Sanskrit
यामिमां पुष्पितां वाचं प्रवदन्त्यविपश्चितः । वेदवादरताः पार्थ नान्यदस्तीति वादिनः ॥
yām imāṃ puṣpitāṃ vācaṃ pravadanty avipaścitaḥ vedavādaratāḥ pārtha nānyad astīti vādinaḥ
Translation
Flowery speech is uttered by the foolish, rejoicing in the letter of the Vedas, O Pârtha, saying: "There is naught but this";
Annie Besant · The Bhagavad-Gita, translated by Annie Besant (4th ed., 1922) — Wikisource · Public Domain
Explanation
Krishna opens a pointed critique of literalist Vedic religion — not the Vedas themselves, but people who mistake ornate ritual language for the whole of wisdom and insist there’s nothing beyond it. “Flowery speech” is the tell: elaborate, appealing, and, as the next two verses spell out, aimed at a fairly narrow set of desires.
Concepts