Bliss (Ananda) is Not An Emotional State

INQUIRER:

While discriminating consciousness from objects, I felt a sense of limitlessness.

I've seen the Satya/Mithya chart and a sense of bliss/ananda came over me

I think the highest description of brahman is sat-chit-ananda (limitless conscious existence).

Of course, I cannot become this brahman, because the only access I have ‘to’ it is through knowledge.

So here’s my understanding. Give your opinion on it…

SAT:

Sat/satyam/existence is anything that ‘IS’.

Every object, simply ‘IS’. It exists.

Existence cannot be denied because everybodies experience is that he/she exists.

CHIT:

Chit/Jnanam/consciousness is the illumining factor of everything that exists.

It is Always present, and cannot be ever absent. It is that which makes knowing possible.

Because one is in no position to deny consciousness, or that one is conscious.

ANANDA:

Brahman is also referred to as anantam/ananda/limitlessness/bliss.

Ananda is the happiness that is felt when one is conscious of his or her existence.

 

Everyone is at any time, not different from this Brahman.

However Brahman is not known because we tend to objectify each object that arises in our consciousness.

In other words: We do not (habitually) place attention on our consciousness. For some reason, we are dissatisfied with the simple fact that we are conscious of our EXISTENCE.

 

RESPONSE:

Interpretation of the word “ananda” needs refinement.

In the compound “sat-chit-ananda”, the word “ananda” does NOT refer to experiential bliss. It cannot.

Because any distinct experience is an object (i.e., something known). And all objects are limited, because they're defined by parameters of time and space.

The nature of the self (ātmā), or awareness, however, is limitlessness.

Because objects, including the fundamental parameters of time and space can only exist within a “field” of awareness.

For this reason, Awareness must be beyond, or not subject to, any limitation and, hence, must be limitless.

While the Sanskrit word “ananda” does denote the emotional state of happiness in other contexts — Vedanta employs the term in a technical way to indicate fullness or limitlessness.