Verses 7.20–7.22 showed the positive side of sakāma-bhakti. A devotee may have a finite desire, worship a particular sacred form, develop strong śraddhā, follow the required discipline, and actually obtain the desired result. Kṛṣṇa did not condemn that process.

Now comes the warning.

antavattu phalaṃ teṣāṃ tadbhavatyalpamedhasām — the result obtained by such seekers is antavat, finite, having an end.

That is the central fact of 7.23.

The result may be money, marriage, children, health, position, recognition, possession, success, puṇya, or even a higher loka. The result may be very small or extraordinarily great. It may last for a day, fifty years, or what seems like an unimaginably long heavenly period.

But if it belongs to the field of the finite, it ends.

Therefore Kṛṣṇa calls such seekers alpamedhasaḥ—people whose discrimination is insufficiently developed.

This is not an insult to their moral character. They may be sincere devotees. They may follow religious discipline faithfully. Their worship may be completely valid.

The limitation is in choice of destination.

The same Bhagavān from whom they seek a finite result is capable of becoming the doorway to mokṣa. Yet the devotee asks only for another finite object.

The difficulty is a lack of nitya-anitya-vastu-viveka—clear discrimination between what is permanent and what is impermanent.

Swami develops this limitation of finite accomplishments in three ways.

The first is duḥkha-miśritatvam—finite pleasure is mixed with pain.

There is difficulty in acquiring what we want. Competition, anxiety, effort, uncertainty, and fear accompany acquisition. After acquisition comes the problem of preservation: “Will I keep it? Will someone take it? Will circumstances change?” Finally, because the object is finite, loss eventually comes.

Thus there can be pain in acquisition, pain in preservation, and pain in loss.

The more emotionally dependent I become upon a finite possession, relationship, position, or experience, the more painful its loss can become. In that sense every finite pleasure contains the possibility of future pain.

The second limitation is atṛptikaratvam—finite accomplishment does not produce lasting satisfaction.

A person thinks, “If I get this much, I will be satisfied.”

Then that much is obtained.

Soon the mind notices the next possibility.

Someone has more money. Someone has a better position. Someone has greater recognition. Someone’s children seem more successful. Another achievement appears just beyond the present one.

The problem is mathematical as well as psychological: finite plus finite plus finite never becomes infinite.

A person may travel from one state of limitation to a more comfortable state of limitation, but the fundamental sense of incompleteness remains. One moves from apūrṇam to apūrṇam.

The third limitation is bandhakatvam—what we enjoy can begin to bind us.

Once a person becomes accustomed to status, wealth, attention, comfort, authority, or a particular lifestyle, losing it becomes frightening. Something originally sought for happiness becomes something without which one feels unable to be happy.

Possession becomes dependence.

Therefore sakāma-bhakti may produce genuine material progress, but if the orientation never changes, there is spiritual stagnation.

The person does not necessarily fall spiritually, because sakāma-bhakti is not sinful. But neither does the person move toward freedom from samsāra. The cycle continues: desire, effort, acquisition, enjoyment, fear, loss, another desire.

Then Kṛṣṇa says:

devāndevayajo yānti — worshippers of finite deities attain the devas.

This must be understood using the same non-sectarian framework established in 7.20–7.22.

“Finite deity” here is symbolic language for a finite goal. Deva can represent an exalted position or result. Even heavenly positions such as Indra, Yama, or Brahmā are positions within the created universe. They may be extraordinarily exalted, but they still belong to time and therefore remain finite.

One may reach a higher loka through puṇya. One may attain extraordinary pleasures. But when the corresponding puṇya is exhausted, that condition ends.

Thus devān yānti means: the seeker of the finite reaches a finite destination.

Kṛṣṇa then contrasts this with:

madbhaktā yānti māmapi — “My devotees attain Me.”

Here “Me” does not mean merely the physical body of Kṛṣṇa. Kṛṣṇa’s avatāra body is itself a finite visible form. In this teaching, that form represents the infinite Brahman.

Therefore the contrast is not:

“Worship Kṛṣṇa instead of Śiva.”

It is:

seek the finite and obtain the finite; seek the infinite and discover the infinite.

The madbhakta here is the discriminating devotee: the jijñāsu, mumukṣu, vivekī, the niṣkāma-bhakta whose primary destination is mokṣa rather than another temporary rearrangement of life.

Such a devotee seeks Bhagavān as pūrṇatvam, the limitless.

This is why Kṛṣṇa’s criticism of the sakāma-bhakta is fundamentally compassionate. Bhagavān can give both preyas, the immediately attractive finite result, and śreyas, the highest good. The tragedy is not that Bhagavān refuses mokṣa. The tragedy is that the devotee keeps asking for something smaller.

Verse 7.23 therefore completes the immediate discussion of sakāma-bhakti: it is valid, it can work, and it can give genuine results—but every result it gives remains finite. Spiritual maturity begins when the devotee develops enough discrimination to stop using the infinite merely to obtain the finite and begins seeking the infinite itself.