Link to purport by A C Bhaktivedanta Swami Srila Prabhupada

Transcript of Bhakti-Shastri class on this verse by Chaitanya Charan

After that Krishna will describe action in mode of passion.

Bg 18.27

rāgī karma-phala-prepsur
lubdho hiṁsātmako ’śuciḥ
harṣa-śokānvitaḥ kartā
rājasaḥ parikīrtitaḥ

Synonyms: 

rāgī — very much attached; karma–phala — the fruit of the work; prepsuḥ — desiring; lubdhaḥ — greedy; hiṁsā–ātmakaḥ — always envious; aśuciḥ — unclean; harṣa–śoka–anvitaḥ — subject to joy and sorrow; kartā — such a worker; rājasaḥ — in the mode of passion; parikīrtitaḥ — is declared.

Translation: 

The worker who is attached to work and the fruits of work, desiring to enjoy those fruits, and who is greedy, always envious, impure, and moved by joy and sorrow, is said to be in the mode of passion.

rāgī karma-phala-prepsur, 

rāgī means very much attached one who is filled with raga, attachment. 

karma-phala-prepsur, such a person is very attached to Karma-phala,

one who wants fruits of one’s work very quickly,

lubdho hiṁsātmako ’śuciḥ, lubdho is greedy, hiṁsātmako ’śuciḥ, hiṁsātmako is always envious, ātmako is related with word atma, so hiṁsātmako means for such a person himsa is the essence, person thinks that action means there has to be violence, otherwise what is the fun, 

and then,

harṣa-śokānvitaḥ kartā, we can compare dhṛty-utsāha-samanvitaḥ is the person in mode of goodness and here harṣa-śokānvitaḥ, what is the difference? Harsha and Shoka are the results of action, when one does action and gets the result, when the result is positive one gets jubilation and when one doesn’t get the result there is dejection so what happens is for the person in mode of passion the focus is not in action but in consequence, so one has to focus on action and not on result dhṛty-utsāha-samanvitaḥ. Sometimes Karma may be in goodness and Karta is in passion and vice versa based on time place and circumstances e.g. teaching is in goodness but teacher may be arrogant to just show off how much he knows. If possible we can choose karma in mode of goodness and become karta in mode of goodness.  

hiṁsātmako is violence towards other or envious towards others, when one feel envious towards others he does violence towards other. I wanted to be better situated then other, I wanted to bring down that person.

End of transcription.