How have I deserved this when I have no control over what I done in my previous life?
Think of it like this: Imagine you are a criminal about to be sentenced for a crime you did 40 years ago as a teen, but you somehow had blocked it from your memory. You say to the judge, 'But that
wasn't me, as i can't
remember it, and even if i did do it, that's
not me anymore!!!'. That's how i think it is with past lives. We have no conscious memories of living those past lives, doing those past deeds, good and bad. And if hundreds of years have past, then thinking that how is it
possible to still be "that same person".
Another possibility is if punishment (or being "cursed") is
not the reason for suffering in this current life. But instead it is simply about the soul needing to learn a number of "life lessons" within each reincarnation. This brings the concept of "karma" into play. If you actually
go backwards with one "lesson" or trait, then perhaps in one of the next lifetimes, when you need to again learn that lesson, it will now be, say
twice as hard to learn, as you have to "undo" some learning first. That is basically what "karma" is, by my understanding.
