Sanskrit
अहं हि सर्वयज्ञानां भोक्ता च प्रभुरेव च । न तु मामभिजानन्ति तत्त्वेनातश्च्यवन्ति ते ॥
ahaṃ hi sarvayajñānāṃ bhoktā ca prabhur eva ca na tu mām abhijānanti tattvenātaś cyavanti te
Translation
I am indeed the enjoyer of all sacrifices and also the Lord, but they know Me not in Essence, and hence they fall.
Annie Besant · The Bhagavad-Gita, translated by Annie Besant (4th ed., 1922) — Wikisource · Public Domain
Explanation
The metaphysical payoff for verse 23: since Krishna is “the enjoyer and Lord of all sacrifices” without exception, no ritual object genuinely bypasses him — the failure described here is entirely epistemic (na tu mām abhijānanti, “they do not know Me in truth”), not transactional. They “fall” (cyavanti) because a worldview that stops at the intermediate deity forecloses the very relationship that would otherwise deliver more than a temporary reward, echoing the heaven-then-return structure verse 21 just laid out.