sat-cit-Ananda

[Guest guest]

Namaste,

 

Further to the last three weekly definitions on 'sat', 'cit' and

'Ananda', here is a piece of verse attempting to summarize them as

three aspects of one truth.

 

Ananda

 

 

sat-cit-Ananda

==============

 

'sat' or 'existence'

--------------------

 

The world is nothing else but truth.

That is its plain reality.

 

Each lie that's told shows falsity,

producing thus a seeming show

of what does not in truth exist.

 

This seeming show is partly true,

but it is also partly false.

What's truly shown is here confused

with false appearances that seem

to hide what they more clearly show.

 

What then is that reality

which may be found, when falsity

is questioned and thus clarified?

 

The falsity that's questioned here

is of our bodies and our minds.

For it is through these instruments

that we perceive and think and feel.

 

It is these instruments which act

to show us the appearances

that they produce, through all of their

perceiving and conceiving acts

towards their objects in the world.

 

And it's by questioning these acts

that we may come to clarity:

about what's true and real here,

in the appearances of world

which we perceive and think and feel

through all our personalities.

 

But to what truth may we thus come,

through this reflective questioning?

Just what reality is it

that we may thereby realize?

 

This questioning reflects within,

to a reality of self

that's found in every one of us.

 

There, truth is found that shows itself,

without the need for any act

which gets put on or taken off.

 

That truth of self is found direct,

by merely being what it is.

It is just that reality

whose truth is unmistakable.

 

In that reality of self,

truth is exactly that which has

no falsity mixed into it.

 

 

'cit' or 'consciousness'

------------------------

 

Whatever world may be perceived,

or thought about or felt conceived,

in anyone's experience,

this world is shown by seeming acts

of partial body, sense and mind.

 

Each act creates a seeming show

that's known by light of consciousness.

 

That light is knowing in itself.

Its very being is to know.

It knows itself without an act,

by merely being what it is.

 

There, consciousness knows just itself,

as its own true identity.

 

What's called a 'knower' thus turns out

to be identical with what

may also be described as 'known'.

 

These are two different ways in which

we speak of an identity

where nothing alien intervenes

between what knows and what is known.

 

That is true knowledge: known direct,

by coming back to what one is,

to knowing in identity.

 

That consciousness which knows itself

is shown by all appearances

that are perceived or thought or felt

in anyone's experience.

 

Thus, each perception, thought or feeling

shows what we call 'consciousness'

and what we call 'reality'.

 

Both of these words refer to what

is always shown in common -- by

all differing appearances

which are perceived and thought and felt

by different persons in the world.

 

But that which is thus shown in common

cannot be two different things.

For if it were, it would be shown

in common by this seeming two;

and that would make it one alone.

 

That one alone is spoken of

as 'consciousness' when thought turns back

to look for it as that which knows.

 

And that same one is said to be

'reality', when looking out

beneath the show of differences

that are perceived and thought and felt

by different persons in the world.

 

Two words thus point to what is one.

It is at once the self that knows

and all the world's reality.

 

 

'Ananda' or 'happiness'

-----------------------

 

When knowing self and what is known

are thought by mind to be at odds,

there comes a state where mind appears

conflicted and dissatisfied.

 

This is a restless state of mind,

believing that it is in want,

for lack of something it desires.

This state is called 'unhappiness'.

 

But when desire is fulfilled,

the mind then comes to happiness

in which its conflicts get dissolved.

 

That happiness is not a state

which comes and goes in changing mind.

It is instead what motivates

the mind's achievement of desire.

 

As mind seeks objects, all this search

is for the sake of happiness.

It's in the end for happiness

that any object is desired.

 

That final goal of happiness

is shared in common by all minds.

 

It stays unchanged: throughout all change

of mental states, in search of all

the different objects sought thereby.

 

When a desire is achieved,

the mind is brought to happiness --

found at the centre of each heart --

where change and difference don't apply.

 

All imperfection there dissolves:

in that perfection for whose sake

all life is lived, all acts are done,

and all these happenings take place

in world and personality.