Bhagavad Gita, Chapter 9, Verse 3

Persons without Shraddhâ for this Dharma, return, O scorcher of foes, without attaining Me, to the path of re-birth fraught with death.

Real faith is named as the actual starting point here, not a nice-to-have extra.

Without it, this whole path stays out of reach and the same real cycle repeats. This isn't described as punishment, just an honest account of what happens when that first real step is skipped.