Sanskrit
ते तं भुक्त्वा स्वर्गलोकं विशालम् क्षीणे पुण्ये मर्त्यलोकं विशन्ति । एवं त्रयीधर्ममनुप्रपन्नाः गतागतं कामकामा लभन्ते ॥
te taṃ bhuktvā svargalokaṃ viśālam kṣīṇe puṇye martyalokaṃ viśanti evaṃ trayīdharmam anuprapannāḥ gatāgataṃ kāmakāmā labhante
Translation
They, having enjoyed the spacious heaven-world, their holiness withered, come back to this world of death. Following the virtues enjoined by the three, desiring desires, they obtain the transitory.
Annie Besant · The Bhagavad-Gita, translated by Annie Besant (4th ed., 1922) — Wikisource · Public Domain
Explanation
Verse 20’s transactional ritualists get their answer: heaven, but metered. Puṇya behaves like a balance that depletes with use — once exhausted (kṣīṇe puṇye), the return to the mortal world is as automatic as the ascent was, which is why the verse names the whole loop gatāgatam, “the going and the coming,” rather than simply a going. Nothing here suggests punishment; the ritual worked exactly as advertised. The real target is the desire underneath it — kāma-kāmāḥ, wanting particular wants — which guarantees a bounded, repeatable outcome rather than the unconditional arrival Krishna describes for undivided devotion in the very next verse.