Saccidānanda
Saccidānanda · sat-cit-ānanda, “existence, consciousness and bliss”
Grammar: a compound of sat (existence, being), cit (consciousness) and ānanda (bliss): sat-cit-ānanda.
Meaning: existence, consciousness and bliss together: the own nature of Parabrahman, of Śrī Hari, and of the jīva who is free.
In the Bhāgavata Purāṇa:
The nature of Śrī Hari. Śuka tells Parīkshit how Brahmā, after his tapas, was granted the darśana of Vaikuṇṭha. The six qualities that appear in others only for a time, aiśvarya, vīrya, yaśas, śrī, jñāna and vairāgya, are natural to Śrī Hari; and shining in his own nature of sat-cit-ānanda, delighting in his own Self (ātmārāma), Śrī Hari is the ruler of the whole world. Brahmā beheld him, and his heart overflowed with joy (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 2, Chapter 9).
The nature of the free jīva. Among the subjects of the Bhāgavata that Śuka names, mukti is this: the jīva, casting off by jñāna the doership and enjoyership he had imagined in himself through ignorance, stays steady in his own nature, sat-cit-ānanda (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 2, Chapter 10).
The nature of Śrī Kṛshṇa. In his stuti to Śrī Kṛshṇa, Brahmā says that this avatāra, made manifest by his own will to follow the wish of his bhaktas, is not of prakṛti, and that no one can know even the glory of this body; “what then can be said of the glory of your experience of sat-cit-ānanda, you who are directly the non-dual Parabrahman?” Your nature, he says, is sat without limits, self-shining consciousness, and bliss not limited by time (Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 10, Chapter 14).
Related terms: Sat · Cit · Ānanda · Brahman · Ātmārāma · Mukti
Sources
- Bhāgavata Purāṇa, Skandha 2, Chapters 9–10; Skandha 10, Chapter 14