https://incarnateword.in/cwm/06/10-february-1954#p10
Now, there is another aspect also. Outside the mental memory, which is something defective, there are states of consciousness. Each state of consciousness in which one happen to be registers the phenomena of that moment, whatever they may be. If your consciousness remain limpid, wide and strong, you can at any moment whatsoever, by concentrating, call into the active consciousness what you did, thought, saw, observed at any time before; all this you can remember by bringing up in yourself the same state of consciousness. And that, that is never for gotten.
Memory is a little bundle of information that gets stored somewhere within us and influences us directly or indirectly. It is composed of three things mainly. There are the sensations associated with an event. The mind builds images out of these sensations, labels it as pleasant or unpleasant somewhat like describing a file and then stores it in some storehouse of memory. Along with the images generated by the sensory mind, there are emotions and the vital energy associated with the event or the image. And finally there is a state of consciousness unique to the event.
To take a good example, one visits the Ashram for the first time. Now there are several images and sensations that the mind registers. If it tries to recall them it starts with the thread somewhere and then trie to extract the rest slowly. There is also a kind of energy one feels, an emotion that one remembers. But most importantly there is a state of consciousness into which one enters, say peace for example. This is the real key. The retrieval often begins with the sense of peace one felt and then the details start getting added one by one. It is because the state of consciousness made the senses and emotions fully alive.
Now comes the second part which compliments this understanding. If, for some reason the consciousness entered into an obscure state, a narrow state wherein one was concentrated upon oneself, something that was harassing or making us anxious or simply sleepy when we went to the same place. Strangely we would register very little though the senses have received the same information. One will need to strain to recover the details.
In other words it is the state of consciousness that determines how and what the mind registers and remembers, not vice versa. A quiet, wide, limpid state registers and recalls almost everything since the mind and senses are at their full capacity. On the other hand a restless, agitated, dull and obscure state holds nothing except registering subconsciously, mechanically. This is the reason why yogis often have very good memory while bhogis have very poor.
In conclusion be in a state of peace and wideness and one will remember and recall much better and, vice versa.
