Question: With regard to memories of the past, does Shri Atmananda acknowledge
the traditional vasanas and samskaras of past lives? This is asked because I find myself
confronting an outside world of situations that are not warranted by the memories
of this life alone.
Answer: Yes, Shri Atmananda did sometimes use ideas of transmigration and he did
have insights into the past life samskaras of particular persons. But he did not generally
require or even encourage his disciples to get involved with this conception of
past lives. In fact, he specifically told his disciples that they would be better off seeing
this conception as a metaphor for the more immediate death and rebirth that each
person keeps experiencing in the present – as each thought dies into pure consciousness,
from which alone all thoughts continue to be born.
http://www.advaitin.net/Ananda/SomeTeachings.pdf