अन्तवत्तु फलं तेषां तद्भवत्यल्पमेधसाम्।देवान्देवयजो यान्ति मद्भक्ता यान्ति मामपि॥
antavat tu phalaṃ teṣāṃ tad bhavatyalpa-medhasāmdevān deva-yajo yānti mad-bhaktā yānti mām api
Word by word
The verse says
But what such people gain comes to an end — they have not thought it through. Those who worship the gods go to the gods. Those who are mine come to me.
In plain words
The objection is not that it fails. It is that it finishes.
Antavat — having an end. You get the thing, and then the thing is over.
Alpa-medhasām is the unkind phrase: short in understanding. This chapter is not always gentle.
Where you've felt this · with money
You wanted a motorbike for two years. You saved, you bought it, and for about a month it was the first thing you thought about when you woke up. Then it became the thing you ride to work. Nothing went wrong and nobody cheated you. It simply finished being the thing you wanted.
Going deeper
The criticism here is arithmetic, not morality.
A finite want gets a finite answer. Ask for a result and a result is what arrives, and results are made of time. They come, they are enjoyed, they become the floor you stand on while you look around for the next thing. There is nothing wicked in that. It is the shape of the transaction.
Alpa-medhasām, people of small understanding, is the phrase that stings, and this is the point in the chapter where readers most often feel talked down to. That reaction is fair. The Gita is capable of more generous language and here it does not reach for it.
What survives the sting is the observation, which anyone can check. Think of the last thing you badly wanted and got. Count how long it stayed the thing you wanted.