Page 19 - Masala Lite Issue 190 October 2026

19

BEYOND THE
RITUAL

SAT-CHIT-ANANDA:
BY KRIPA SINGH Stepping Off the Hedonic Treadmill

There is always a more, want more, achieve more, yet the place where source of our wholeness. Because the problem is not
“next thing”. we imagine happiness to be remains somewhere just desire itself. It is the distorted belief that happiness
ahead of us. lives on the other side of desire.
The next promotion.
The next trip. The And so we run faster. The belief that once we fix this, achieve that, or become

next relationship someone slightly different, we will finally arrive.

We are taught to want more from life. And today, we
milestone. The next
do not only see what we want; we are constantly shown Yet some of life’s most joyful moments seem to suggest
purchase. The next win. The next version of our body,
what everyone else has. Someone is always travelling otherwise. Sitting around a table long after dinner is
home, career or life. We tell ourselves, often without
somewhere better, earning more, getting engaged, fi nished. Laughing until your stomach hurts. Walking
realising it: Once I get there, I’ll be happy. And sometimes,
buying a home, transforming their body, or seemingly without checking your phone. Holding someone you love.
we do get there.
living the life we are still working towards. Waking up with nowhere you immediately need to be.
For a while, it feels incredible. Then something strange So how do we step off without giving up ambition Nothing has been achieved in those moments. Nothing

happens. The new salary becomes our normal salary. The altogether? has been acquired. But even so, something feels
new iPhone becomes just our phone. The holiday we
An ancient Hindu idea offers an answer. In Vedantic complete. Maybe this is where Ananda becomes less

spent months looking forward to becomes a collection philosophy, Sat-Chit-Ananda is often translated as being, of an ancient philosophical idea and more of a practice
of photos on our camera roll. And soon enough, there is
consciousness, and bliss. Sat is being that which truly is. for modern life.
another next thing until the other next thing.
Chit is consciousness or awareness, our ability to observe
We do not have to stop running. We just have to notice
Psychology has a term for this cycle: the hedonic treadmill. our thoughts and experiences. And Ananda is bliss.
when we are asking the next achievement, possession,
It describes our tendency to adapt to changes in our However, the term “bliss” itself often elicits incorrect or milestone to provide something it was never capable
circumstances. Things that once brought us enormous interpretations. Ananda is not the temporary high of of providing permanently.
excitement eventually become familiar, and our getting what we want. It points towards something
There will always be another goal. Another upgrade.
expectations shift with them. So we keep running quieter and steadier: a sense of completeness that is
Another place to reach. Perhaps stepping off the

towards the next source of happiness, only to find not entirely dependent on what we acquire, achieve, or
hedonic treadmill does not mean we stop moving
ourselves adjusting to that too. become. That very distinction changes the conversation.
forward, but that we stop believing happiness is

The treadmill is particularly difficult to recognise because Sat-Chit-Ananda does not necessarily ask us to stop always one step ahead of us.
running on it can look a lot like progress. Many of us wanting things. We can build careers, make money, fall
have been sprinting for years without realising that in love, travel, buy nice things, indulge in food we like,
we are not actually reaching a destination. We reach and work towards becoming better versions of ourselves.
one milestone only to replace it with another. We earn It simply asks us not to confuse those things with the