Many Previous Births

Is it true that we have had many births previous to this?

Of course it is true.  The Sage Markanda once asked Narada, "I have been practising austerities since sixty years but I could not win the boon of God-realisation.  That boy, Dhruva, a mere six year old child, spent just five months in austerity, and God appeared before him and granted his desires.  This is very unjust."  

But Narada replied, "A slab of stone breaks into two, when a child gives a hammer stroke.  The same slab did not break for twenty hammer strokes from a hefty hand, administered just previous to the twenty-first.  Why?  The slab broke as a result of the cumulative effect of all blows, 20 then and one now.  So, too, Dhruva had years of austerity then, in previous births and just five months of it in this birth.  But you may ask, "If we had lives previous to this, why do we not remember the events?"

Do you remember the events of this life, at least?  All the events?  Krishna asked Arjuna, "Ten years ago on the Full Moon Day of the month Magha, where exactly were you?"  Arjuna could not recall the place.  For it had no significance for him.  He could, however, recall the date when he married the sister of Krishna, for that was a happy event he would not forget. 

There are no significant events in the past life and so you do not remember any.  But God is concerned with all, so He remembers all.

(From the book "The Light of Love")