By Victor M Fontane
Saccidānanda is an epithet and description for the subjective experience of the ultimate unchanging reality, called Brahman, in certain branches of Hindu philosophy, especially Vedanta. It represents "existence, consciousness, and bliss" or "truth, consciousness, bliss". Something some religious traditions call God.
About the universality of God or Brahman, whom many consider as if he were very far away, on a higher plane and in a place beyond our vision, Sat-Chit-Ananda Brahman is before us and daily with us. We see the world of our experience as composed of three parts: The first is a great mass of objects of all kinds, materials on all planes, even the higher ones. Secondly, there are a vast number of living beings with varying degrees of consciousness. Thirdly, each person sees himself. The first of these three parts is the world of sat or existence, the second is that of chit or consciousness and the third is that of ananda or happiness, the true being. This will be better understood if we tell the story of the great column of Light: The excellent being Narayara, Vishnu, soul and life of the Universe, the one with a thousand eyes and amniscient, was reclining on his bed, the body of the enormous serpent Shesha or Ananta , endless time, lay coiled over the waters of space, for it was the night of existence. Then, Brahma, the great creator of the world of existence, called Sat, came to Vishnu, and touching him with his hand, asked him: Who are you?
A debate arose between them as to who was the greatest, and while the debate continued, with the risk of becoming acrimonious, a great column of fire and light appeared between them, incomparable and indescribable, which left the contenders astonished to the point that they gave to put an end to their dispute and agreed to look for the ends of such an admirable column. Vishnu explored it downwards for a thousand years without finding the base, and Brahma explored it upwards for a thousand years without finding the capital. They both came back upset. Then Shiva, whose nature is Ananda, arose between them and explained to them that the two were one in him, their Overlord, the pillar of light, who was three in one; and that in a future age, Brahma would be born to Vishnu and that Vishnu would raise him until at the end of the age they would both see their Super lord again. This does not mean that God is here, but invisible and unknown to us, but rather that He is here, visible and known, because the world we see is His Sat and the consciousness by which we know the visible world is His Chit and the self that is not, we will be less able to recognize in ourselves is His Ananda. Each one of us is in that column of light, wherever we move in the space of existence or wherever we go in the time of consciousness. No one can escape these three realities. No one can say: “I am not” or “I am unconscious” or fail to know the external world of existence.
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