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Why don't we remember our past lives?

Firstly, it is our tendency to forget; can we remember what we were doing at this very moment one year ago, one month ago or even one week ago? Unlikely. Similarly, to remember our past lives is very difficult, if not impossible. But, just because we can't remember a past event doesn't prove the non-occurrence of that event.

Also, it is our innate psychological defence mechanism to forget painful incidents; in this very life, we get over traumas by forgetting them with the passage of time. Between our present and past lives lies the trauma of death. Suppose we had died in a car accident and could remember it; we would likely be paranoid of cars throughout our lives. To save us from such psychological malfunctioning, nature arranges to erase our past-life memories.

is necessary to forget. We do not have any account of how Souls come into this world to enjoy it and to do this, it many lives we have spent in this world or how many bad experiences we have gone through in those lives, how much we have suffered or caused others to suffer. If we were to remember just one wrong thing that we had done or that had happened to us, it would become difficult to eat or sleep or enjoy anything. What if we started remembering everything? By remembering our mistakes, we keep living in the past, and this could lead to depression. It will be very difficult for us to move on and enjoy or create a new life.
The Lord's creation is complete as the Ishopanishad (Invocation) says:

om purnam adah purnam idam purnat purnam udacyate
 purnasya purnam adaya purnam evavasisyate

'The Personality of Godhead is perfect and complete, and because He is completely perfect, all emanations from Him, such as this phenomenal world, are perfectly equipped as complete wholes. Whatever is produced of the Complete Whole is also complete in itself. Because He is the Complete Whole, even though so many complete units emanate from Him, He remains the complete balance.'

There is no loophole within the Lord's creation. So, if He has introduced an error or a hurdle, there must be a reason.

Imagine the chaos if everyone started remembering their past lives and recognizing that the next-door neighbour was the one who killed them or that the person in the next building was the one they were married to. Would anyone's life be normal? It would truly drive us insane.

For new beginnings, forgetfulness of the past is necessary.

There have been many cases of reincarnation where children have started remembering their past lives. This may sound exciting, but if we ask those children about the experience, they will say it is a miserable one because they have to live a double life. They remember a past they can't go back to, and they live a present life they cannot relate to. So let us trust the system made by the Lord and carry on with our lives, remembering that whatever situation the Lord has put us in is the best for our growth.
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