Saccidānanda, Satchidananda, or Sat-cit-ānanda (Sanskrit: सच्चिदानन्द) is a compound of three Sanskrit words, Sat (सत्), Cit (चित्), and Ānanda (आनन्द) (the ā is of longer vocal length), meaning Existence (Truth, the Eternal), Consciousness, and Bliss respectively.[1] The expression comes from Hinduism and is used in yoga and other schools of Indian philosophy to describe the nature of Brahman as experienced by a fully liberated yogi or saint. As it is maintained that this experience is one of unification, the three phenomenologically distinct concepts are nonetheless regarded as representing the unity of the ultimate reality.[2] Orthography may differ depending on whether the word is treated in its compound form and therefore subject to sandhi: saccidānanda (सच्चिदानन्द), or split into its elements: sat-cit-ananda, sac chid ananda, etc. The compound always sounds like: Sach-chid-ānanda, regardless of spelling. Yoga describes the essence of Universal Consciousness as Satchitananda which means existence, consciousness and absolute bliss. Saccidānanda may be understood as the energetic state of non-duality, a manifestation of our spiritually natural, primordial and authentic state which is comparable in quality to that of deity.
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For the Vaishnava (devotee of Vishnu), saccidānanda is related to Vaikuntha, abode of Vishnu.
Sloka 5.1 of the Brahma Samhita states:
īśvaraḥ paramah krsnaḥ sac-cid-ānanda-vigrahaḥ anādir ādir govindaḥ sarva-kārana-kāranam
Krishna who is known as Govinda is the Supreme Godhead. He has an eternal blissful spiritual body. He is the origin of all. He has no other origin and He is the prime cause of all causes.
The Vedantic philosophy understands saccidānanda as a synonym of the three fundamental attributes of Brahman.
To Tulsidas, his Lord Ram was Bhagavan: not only an incarnation of Lord Vishnu, but also of Brahm, the supreme world spirit. According to J. M. Macfie, author of commentary on Tulsidas's Ram Charit Manas called The Ramayan of Tulsidas or the Bible of Northern India (Pg 26), one of the most beautiful expressions of Tulsidas's faith in God and in Ram as the incarnation of God can be found in the following statement:
"The Adorable (Bhagavan) is one, passionless, formless, nameless, unborn, existence, thought, joy ( sachchidanand ) , the supreme abode. He pervades all things. He exists in all forms. He assumes a body and performs many deeds simply for the sake of those devoted to Him. He is supremely merciful and full of love to His servants, very affectionate to those who are His own, and in His compassion is not angry with them. He is the restorer of that which is past, the protector of the humble, the sincere and powerful Lord."
(An alternate translation of this passage, plus the original Hindi text in Romanized and Devanagari alphabets, may be found on page 38 of this file).
Murphy (2000) writes that in Sri Aurobindo's evolutionary vision of the soul and the Universe (of which saccidānanda is the principal term), even though the soul is incarnate in maya and subject to space, matter and time, it maintains an ongoing and eternal oneness with saccidānanda or divinity. This incarnating aspect or dimension of the human being, the spirit-soul, or the 'psychic being' or chaitya purusha, is the staple essence that reincarnates from life to life. This essence is of the energetic quality of saccidānanda.
Aurobindo holds that there exists a supreme power, the 'Supermind', which is the first emanation from saccidānanda and can be brought into play through the practice of yoga to yoke life, mind and matter with sublime states of consciousness, being, delight and power and thereby manifest more of our inherent divinity.