Sanskrit
क्लेशोऽधिकतरस्तेषामव्यक्तासक्तचेतसाम् । अव्यक्ता हि गतिर्दुःखं देहवद्भिरवाप्यते ॥
kleśo 'dhikataras teṣām avyaktāsaktacetasām avyaktā hi gatir duḥkhaṃ dehavadbhir avāpyate
Translation
The difficulty of those whose minds are set on the Unmanifested is greater; for the path of the Unmanifested is hard for the embodied to reach.
Annie Besant · The Bhagavad-Gita, translated by Annie Besant (4th ed., 1922) — Wikisource · Public Domain
Explanation
This is the actual argument behind verse 2’s ranking, delayed until now: the unmanifest path isn’t inferior in destination, only harder in practice, because it demands an embodied mind grasp what has no form to hold onto. That practical framing — difficulty of method, not validity of goal — is what licenses the graded, easier alternatives Krishna lays out starting in verse 6.