The same meaning is conveyed by the word, Asti. Cit means that which is conscious of everything; the same meaning is conveyed by the word, Bhati. Ananda means unending source of joy; Priyam also means, the same. These three are found in every human being; why, in every beast and bird.
The body is subject to destruction, sooner or later. Everyone is aware of this no one is ignorant of this elementary factor. Nevertheless, everyone is apprehensive of death! No one welcomes death, or is eager to meet it. Death is inevitable; you have to meet with it even though you do not welcome it, or try to avoid it. All that is born has to die some day, still, no one likes to die.
It is the body that dies; it is the body that falls. What does not die is the Atma. Only you delude yourselves into thinking that it is the Atma or ‘you’ that dies. The Atma has nothing to do with death or birth. The body experiences death; the Atma which is Nitya, Satya and Nirmala (eternal, true and pure) does not die. You are the Atma that does not like to die. That is to say, you are Sat; your nature is Sat. The Atma is the ‘child of immortality’; not the Deha or the Body. Now take the second Cit – the force that urges you on everything. Every person is eager to know about anything that is apparent to his consciousness; he asks the question: ‘What is this’? ‘How does this happen’? The number who actually, succeeds in knowing may be only a few. Others may have the eagerness only and not the steady intelligence needed to persist. That makes no difference. The essential fact is the thirst, the urge......’
Just consider the inner significance of this hunger for knowledge. It is the Cit-shakti that expresses itself. It is not its nature to leave things alone. It cannot rest until knowledge is gained; so the hunger emerges as a stream of questions. The Cit-shakti is self-luminous; so it has the power of illuminating even inert things. That is why these qualities strive in man and make other things clearer to him.
Now for the third: Anandam. Even beasts and birds crave for joy without any prompting or persuasion from others. They make effort to win it. No one of them craves for grief or pain; they make every effort to escape from pain and grief and put an end to them, when they become unavoidable. Man is fundamentally happy natured, Sukhaswabhaava. Bliss is his very personality. He is not of the nature of the body he occupies. He is the Atma. Happiness is the nature of the Atma..... That is why one is craving for constant happiness, Ananda.
The above three, Sat, Cit and Anandam, we see in every being as the very core of its existence, as its reality itself. So it is the Lord Himself who has assumed the Jiva poses and plays as an individual in that role. It is this inner relationship that Krishna elaborated upon, so that the relationship of the Brahman and Adhyatmam; that is to say, the identity of both with Him, could be understood by Arjuna. (GV, pp. 119-122)