As you do not understand the world, and deal with it with this wrong understanding of it, the world will recoil upon you, and this recoiling is what is known as the effect of karma. While your dealings with the world may be called karma, the recoil of the world upon you is the effect of karma. The world will not rebound upon you if you deal with it with an understanding of its real nature. But you deal with it with a prejudiced notion in regard to it, and with a subtle desire to utilise it as an instrument in the satisfactions of your desires. We should not use the world as an instrument for our satisfaction. If we try to use it in this manner, the world will try to use us, also, as an instrument. It will give us tit for tat. As we behave with the world, so the world will behave with us.

~ Swami Krishnananda