Hare Krsna
Please accept my humble obeisance. All glories to Srila Prabhupada
Bad karma obliges us to take birth again to be punished. And good karma obliges us to take birth again to be rewarded. For example, let's say that a wealthy man opens a charity hospital to give free medical care to the needy. For every poor person who receives free medical care this philanthropist accumulates good karma. His reward will be that he will take birth again and again until all the people who received free medical care from him will give him free medical care in return. This means that he will have to get sick again and again in order for them to give him the free medical care.
A pious man who is in the mood of giving to others can become serious to know what is the ultimate good for all others. By hearing from a bona fide spiritual master he can realize that the highest good we can do for someone is to awaken their Krishna consciousness. When he comes to this level of understanding and devotes his life to making the world Krishna conscious the pious man now becomes perfect in piety and free from all karmic reactions, both pious and impious. He will become a devotee. In this way his piety can serve as a stepping stone to bhakti. But if he does not take to bhakti, his good karma will keep him bound up in the cycle of birth and death.
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