Discovering sat-chit-ananda

The tradition says that you have to discover three experiences within yourself. First, sat, truth or reality. You have to know what is real, you have to discover the truth in everything. Second, chit, the experience that consciousness is able to expand and outgrow its self-imposed limitations and boundaries. Third, ananda, the experience that there is no suffering and pain in life, only bliss. Thus, sat, chit and ananda are the three experiences that have to be discovered in life. This completes the journey of life, for in that state of realization of sat-chit-ananda, all dual behaviours and natures drop away. All the understandings and misunderstandings which create the concept of right and wrong drop away, and one becomes established in truth, in bliss and in the expanded awareness. That state of realization is identified by tantra as the ultimate aspiration of a human being. That is what one needs to acquire, achieve and experience. The entire subject of tantra is the discovery of sat, chit and ananda. What is the underlying truth? How can one cultivate the expanded awareness and be permanently immersed in the blissful state? Yoga, which has emerged from tantra, pursues this idea.

When Sage Patanjali speaks of samadhi, he describes it not as one static condition or state of mind, but as progressive conditions and stages of mind. In these progressive stages, the gross mind is gradually transcended and transformed and one becomes more and more stable in the higher mind. When one becomes stable in the higher mind, sat, chit and ananda are experienced. This is the theory of tantra: consciousness and energy in the course of time become life as it is experienced. This life is limited and confined by the senses and conditions of the mind. In order to experience the expansion of consciousness, to know the truth, the reality behind life, creation, destruction and dissolution, one has to follow the path of sat, chit and ananda. The process which gives an expression to the awareness of sat, chit and ananda in life is yoga.

From the book “Head Heart & Hands, Yogadrishti Series”, pg 6-8, Sw. Niranjanananda Saraswati

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Sat Chit Ananda

Discovering sat-chit-ananda

The tradition says that you have to discover three experiences within yourself. First, sat, truth or reality. You have to know what is real, you have to discover the truth in everything. Second, chit, the experience that consciousness is able to expand and outgrow its self-imposed limitations and boundaries. Third, ananda, the experience that there is no suffering and pain in life, only bliss. Thus, sat, chit and ananda are the three experiences that have to be discovered in life. This completes the journey of life, for in that state of realization of sat-chit-ananda, all dual behaviours and natures drop away. All the understandings and misunderstandings which create the concept of right and wrong drop away, and one becomes established in truth, in bliss and in the expanded awareness. That state of realization is identified by tantra as the ultimate aspiration of a human being. That is what one needs to acquire, achieve and experience. The entire subject of tantra is the discovery of sat, chit and ananda. What is the underlying truth? How can one cultivate the expanded awareness and be permanently immersed in the blissful state? Yoga, which has emerged from tantra, pursues this idea.

When Sage Patanjali speaks of samadhi, he describes it not as one static condition or state of mind, but as progressive conditions and stages of mind. In these progressive stages, the gross mind is gradually transcended and transformed and one becomes more and more stable in the higher mind. When one becomes stable in the higher mind, sat, chit and ananda are experienced. This is the theory of tantra: consciousness and energy in the course of time become life as it is experienced. This life is limited and confined by the senses and conditions of the mind. In order to experience the expansion of consciousness, to know the truth, the reality behind life, creation, destruction and dissolution, one has to follow the path of sat, chit and ananda. The process which gives an expression to the awareness of sat, chit and ananda in life is yoga.

From the book “Head Heart & Hands, Yogadrishti Series”, pg 6-8, Sw. Niranjanananda Saraswati