Sachchidananda, its Extensions and Aspects

When the unmanifest Absolute expresses itself in form, the first step it takes is to become Existence. This does not mean that before that, the Divine does not exist. Rather the Absolute makes itself manifest as existence. It becomes Pure Existence. We call this ‘Sat’. Self-conscious Existence manifests itself to its own experience. The first way in which we experience Sat is as Brahman, as pure Existence. Rishis who have experienced Brahman have talked about it as the Kshara Purusha, the mutable one. They discovered the ancient formula of the Upanishads: ‘All this is the Brahman.’ They saw that the whole world and everything in it is only form of That. Other rishis went beyond and experienced the Akshara Purusha, the immutable One beyond the changeable world. They discovered the other ancient formula, “One without a second.” They experienced Sat as a real existence, something true. It is so concrete to the experience of consciousness that everything else seems less true or even unreal by comparison. The rishis experienced the positive and negative aspects of the Brahman, but Sri Aurobindo is the first to reconcile these two experiences are aspects of a single ultimate reality, the Absolute, which at once transcends and includes the mutable and the immutable.

This Sat is an impersonal existence. When you experience it, what has it to do with the world? You feel that this Brahman is behind the world but it has no relationship with the world. It does not respond to our prayers, it simply is. It is a true experience, but it is not a complete experience. There is another possibility. We can also experience the Existence as an Existent. Sat reveals itself as Self-conscious Being. Brahman manifests both as the impersonal existence and as the divine person. When we so experience Sat, we say, ‘It is God, the Divine Being, behind and upholding the creation.’ Depending on the level of our realization, we realize that as the Purusha, we experience God as the Divine Soul. Or, it is possible for us to have a higher realization of the Purushottama. Here we not only see God as a divine being, but also see that that Sat is the real existence. Purushottama includes the personal side of the divinity as well as the impersonal.

But if Sat were only Parabrahman or Purushottama, it would still leave unanswered the questions regarding who created the world and why the world was created. The God who has created the world is also the Lord of Creation, the Ishwara. It is possible for us to experience God as the creator, but here too, it can be a lower or higher realization. By the lower realization we see the Lord of Creation, but we do not see God as the Divine Soul or Parabrahman. By the higher realization, we experience Parameshwara, which includes the realization of the Parabrahman and Purushottama. When we realize the supreme Lord of Creation, we also know that that same Lord is the real Existence.

During the Upanishadic period, the instrument which the Rishis used to know the ultimate reality was mind. They concentrated from mind to go to the Manomaya Purusha behind the mind, and from there to know the Parabrahman. Mind was the highest faculty available to them at that time. The Manomaya Purusha in the mind is capable of seeing the Parabrahman. In the Gita, Krishna said that mind does not have the capacity to experience the Purushottama. One has to go behind the heart to the Chaitya Purusha from where you can know the Purushottama. Through the heart to the spirit behind the heart, one goes and realizes the Divine as a divine personality.

We can experience Sat as Impersonal Existence, Divine Witness or as the Lord of Creation. Parabrahman, Purushottama and Parameshwara are three different ways in which we can know the Divine. One does not negate the other. In Sri Aurobindo’s yoga we have to have the realization of the Parameshwara as well as Parabrahman and Purushottama. Our purpose is not to discover God, but to become God. In order to do that, we have to have the realization of God as the Lord of Creation, the Parameshwara. For that, we relate to God through another center, the vital center. From there we go to the psychic which relates to the Divine Being above, Sat, and experiences the Parameshwara.

When Sat manifests, it manifests as Sachchidananda. What are the Chit and the Ananda? Chit is the Consciousness-Force of Sat. It is not something separate from Sat. Self-Conscious Being extends itself as Consciousness, chit. It turns itself outward by choice. A man is born brahmacharya – celibate youth. He is under no compulsion to get married, but he can if he chooses. He is under no external compulsion to have a child. He acts under an inner compulsion that is a choice. The consciousness of Chit has two aspects, which are very important when we come down into life. Chit expresses in life as Knowledge and Will. Knowledge is what is true. Will is the force to do what we know. These two are inseparable aspects of Chit. When we go down into the creation, these two get separated from each other. Then the mind wants one thing and the vital another.

Ananda is the sensation of Sat experiencing itself as pure Bliss. That is the sensation of the Divine Consciousness in Sachchidananda. In the creation, we experience Ananda as Delight. All beauty in the universe is the expression of Ananda in form. The mind experiences Ananda as beauty. We feel ananda in the vital as joy. When we experience the same ananda through the psychic, we feel it as love. Mother describes how she felt in her body, for hours, the universe as a wave of Love. The physical cells of her body felt the ultimate reality of Matter as Love. Mother had this experience when the Supramental came down into the physical, which is the last stage.

In this manner the triune reality of Sachchidananda gives rise to eight original fundamental determinants: three aspects of Sat (Parabrahman, Purushottama, Parameshwara), two aspects of Chit (Knowledge, Will), and three aspects of Ananda (Beauty, Love, Joy). These eight are the original building blocks of the universe and the entire creation is derived from them. To know the creation, we have to be able to understand and explain the world, ourselves, evil and karma in terms of these eight determinants.

Manifestation is a process of objectification, of the One becoming an object to its own subjective experience. The process of objectification also creates a subject that experiences the object. When your mind is silent, it is difficult to distinguish subject and object. But when a thought occurs in your mind, there is a part of the mind that takes the form of the thought (becomes an object to its own experience) and a part that experiences the thought as different than itself (becomes the subject experiencing the object). You can think thoughts about yourself. In those thoughts you become on object to your own mental experience. You can also try to think of yourself as others think of you, which is known as objectivity. Sat knows itself subjectively as Spirit and objectively as Truth. A great soul may be known to the outer world as a poet. Inwardly he knows himself, subjectively, as a Rishi. He can also know himself as others know him objectively as a Poet. What is potential within is given expression as an object, as a form of force, outside. The artist sees a vision of reality in his creative imagination and gives expression to it as an object of art. His vision is subjective, his picture is objective.

The objective reflection of Sat is Truth, satyam. That which expresses the Existence is true. The objective reflection of Chit is jnanam, Knowledge. Chit is both knowledge and will. Sat also objectivizes itself as Goodness, which is Truth of Will. Goodness means we not only know what is right, but we want what is right. It has that element of both knowledge and will. Finally, the Ananda objectivizes or reflects itself as anantam, infinity. Sri Aurobindo uses the word ‘endlessness’. The Infinite Being, Sat, is unlimited. Its nature is bliss or delight, because bliss is the absence of all limitation. When there is a complete absence of any limitation, the experience is an ecstatic bliss. For Sat there are no limits, it does not know any end. That limitlessness is its bliss. When Sat manifests itself, it manifests as absence of any limits, as infinity, of creation, of time, forms, etc. It enjoys the bliss of endlessness. Pain comes from limitation, the limitation created by the ego. Moving out of that limitation, converts pain into Ananda. Anantam also means total freedom, absence of constraint of any type. Endlessness in space is Infinity. Endlessness in time is Eternity or Immortality. Thus, infinity, eternity, freedom and bliss are objective reflections of Ananda.

Reflections of Sachchidananda