Karma-jam means whenever you act, there will be some reaction. If you act good things, there will be a good reaction. If you act bad things, there will be bad reaction.
But reaction, either good or bad, that is, in higher sense, all suffering. I have already explained to you another, some other day, that suppose by good action I get good birth, good riches and good features of the body, good education—all these thing I get—but that does not mean that I am free from the material pangs.
The material pangs are janma-mṛtyu-jarā-vyādhi (BG 13.9): birth, death, old age and diseases. Because you are rich man, because you are beautiful man, because you are educated man, because you are born in a aristocratic family, that does not mean that you have avoided death, old age and disease.
So we shall not be concerned with pious activities or impious activities. We shall be concerned with transcendental activities. That will save me from this bondage of birth, death, old age and disease. That should be our aim of life. We should not be hankering after good or bad things. Because everything here, in higher consciousness, everything material . . .
Now, take for example, suppose you are diseased, suffering from some disease. You are lying on the bed, and you are eating in that stage, you are passing your nature's call in that way, and taking bitter medicines, and always you have to keep by the nurses clean—otherwise, there is some obnoxious smell. In such a condition you are lying, and some friends come to you and ask you, "My dear such-and-such, how are you today feeling?"
"Yes, I am today feeling well." What is this "well"? He's lying on the bed. He's passing his nature's calls in that way. He's eating bitter medicine, and he, he cannot move. All these inconveniences, and he says that, "I am well."
Similarly, in our material conception of life, if we think, "I am happy," that is foolishness. That is foolishness. There is no happiness in material life. It is impossible to get happiness. Then we do not know meaning of happiness. Therefore this very word is used, manīṣiṇaḥ. We want to happy . . . to become by some extraneous, artificial means.