Bhagavad Gita 4.12
काङ्क्षन्तः कर्मणां सिद्धिं यजन्त इह देवताः । क्षिप्रं हि मानुषे लोके सिद्धिर्भवति कर्मजा ॥
kāṅkṣantaḥ karmaṇāṃ siddhiṃ yajanta iha devatāḥ | kṣipraṃ hi mānuṣe loke siddhir bhavati karma-jā ||
Translation
Those who desire success in actions worship the gods here; for, in this world of men, success born of action is quickly attained.
Reflection
What recent win have you been celebrating that was also the limit of the bargain you struck?
Read this verse in its chapter: Chapter Four
Kāṅkṣantaḥ, the longing ones. They worship gods for results, and results come, kṣipram, quickly. The verse is not dismissive of this. It is descriptive. The transaction works. The bargain returns its dividend. What the verse leaves unsaid, and what the rest of the chapter will make explicit, is that the transaction has a ceiling. The fruit ripens fast and is eaten fast and is gone. The verse names the path most people are on without naming it as wrong, only as bounded.