Difference Between Sukha and Ānanda — Stability and Bliss of the Soul

Question

Sister, I have one last question — it’s an important one. You mentioned that the soul’s core nature consists of seven qualities, right?

— Yes, seven qualities.

Among them are peace, bliss, love, power, purity, knowledge, and happiness (sukha).
Now, of these seven, there are two that sound very similar — sukha-svarūpa (happiness) and ānanda-svarūpa (bliss). So what’s the difference between these two?

Answer

Yes, this question often comes up. I’ve explained it to many people before.
The word sukha actually means stability — steadiness of mind.

— Could you please explain that a little more, Sister? It’s written in your Gita Rahasya, but I couldn’t quite understand it.
Yes, I must have clarified it somewhere.

So: sukha means stability or steadiness.
And stability means: when I am established in my real nature, the Self, when I clearly know — “I am the soul; this body is my instrument. I must use it rightly.”
Because without the body, how could the conscious soul even express itself? It’s impossible for the soul to express without the body.

When I speak, the consciousness expresses through speech.
When the legs move, that same consciousness expresses through movement.
When I eat food, it’s consciousness expressing through the act of eating.
So, through every action of the body, the consciousness expresses.

Therefore, both are important — the body and the soul. Without the soul, the body is a corpse; without the body, the soul cannot act through this world.

For example, suppose I have to use a computer. The computer is important — it’s the instrument. But to run it, I need electricity. Without electricity, the computer is useless.

Similarly, when through knowledge we begin to understand these truths deeply — one by one — gradually, stability begins to appear in the mind.

The mind, by nature, is restless — in one second it thinks one thing, the next second something else.
But when we are established in the Self, that restlessness ends; the mind becomes still.
That inner stillness is the expression of the soul’s own quality — sukha-svarūpa, the state of inner steadiness.

When the mind is stable, then the other qualities of the soul — like love — also begin to reflect.
Because the soul’s nature is love, but if the mind is restless, that love cannot reflect in the mind.
When the mind becomes still, then the soul’s qualities — love, peace, bliss — shine through.

So, the soul is stable; therefore, stability appears in the mind.
That’s why it’s said the soul’s nature is sukha-svarūpa, the embodiment of stability.

Every soul has seven intrinsic qualities:
Sukha (stability), Śuddha (purity), Śakti (power), Śānti (peace), Ānanda (bliss), Prema (love), and Jñāna (knowledge).
These qualities are already within every soul. They don’t have to be brought from outside.
We can never be without them — they are our core nature.

When the mind becomes still, that means the soul’s stability is beginning to reflect in the mind.
When love arises, that means the soul’s love-nature is expressing.
But remember — we can’t bring these qualities from outside; they already exist within us.

What happens is that something outside acts as a trigger — and that awakens the corresponding quality already present in the soul.

For example, I wanted to buy a sofa. The desire kept the mind restless. When I finally bought it, the restlessness ended and I felt peaceful — stable.
It appears that the sofa gave me peace. But that’s an illusion. The sofa doesn’t have the power to give peace. The peace I felt was my own inner quality of stability — it simply reflected in the mind when the desire ended.

So external objects don’t create qualities — they merely trigger the reflection of what’s already within the soul.

Even scripture itself is just a trigger.
When we read the Gita, the scripture doesn’t “give” us knowledge; it only awakens the knowledge that already exists within the soul.

So, the benefit of this understanding is that ordinary people think:
“Happiness comes from others, or from objects outside.”
But that’s a misunderstanding.
External things can act as stimuli, but what we feel inside is always the soul’s own quality.

Question

Then what about the phrase “sthiram sukham āsanam”? Does that relate to this idea of stability?

Answer

That line refers specifically to yogic posture.
It simply means: sit steadily and comfortably in your āsana.
That’s all — it’s not referring to the soul’s inner stability, but to the physical steadiness while sitting.

Question

And the phrase “sukham anantam ānandam” — that’s for the soul, right?

Answer

Yes. Sukham anantam ānandam refers to the soul — that it is infinite happiness and bliss.
So, sukha represents stability — the absence of mental fluctuation, and ānanda is the radiant joy that arises from that stability.

The ordinary mind believes joy comes from outside — because something or someone pleased us.
But that’s not real ānanda.
That’s a triggered reflection of the inner quality.

A realized person — a Buddha-like being — doesn’t need any external trigger.
Their mind is so stable that the soul’s own qualities of love, peace, bliss, and strength continuously flow without outer cause.

Ordinary people still need stimuli — a person, an event, or an experience — to awaken those inner qualities.
That’s why we keep asking the world: “Please talk to me nicely, please be kind to me.”
We depend on external triggers to awaken the soul’s natural qualities.

But one day, everyone becomes a Buddha — meaning, one who is established in the Self, needing no external cause for inner peace.

Question

So the real meaning, then, is that sukha-svarūpa refers to the absence of mental restlessness, the mind free from thought-fluctuations — that’s the soul’s state of stability?

Answer

Exactly. When there are no inner conflicts, no waves of opposing thoughts, no restlessness — that’s sukha, the quality of stability.
As those thought-fluctuations lessen, stability increases — and that very stability is the soul’s happiness-nature.

Right now, we think: “Everyone spoke nicely to me, so I feel peaceful.”
That’s an illusion — the peace didn’t come from others; it came from within, triggered by outer harmony.

Until we reach a stage where the soul’s qualities flow naturally without dependence on the outer world, we will keep needing external triggers.
But eventually, we grow beyond that — when inner peace, love, and bliss remain constant, untouched by outer situations.

That’s the state of the Self-realized being — a Buddha, established in their own soul’s fullness.

Question

And this fullness means the soul is completely content within itself — not needing anything from outside?

Answer

Yes.
The soul — the conscious energy — needs nothing.
It has no hunger, no thirst. It’s pure light, pure awareness.

Hunger and thirst belong to the body, not the soul.
There are three bodies:

• the gross body (sthūla) needs food;
  
  

• the subtle body (sūkṣma) needs love, feelings, and thoughts;
  
  

• the causal body (kāraṇa) holds impressions and desires.
  
  

The mind doesn’t need bread or rice; it needs affection and kind words.
The body needs physical food.
The soul needs nothing — it is complete in itself.

That is the meaning of sukha-svarūpa and ānanda-svarūpa:
Stability and bliss — the steady peace and the radiant joy of the Self.