Question:

Ekta didi, please would you explain Chittachaya [borrowed consciousness]?

Answer:

Just like we cannot see gravity but we can experience it, knowingness cannot be seen but its effects are experiential.

Let me use the analogy of sunlight: 

During the daytime, there is light coming from the Sun. This light makes all things visible. In the night time, the same things are not visible. This shows that things don’t have their own light. They borrow light. They shine in the borrowed light.

Similarly, the body/breath/mind/memory/intellect/ego complex is not inherently conscious. Each component of this complex seems to be individually conscious and alive on account of a borrowed sense of being alive.

• The body appears to have a sense of ‘being conscious’ during the waking state. That is borrowed consciousness.
• The senses appear to have their own sense of ‘being conscious’ during the waking state. That is borrowed consciousness.
• The mind appears to have a sense of ‘being conscious’ during the waking state. That is borrowed consciousness.
• The intellect appears to have a sense of ‘being conscious’ during the waking state. That is borrowed consciousness.
• The memory appears to have a sense of ‘being conscious’ during the waking state. That is borrowed consciousness.
• The Ego appears to have a sense of ‘being conscious’ during the waking state. That is borrowed consciousness.

Why do I say that they appear to be conscious?

That is because this borrowed consciousness is absent at night in deep sleep. This shows that they do not have their own inherent consciousness.

From where are they borrowing this consciousness?

They borrow this consciousness from the witness that is beyond the body/breath/mind/memory/intellect/ego complex. That is why their borrowed sense of being conscious is called a shadow of the ‘Pure Consciousness’. In Sanskrit, it is called Chittachaya.

Chittachaya is Borrowed Consciousness!

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