Sanskrit
सत्कारमानपूजार्थं तपो दम्भेन चैव यत् । क्रियते तदिह प्रोक्तं राजसं चलमध्रुवम् ॥
satkāramānapūjārthaṃ tapo dambhena caiva yat kriyate tad iha proktaṃ rājasaṃ calam adhruvam
Translation
The austerity which is practised with the object of gaining respect, honour and worship, and for ostentation, is said to be of passion, unstable and fleeting.
Annie Besant · The Bhagavad-Gita, translated by Annie Besant (4th ed., 1922) — Wikisource · Public Domain
Explanation
Austerity performed for reputation — the same dambha, ostentation, that corrupted sacrifice in verse 12 — earns a specific verdict beyond just “rajasic”: calam adhruvam, unstable and fleeting. That’s a sharper observation than it first appears: virtue performed for an audience is structurally dependent on the audience’s continued approval, so it can never be steady in the way sattvic discipline is, since its worth was never self-grounded to begin with.