that they think that is all there is.

This matters for reading the rest of the Gita, because the same critique will be turned on almost every path the book describes. Knowledge pursued for status, renunciation pursued for admiration, devotion pursued for benefits. In each case the form is fine and the motive has hollowed it out.