Sanskrit
अभिसन्धाय तु फलं दम्भार्थमपि चैव यत् । इज्यते भरतश्रेष्ठ तं यज्ञं विद्धि राजसम् ॥
abhisandhāya tu phalaṃ dambhārtham api caiva yat ijyate bharataśreṣṭha taṃ yajñaṃ viddhi rājasam
Translation
The sacrifice offered with a view verily to fruit, and also indeed for self-glorification, O best of the Bhâratas; know thou that to be of passion.
Annie Besant · The Bhagavad-Gita, translated by Annie Besant (4th ed., 1922) — Wikisource · Public Domain
Explanation
The same outward act as verse 11 — a properly performed sacrifice — is reclassified as rajasic the moment the motive shifts to result-seeking or self-display (dambha, the same ostentation-word that will reappear for rajasic austerity in verse 18). The verse makes explicit what’s implicit in the whole chapter: the threefold grading isn’t about the ritual’s form, it’s entirely about the intention behind it.