Bhagavad Gita 9.24
अहं हि सर्वयज्ञानां भोक्ता च प्रभुरेव च | न तु मामभिजानन्ति तत्त्वेनातश्च्यवन्ति ते ||
ahaṁ hi sarva-yajñānāṁ bhoktā ca prabhur eva ca | na tu mām abhijānanti tattvenātaś cyavanti te ||
Translation
I am the enjoyer and the lord of all sacrifices. But they do not know me in truth, and therefore they fall.
Reflection
What offering of yours never seems to land anywhere?
Read this verse in its chapter: Chapter Nine
The reason the previous verse's worship goes astray. Krishna is the actual enjoyer of all sacrifices and the lord of them. The worshipper who does not know this in truth misses the recipient even while making the offering. Cyavanti, they fall, is the result. The fall is not punitive. It is mechanical. An offering sent under a wrong name does not arrive at the address it was meant for, and the energy spent on it does not accumulate where it should. The verse closes the loop opened by verse twenty-three. Faith on its own is honoured, but faith joined to right understanding is what completes the circuit. The chapter is moving toward the verses that will state what right understanding does at the simplest possible level.