Karma is Absolutely Continuous YS IV - 9

Yoga Sutra - IV- 9 - JATI DESA KALA VYAVAHITANAM APY ANANTARYAM SMRTI SAMSKARAYOR EKARUPATVAT - Although desires are separated from their fulfillments by class, space and time, they have an uninterrupted relationship because the impressions [of desires] and memories of them are identical.

Swami Satchidananda translated this sutra without commentary.

"How to Know God - The Yoga Aphorisms of Patanjali" translated and commented on by Swami Prabhavananda and Christopher Isherwood:

We are told that the "memories" that Patanjali talks about in this sutra are not "conscious remembering, but unconscious co-ordination of the impressions received in past lives with the actions and thoughts of our present life." In other words "Karma -- the chain of cause and effect---is absolutely continuous." So even if we change species (ie. from animal to man or from man to a non-human type of being) in many incarnations, "our karma will still continue to operate." However, as mentioned in the previous sutra (aphorism), only the tendencies appropriate to the species and conditions will manifest in that particular life. The other karmas will be stored (held in abeyance) "until we reincarnate into another species and conditions appropriate to them."

See related posts:

• Pleasure and Pain - YS II- 14
• Roots and Fruits YS II- 13
• Karma Past, Present & Future - YS II - 12