Mandukya_Upanishad

ecause the consciousness of the jīva is particularised. Wehave no universal desire in us. There is no desire in us thatcan include within itself everything that is in the cosmos.Whenever we want something, it is only something in someplace, differentiated from some other thing at some otherplace. We always create a bifurcation of things. We cannottake all things into consideration in our dealings of day-todaylife; even our judgments are affected by our partialitydue to desires. We cannot be easily impartial, which meansto say that we cannot take all sides of the matter when wejudge things. Certain aspects always escape our notice,which vitiates our judgment. So, the jīva’s judgment iserroneous, and, therefore, the world binds the jīva.As you do not understand the world, and deal with itwith this wrong understanding of it, the world will recoilupon you, and this recoiling is what is known as the effectof karma. While your dealings with the world may be calledkarma, the recoil of the world upon you is the effect ofkarma. The world will not redound upon you if you dealwith it with an understanding of its real nature. But youdeal with it with a prejudiced notion in regard to it, andwith a subtle desire to utilise it as an instrument in thesatisfactions of your desires. We should not use the worldas an instrument for our satisfaction. If we try to use it inthis manner, the world will try to use us, also, as aninstrument. It will give us tit for tat. As we behave with theworld, so the world will behave with us. We should notregard ourselves as the centre of the world, who should beserved by the world. We cannot regard ourselves as mastersand treat the world as a servant. If we put on this attitude of65