16.15

Sanskrit

आढ्योऽभिजनवानस्मि कोऽन्योऽस्ति सदृशो मया । यक्ष्ये दास्यामि मोदिष्य इत्यज्ञानविमोहिताः ॥

āḍhyo 'bhijanavān asmi ko 'nyo 'sti sadṛśo mayā yakṣye dāsyāmi modiṣya ity ajñānavimohitāḥ

Translation

"I am wealthy, well-born; what other is there that is like unto me? I will sacrifice, I will give alms, I will rejoice." Thus deluded by unwisdom,

Annie Besant · The Bhagavad-Gita, translated by Annie Besant (4th ed., 1922) — Wikisource · Public Domain

Explanation

The monologue concludes with status-counting — wealth, high birth, “who else is there like me” — before pivoting to a trio of ritual verbs: I will sacrifice, I will give, I will rejoice. The irony is that these are genuinely religious and ethical acts (yajña, dāna) being recruited into a purely self-congratulatory register; the text isn’t objecting to sacrifice or charity here, only to performing them as trophies. “Thus deluded by ajñāna” closes the interior monologue and hands it back to third-person narration for the consequence that follows.