Let us examine Sat-Chit-Ananda further. Holy Sage Vasishtha explains to Rama, “…The truth or existence-consciousness-bliss absolute is beyond thought and understanding, it is supreme peace and omnipresent, it transcends imagination and description. There arises naturally in it the faculty of conceptualisation…Here Vasishtha distinguishes the absolute from the relative. One would think when one comes across the words Sat-Chit-Ananda to be the attributes of That Which Is. However, Vasishtha implies there is relative Sat-Chit-Ananda and absolute Sat-Chit-Ananda. Let me tell you. What could I attribute to that realization and knowing? It is on hindsight that I realized that these three words mean something. Absolute has not such things nor anything to grasp—It is Silent, It transcends the mind. Was I That? Who is there to say I know, or I don’t know, I saw and I did not see? The great “Seers” of the Upanishads and Sastras and the utterings of Mahavakyas are merely concepts to be proofed because there is no one who can see nor know in Kevala Nirvikalpa Samadhi. Vasishtha is right, “Truth is beyond thought and understanding…” I must add, but, knowable and realizable! Easily! Therefore, we can only conceptualize Truth as Sat-Chit-Ananda as relative–Sat (Existence, Life) as relative, Chit (Consciousness) as relative, and Ananda (Bliss, Happiness) as relative, all of which have their opposites. When the mind is completely absorbed into the Self, it is known as Kevala Nirvikalpa Samadhi. Once out from that state, one knows oneself as I Am That in Reality and not the puerile I-thought or ego. That Consciousness is absolute and transcends the three states (wakefulness, dream and deep sleep) and comprises all the universe making it manifest. Nothing can be apprehended without its light. Will anything be apparent to you, if there be no consciousness? Even to say that nothing is apparent to you (as in sleep) requires the light of consciousness. Is not your awareness of your unawareness (in sleep) due to consciousness? Recapitulate your state after you break off from it, and then you will know all and the significance of its being knowable and unknowable at the same time. Thus, realising the unknowable, one abides in immortality for ever and ever. Now do we understand SAT-CHIT-ANANDA-ANANTA? All these words have an equal and reciprocal meaning, i.e., they are the same in their meaning. It is the Self, the light of lights. This is You! Yes! You are the mirror and the reflection. You even reflect the darkness of sleep, like smeared tar reflected in a mirror. You are self-effulgent! Yes! You are Sat-Chit-Ananda-Ananta. See this clearly. You are the absolute and the relative, the mirror and the reflection, the manifest and the unmanifest; you are the Life! This is Seing God as He Really is; Is Seeing You as You Really Are!
DIPPACK MISTRI 