Leaking houses and sat-cit-ananda
Imagine I come over to your place for some tea. We arrive at your house in the car and you say “welcome! This is my house”. OK, great. But then I ask you a strange question – “are you the house?” You reply “No! Of course I am not the house. However, this is still my house. I am the house owner. The house is owned by me.” When the house leaks, you don’t think “Oh dear, I am leaking!”, rather you will think “my house is leaking. I better fix it”. You are very clear that you (owner) and the house (owned) are 2 separate things. There is no mix up.
This “my house” (madiyam grham) example is used by the author of the ancient Vedantic text, ‘Knowledge of Truth’, to reveal the true nature of yourSelf (Atma). How? The author explains that when you say “my house”, the word “my” is very important here. The word “my” reveals that the house is owned by you (the owner). And the owner and owned are obviously 2 separate things. Now here’s the interesting part – similarly, we all commonly say the following things when talking to each other: “my body aches”, “my mind is agitated”, “my ignorance has gone”. The very fact you say “my body” indicates that the body is owned by you. And you are the owner. Right? Else why would you say “my body” just like you say “my house”? So that must mean that you and the body are… 2 different things!? Correct, Vedanta says. You are not your body and your own language proves it. There is an owner-owned relationship between you and the body, just like you and your house. No doubt you have a body and take care of it. Just like have a house and take care of it. So to, “my mind is agitated” implies you are not your mind, but you do possess a mind which you can use and enjoy. In fact, analysing your own language reveals that all the 5 sheaths (http://advaita-academy.org/blogs/5-sheaths-and-samosa-happiness/) which make up your body-mind are owned by you, but you are not them.
So I am not my body, not my prana, not my emotional mind, not my intellect nor my casual body…then who am I? Vedanta boldly answers: I am sat-cit-ananda. 3 famous words which positively describe Atma (as opposed to the negations previously seen):
What is ‘Sat’? Reality. Truth. Existence. Reality is that which does not change in all 3 periods of time (past, present, future). This is why the physical body is not reality. Because before your birth date it was not there, after your death date it will not be there, and it is here in the present for some time, but continuously changing its form (body cells are continuously changing as a Doctor will tell you). So it certainly is not the unchanging reality (sat). Everything in the world changes, so nothing seems to be reality. Time, space and everything in it changes. Then what is it that never changes (reality/sat)? Only 1 thing: You. Atma.
What is ‘cit’? We said above that everything in the world changes. Your thoughts, the planet, your body, emotions, the universe. Everything. But how do you know these change? Because you must witness these changes. There are 2 things to know about this ‘witness’ of change – (1) The witness must be a conscious being. A stone cannot witness anything as it is inert (jada), so the witnesses nature must be consciousness. (2) The conscious witness must be unchanging, else how could it recognise change in other things? For example, to notice the change of furniture in a room, you must have been the same person (witness) that was there last week to notice the room before it changed. In other words, the witness is consciousness (cit). And this consciousness (cit) is unchanging (sat). And who is this ‘cit’ (consciousness)? You. Atma.
What is ‘ananda’? Ananda is Happiness. And this happiness is you, Atma. How do we know happiness is the nature of Atma, your true Self? Simple – because whenever you are with your Self, you experience happiness. The 3 states of experience (waking, dreaming, deep sleep) are used by Vedanta to prove this: When you are awake you are identified with the physical body (sthula sharira). Therefore you experience all the problems and sorrows of the physical body – its aches, pains and limitations. However, when you are dreaming you are no longer identified with the physical body, rather only the mind/subtle body (sukshma sharira), so no sorrows of the body but you do not experience the sorrows of the mind – all the fears and worries in your mind may manifest in a dream. Finally, when you are in deep sleep you have withdrawn from your identification with the physical body & mind. You are with your Self and nothing else. No sorrows of the body or mind. And how do you feel in sleep? Happy! That’s why you wake up and say “I slept happily”. Why were you happy? Because you were just with your Self, the Atma. Proving the Atma must be of the nature of happiness, Ananda.
You (Atma) are sat-cit-ananda. If you understand this, you are free.
Om Tat Sat.
Aditya.
