Sat Chit Ananda Meaning

Sat – existence, cit – consciousness and ananda – bliss or fullness.

Satchitananda is the compound used to indicate the nature of awareness (brahman), or the self (atman).

It is important to understand, however, that…

Sat is not the limited existence of ephemeral objective phenomena.

Cit is not the consciousness of perceptible objective phenomena.

Ananda is not the emotional bliss/happiness/enjoyment associated with the experience of objective phenomena.

Sat-chit-ananda indicates limitless conscious existence.

We know the nature of the self (atma) is conscious existence because existence is only recognized as such due to consciousness of it — and consciousness is self-evidently existent.

We know that conscious existence is limitless because all objective phenomena are only recognizable due to their existence within a “field” of conscious existence.

Even time and space (the fundamental parameters by which objects are defined) are objects whose existence is only recognizable due to their appearance within a “field” of conscious existence.

Thus that “field” of conscious existence itself must be beyond (i.e., not subject to) all limiting parameters and, thus, limitless.

This “field” of limitless conscious existence is referred to as the self (ātmā) — because it is the fundamental reality, or essential aspect, of all things. And since there can be only ONE fundamental reality — thus the fundamental reality of the total must be  the fundamental reality of the apparent individual. Since the apparent individual is a part of the total.