Iyengar: As long as the root of actions exists, it will give rise to class of birth, span of life and experiences.
Taimni: As long as the root is there it must ripen and result in lives of different class, length and experiences.
Carrera: With the existence of the root, there will also be fruits: the births of different species of life, their life spans, and experiences.
Iyengar says that our current condition stem from our past actions (karma) and paint the experiences we meet in this life. The fruits of these actions are called samscaras which means an imprint or impression.
Taimni says that Patanjali classifies experiences under three areas – class, length of life, and pleasant or unpleasant experiences. By class, he mans the environment one is born into. Length of life affects how many experiences someone can have in that particular lifetime (but according to Taimni that person will be reborn so a short life is like “going to bed early”). “Pleasant or unpleasant experiences” has to do with how the person perceives and reacts to a particular experience. For example, a wealthy person may have a miserable life, being very unhappy from beginning to end, while a poor person may have a rich happy life.
Carrera builds on this saying that our karma doesn’t mean that we have no choice in the direction of our lives. “Our choices create new karmas all the time. The future is rooted in our present thoughts, words, and deeds and exists as a universe of infinite possibilities”.
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