Karmaja means

Expressions researched:
"Karma-ja means" |"Karmaja means"

Bhagavad-gita As It Is Lectures

Karmajā means one who wants to enjoy the fruit of his labor. Everyone in this material world, they have come to enjoy.

Lecture on BG 4.12 -- Vrndavana, August 4, 1974:

Generally, people are karmajā. Karmajā means one who wants to enjoy the fruit of his labor. Everyone in this material world, they have come to enjoy. So therefore they are working so hard. We have seen in big, big cities, especially in the Western world, they are working very, very hard.

In the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam it is said that nūnaṁ pramattaḥ kurute vikarma.

nūnaṁ pramattaḥ kurute vikarma

yad indriya-prītaya āpṛṇoti

na sādhu manye yata ātmano 'yam

asann api kleśada āsa dehaḥ

(SB 5.5.4)

People do not understand that because we have got this material body, the sufferings are there. We are spirit. Ahaṁ brahmāsmi. We are all spirit soul. But somehow or other, some way or otherwise, we have contacted this material world, and we are bound up by our karma, or fruitive, result of fruitive activities. And the result is this body. Karmaṇā daiva-netreṇa jantur dehopapatti (SB 3.31.1).

We work in a certain way, in contamination with the modes of material nature, and we get different types of body. These are explained in the Bhagavad-gītā, that why there are different types of body. Now we are sitting, say, one hundred men here. We have got different types of body. Not that everyone's body of the same type. Why? Why the scientists cannot reply this? But Bhagavad-gītā replies. What is the reply? The reply is kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgaḥ asya sad-asad-yoni-janmasu. We have got different types of body from different types of mother. So kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgaḥ asya. Mother means yoni, and father means bīja. Yathā yoni yathā bījam. Our birth is taking place according to the mother and the father. Yathā bījaṁ yathā yoni. So we are getting different types of body, human body or animal body or demigod body. This is due to kāraṇam.

What is the reason? Kāraṇaṁ guṇa-saṅgaḥ asya. We are associating with different modes of material nature by our karma, activities. Therefore there are divisions of karma. Cātur-varṇyaṁ mayā sṛṣṭaṁ guṇa-karma-vibhāgaśaḥ (BG 4.13). That is also creation of God, cātur-varṇyam, guṇa-karma. It is very subtle subject matter. According to guṇa and karma, we are getting bodies, and we are preparing also next body according to this guṇa and karma. So if we change our guṇa and karma, then we can again regain our spiritual body. This is the process. Guṇa... In the Bhagavad-gītā it is also advised, traiguṇya-viṣayā vedā nistraiguṇyo bhavārjuna. We have to transcend the guṇas, the infection of these material qualities.

Karma-jā means those who are acting here on the line of fruitive activities.

Lecture on BG 4.12-13 -- New York, July 29, 1966:

Karma-jā means those who are acting here on the line of fruitive activities. Suppose... You have experienced that there are so many political leaders. They follow some particular leader, and they capture the governmental machinery, but after some time they are taken away from the scene. Just like in our country, recently, within one year, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, he's also shifted away, Shastri is also shifted away. In your country, the President Kennedy is also shifted away. We do not take into account that after shifting this position, again we are going to enter into the miserable life of material existence. If we do not make a solution in present life, then we are again going to enter.