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Satchitananda
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Saccidananda, Satchidananda, or Sat-cit-ananda (Sanskrit: ??????????) is a compound of three Sanskrit words, Sat, Cit, and Ananda (the a is of longer vocal length), meaning existence, consciousness, and bliss respectively. The expression is used in yoga and other schools of Indian philosophy to describe the nature of Brahman as experienced by a fully liberated yogi. Orthography may differ depending on whether the word is treated in its compound form and therefore subject to sandhi: saccidananda, or split into its elements: sat-cit-ananda, sac chid ananda, etc.
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Encyclopedia
Saccidananda, Satchidananda, or Sat-cit-ananda (Sanskrit: ??????????) is a compound of three Sanskrit words, Sat, Cit, and Ananda (the a is of longer vocal length), meaning existence, consciousness, and bliss respectively. The expression is used in yoga and other schools of Indian philosophy to describe the nature of Brahman as experienced by a fully liberated yogi. Orthography may differ depending on whether the word is treated in its compound form and therefore subject to sandhi: saccidananda, or split into its elements: sat-cit-ananda, sac chid ananda, etc. The compound always sounds like: Sach-chid-ananda, regardless of spelling.
Saccidananda may be understood as the energetic state of non-duality, a manifestation of our spiritually natural, primordial and authentic state which is comparable in quality to that of deity.
Vaishnava philosophy
For the Vaishnava (devotee of Vishnu), saccidananda is the energetic state of being on the Vaikuntha planets. The Vaikuntha planets are eternally spiritual planets residing in the spiritual sky or spiritual world.
Brahma Samhita
Sloka 5.1 of the Brahma Samhita states:
isvarah paramah krsnah
sac-cid-ananda-vigrahah
anadir adir govindah
sarva-karana-karanam
Krishna who is known as Govinda is the Supreme Godhead. He has an eternal blissful spiritual body. He is the origin of all. He has no other origin and He is the prime cause of all causes.
Vedanta philosophy
The Vedantic philosophy understands saccidananda as a synonym of the three fundamental attributes of Brahman.
Tulsidas Philosophy
To Tulsidas, his Lord Ram was Bhagavan: not only an incarnation of Lord Vishnu, but also of Brahm, the supreme world spirit. According to J. M. Macfie, author of commentary on Tulsidas's Ram Charit Manas called The Ramayan of Tulsidas or the Bible of Northern India (Pg 26), one of the most beautiful expressions of Tulsidas's faith in God and in Ram as the incarnation of God can be found in the following statement:
"The Adorable (Bhagavan) is one, passionless, formless, nameless, unborn, existence, thought, joy ( sachchidanand ) , the supreme abode. He pervades all things. He exists in all forms. He assumes a body and performs many deeds simply for the sake of those devoted to Him. He is supremely merciful and full of love to His servants, very affectionate to those who are His own, and in His compassion is not angry with them. He is the restorer of that which is past, the protector of the humble, the sincere and powerful Lord."
(An alternate translation of this passage, plus the original Hindi text in Romanized and Devanagari alphabets, may be found on page 38 of ).
Sri Aurobindo
Murphy (2000) writes that in Sri Aurobindo's evolutionary vision of the soul and the Universe (of which saccidananda is the principal term), even though the soul is incarnate in maya and subject to space, matter and time, it maintains an ongoing and eternal oneness with saccidananda or divinity. This incarnating aspect or dimension of the human being, the spirit-soul, or the 'psychic being' or chaitya purusha, is the staple essence that reincarnates from life to life. This essence is of the energetic quality of saccidananda.
Aurobindo holds that there exists a supreme power, the 'Supermind', which is the first emanation from saccidananda and can be brought into play through the practice of yoga to yoke life, mind and matter with sublime states of consciousness, being, delight and power and thereby manifest more of our inherent divinity.
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