Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam 10.24.13
Blended reading (Sanskrit + English inline)
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karmaṇā
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by karma
Instrumental of karma — the verse hammers this word four times in four lines. Kṛṣṇa's argument inside karma-kāṇḍa: if you grant the ritualist's premise, then it is karma, not Indra, that turns every wheel.
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jāyate
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is born
Passive present from √jan. Birth itself is a karma-effect. Gauḍīya doctrine: the jīva accepts a body suited to its saṁskāras; Indra does not write the birth-certificate.
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pralīyate
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dissolves
Passive present from pra + √lī. Death is also karma-resolved. The pair jāyate–pralīyate frames a human life; both endpoints are karma-stamped, not Indra-stamped.
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sukham
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happiness
From √sukh. Even the most ordinary pleasure inside saṁsāra is karma's coin. Gauḍīya note: only ānanda, Bhagavān's own nature, escapes the karma-loop — and that is precisely what bhakti gives, not what karma gives.
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abhipadyate
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obtains, encounters
From abhi + √pad. The jīva 'lands on' joy or fear by karma's gravitational pull. The verb makes the soul passive — exactly the picture Kṛṣṇa wants to plant before He pivots away from karma-kāṇḍa altogether.
Lord Kṛṣṇa minimized the importance of the demigods by speaking the philosophy known as Karma-vāda or Karma-mīmāṁsā, which, basically, is atheism with a belief in reincarnation. According to this philosophy, there are subtle laws of nature that reward or punish us according to how we act: “As you sow, so shall you reap.” In a future life one reaps the fruit of his present work, and this is the sum and substance of reality. Lord Kṛṣṇa, being God Himself, could hardly be a serious proponent of this mediocre philosophy. In the role of a young boy He was simply teasing His pure devotees by preaching it. Śrīla Jīva Gosvāmī points out that Lord Kṛṣṇa was thinking, “Why are these eternal associates of Mine, appearing as My father and other relatives and friends, so caught up in this worship of Indra?” Thus although the Lord’s main purpose was to take away the false pride of Indra, He also wanted to remind His eternal devotees that they need not divert their attention to other so-called gods, since in fact His devotees were already living with the Supreme Absolute Truth, the almighty Lord Himself.
In order to show pastimes as a human being Krsna used logic to stop the sacrifice to Indra. He took shelter of karma vada (condemned by the devotees) and excluded worship of the devatas.
Who is Indra to receive the worship of my eternal associates like Nanda? Though Kṛṣṇa had in his mind the idea of breaking Indra’s pride, he first defeated his father’s arguments by taking shelter of the famous karmavāda in order to protect his human pastimes. Karmavāda would not reveal his nature as the Supreme Lord. Pramīyate means “die.” All beings live and die by karma. Another version has pralīyate with the same meaning. Another version has hi līyate: certainly they must die. And after living and dying they attain happiness, suffering, fear and lack of fear (kṣemam) etc. by karma. The word karmanā is repeated to emphasize the fact that karma is the cause.
He refutes his father’s words first by taking shelter of karma-vāda, since it is famous everywhere. Beings are born by karma, since by prārabdha karma one receives results in this life. All jivas die (pramiyate) by karma. Another version has vilīyate with the same meaning. While living and in the next life, by karma one experiences happiness etc. and fearlessness (kṣemam). Karma is the cause, but the word is repeated for emphasis.
- Where am I treating karma or fate as the final explanation and skipping the question of the Supreme controller?
- What partial truth in my belief might be ready for a deeper revision?
A potter complains that the wheel spins only because Indra blew a wind through it; Kṛṣṇa points out that the wheel spins because the potter's foot pumps the treadle. The wind is real, but it is not the engine. So with karma: birth, dissolution, joy, fear — all turn on the soul's own previous deeds, not on a distant celestial spinner.
Ajāmila lived an entire dissolute life, and his body was broken by his karma at the end of it; the same body was rescued by the karma of one inadvertent utterance — 'Nārāyaṇa' — uttered at the death-call to his son (SB 6.1–3).
He was not saved by Indra. He was saved by the unfailing mechanism by which kṛṣṇa-nāma, even half-spoken, outweighs decades of pāpa-karma. Karma's mechanics are tight; only the Name cracks them open.
My note
Source: vedabase.io