In Vedic religion, we have concept of reincarnation. We believe that our present life is shaped by our past lives experiences , but we do not remember the experiences . So why is is it that we do ot remember last life and how can we learn from our mistakes or bad behavior if we do not KNPW or remember why we did in last lives. If we remember previous lives , it will add the confusion to our present life. Our relationships may be different in present life than last life. But we do have IMPRESSIONS of our past lives .
The answer is that the impressions of our Karmas and our actions and our experiences are stores not as EXACT MEMORY like in our present life. If I see a person , or a dog , I will remember him or it as a person with certain name , certain look and certain voice and behaviors . The same with dog . This is stored in our physical brain and so we do have PHYSICAL MEMORY and we can recall in THIS life. But when we die , our physical body is destroyed and this PHYSICAL memory is gone . But our ASTRAL body and CAUSAL body are still there , and the effects of our karma - experiences - progress -is all stored in that body, especially causal body. Say a person likes donuts or cakes ,in present like , If he is hungry, he may want to eat sweet , he will like to eat cake or donuts . But that liking for cake or donuts will be stored in astral body - causal body unit after the death of physical body.in a ABSTRACT FORM . Love for sweets and not as a specific sweet thing . So in next life , if he is born in America , he will love cakes and candy and ice cream. But if he is born as Indian in India then he may love Indian sweets like SHREEKHAND - JALEBI OR LADDU ETC. If he is born in some other cultures , he would like that culture's sweet things .
So we do have memory of previous life , but in an abstract form - like love for music - love for dog or animals, or scriptures - art - acting - music etc - BUT ALL IN ABSTRACT FORM.
