It’s so very interesting to me – the way what I read or see or hear is open to wide interpretation when compared to others’ understanding, even when we’ve been exposed to the same phenomena. I guess part of what yoga offers us is a system that exposes the filters we have over what we consider our reliable organs of perception.
This is to be expected when we consider the social conditioning and heredity that varies so much among the 7 billion people on the planet. It causes us to think, feel, and look very differently to one another.
One area where I wasn’t expecting such variance was in the study of Patanjali’s Sutra, but differences there be, even where the words being interpreted are the same.
Here’s some examples from today’s Sutra III-18:

Samskara-saksat-karanat-purva-jati-jnanam
Bernard Bouanchaud: Knowledge about the origins of previous stages appears when we gain insight into our own conditioning.
T.K.V. Desikachar: Samayama on one’s tendencies and habits will lead one to their origins. Consequently one gains deep knowledge of one’s past.
Chip Hartranft: Directly observing latent impressions with perfect discipline yields insight into previous births.
Georg Feuerstein – Through direct-perception of subliminal-activators [the yogin gains] knowledge of [his] previous birth(s).
B.K.S. Iyengar: Through direct perception of his subliminal impressions, the yogi gains knowledge of his previous lives.
Satyananda Paramahamsa: By direct perception of the impressions, knowledge of previous births (arises).

Of all the Patanjali translator/commentators in the world, some will carry more weight than others, I know. But the above writers have pretty good credentials, I think you would agree. And still, even though some of them are talking about reincarnation, others refer to ‘conditioning’ or ‘the past’. Why aren’t they on the same page?
I do like the variety of these writers, though, particularly in the way it shows up early on in Sutra I-2:

Yoga citta vrtti nirodhaha
T.K.V. Desikachar: Yoga is the ability to direct the mind exclusively towards an object and sustain that direction without any distractions.
Chip Hartranft: Yoga is to still the patterning of consciousness.
Satyananda Paramahansa: To block the patterns in consciousness is yoga.

I say, vive la difference, especially if we don’t have to fight about it 🙂