---
type: Concept
title: "Chitta"
description: "The storehouse of impressions (saṃskāras) that persists across lifetimes — not the unconscious mind."
tags:
  - vedic-psychology
  - antahkarana
  - Yoga
  - non-translatable
darshana:
  - Pātañjala Yoga
  - Sāṃkhya
not:
  - term: "Unconscious mind"
    why: "The Freudian or Jungian unconscious is one life long and shaped by childhood; Chitta is a trans-life storehouse of saṃskāras within the framework of karma."
    instead: "Keep Chitta untranslated; gloss as the trans-life storehouse of saṃskāras."
  - term: "Subconscious"
    why: "Implies a lower layer of a single psyche; Chitta persists across births and can be read or modified by accomplished yogīs."
  - term: "Memory"
    why: "Memory is recall within one life; Chitta stores karmic impressions that ripen across lifetimes."
  - term: "Psyche"
    why: "A general Western term for the mind or soul; Chitta is a specific component of the antaḥkaraṇa, the medium of karma."
related:
  - /concepts/manas.md
  - /concepts/buddhi.md
  - /concepts/ahankara.md
  - /concepts/karma.md
  - /concepts/jiva.md
  - /concepts/samsara.md
timestamp: "2026-06-18"
okf_version: "0.2"
---

# Chitta

**Not:** Unconscious mind, Subconscious, Memory, Psyche

## What It Actually Means

Chitta is the individualized portion of *Mahat tattva* — the storehouse where *saṃskāras* (impressions from all actions) are deposited and preserved. It is the medium of [Karma](/concepts/karma.md) — every karmic impression is stored in Chitta and ripens when conditions are right.

The critical distinction: **Chitta is constant across different lives.** It carries saṃskāras across births, persisting through the death of the physical body and the formation of new ones. This is why past-life tendencies manifest — the Chitta carries them. Yogīs and accomplished Gurus can *manipulate chittas* — reading, modifying, and even deleting karmas stored within it.

Chitta is located in the heart region (where [Ātman](/concepts/atman.md) is believed to reside). Patañjali's Yoga Sūtras famously define [Yoga](/concepts/yoga.md) as *chitta-vṛtti-nirodha* — the cessation of the modifications of Chitta.

## Why "Unconscious Mind" Fails

The Freudian/Jungian unconscious is (1) limited to one lifetime, (2) shaped primarily by childhood experience, and (3) has no mechanism for cross-life persistence. Chitta transcends all three limitations — it is a *trans-life* repository that operates within the framework of [Karma](/concepts/karma.md) and transmigration, which the Western "unconscious mind" does not consider.

## Audience Metaphor

Chitta is your cloud storage — synced across every device (lifetime) you've ever used. Every file (saṃskāra) you've ever saved is there, even from devices you no longer remember owning. [Yoga](/concepts/yoga.md) practice is learning to access, organize, and eventually clear that storage.

## Citations

1. [Yoga Sūtras of Patañjali](/references/yoga-sutras.md) 1.2 — *yogash chitta vṛtti nirodhaḥ*
2. [Sāṃkhya Kārikā](/references/samkhya-karika.md)
3. Rajiv Malhotra, *Sanskrit Non-Translatables* (2020)
4. Cross-bundle note: the doctrinal source-school treatment of the Antaḥkaraṇa apparatus is sankhya-darshana v0.13 — this file remains the canonical concept entry; v0.13 adds only school-source framing, no restatement
