Ānanda | Bliss

Ananda

Ānanda (IAST)
Translation: "Bliss"
From Mandukya Upanishad (Verse 5)

A Sanskrit-English Dictionary (Monier-Williams)
Sanskrit: आनन्द
Transliteration: Ānanda

Translation: "happiness, joy, enjoyment, sensual pleasure; 'pure happiness,' one of the three attributes of Ātman or Brahman in the Vedānta philosophy"

A Concise Dictionary of Indian Philosophy
Sanskrit: आनन्द
Transliteration: Ānanda

Translation: "bliss; delight; a type of Samādhi in which the mind concentrates on the intellect (from the verb root nand – “to rejoice”)"

Glossary to the Record of Yoga (Sri Aurobindo)
Transliteration: Ānanda

Translation: "delight, bliss, ecstasy, beatitude; “a profound concentrated intense self-existent bliss extended to all that our being does, envisages, creates, a fixed divine rapture”; same as Sama Ānanda, the universal delight which constitutes active/positive Samatā, “an equal delight in all the cosmic manifestation of the Divine,” whose “foundation is the Atmajñāna or Brahmajñāna by which we perceive the whole universe as a perception of one Being that manifests itself in multitudinous forms and activities”; the highest of the three stages of active/positive Samatā, “the joy of Unity” by which “all is changed into the full and pure ecstasy” of the Spirit; the third and highest state of Bhukti, consisting of the delight of existence experienced “throughout the system” in seven principal forms (Kāmānanda, Premānanda, Ahaituka Ānanda, Cidghanānanda, Śuddhānanda, Cidānanda, and Sadānanda) corresponding to the seven Kośa or sheaths of the being and the seven Lokas or planes of existence; physical Ānanda or Śārīrānanda in its five forms, also called Vividhānanda (various delight), the fourth member of the Śārīrā Catuṣṭaya; (especially in the plural, “Anandas”) any of these forms of Ānanda; same as Ānandaṃ Brahma, the last aspect of the fourfold Brahman; bliss of infinite conscious existence, “the original, all-encompassing, all-informing, all-upholding delight”, the third aspect of Saccidānanda and the principle manifested in its purity in Janaloka or Ānandaloka, also present in an involved or subordinated form on every other plane."

The Science of Yoga (I.K. Taimni)
Sanskrit: आनन्द
Transliteration: Ānanda
Translation: "bliss, joy, delight"

Commentary: Ānanda stage of Samprajñāta Samādhi and the Liṅga stage of the Guṇa
"Liṅga-Mātra means a state of consciousness in which particular objects and even principles are mere marks or signs which serve to distinguish them from other objects. This stage of the Guṇa corresponds to the supra-mental consciousness which transcends the intellect and is expressed through Buddhi or intuition. The corresponding stage in Samādhi is accompanied by Ānanda which confirms the conclusion that this stage of the Guṇa corresponds to the functioning of consciousness through the Buddhic vehicle or Ānandamaya Kośa as it is called in Vedantic terminology.

In the corresponding state of consciousness, all objects and universal principles become part of a universal consciousness. They are seen, embedded as it were, in one consciousness, as parts of an indivisible whole, but they still have their identity and are still distinguishable or recognizable. Each object is itself and yet part of a whole. It is a condition of unity in diversity."

References:

1. Monier-Williams, Monier (1899). A Sanskrit-English Dictionary: Etymologically and Philologically Arranged with Special Reference to Cognate Indo-European languages. Oxford: Clarendon Press 
2. Grimes, John (1996). A Concise Dictionary of Indian Philosophy: Sanskrit Terms Defined in English. Albany: State University of New York Press
3. Hartz, Richard. Glossary to the Record of Yoga (Sri Aurobindo). Retrieved from http://wiki.auroville.org.in/wiki/Glossary_to_the_Record_of_Yoga
4. Taimni, I. K. (1975). The Science of Yoga: The Yoga-Sūtras of Patañjali in Sanskrit with Transliteration in Roman, Translation in English and Commentary: Theosophical Publishing House. p.166.