There is a mantra in which the second line tells us that God's form, God's nature, is "sat, chit, ananda".

"sat" is truth, is the real, the actual.
"chit" is mind, experience, consciousness.
and "ananda"? Everyone says ananda is bliss, almost everyone…
and it doesn't quite compute.

The divine as the actual reality, as consciousness, this is interesting and rings true, but bliss… ?

My Buddhist meditation teacher, Philip Starkman, was saying once, that at some time in his half century of practice there was a year and a half of bliss, and that bliss can be exhausting. The Buddhists are into dividing up, analyzing and listing reality and beyond bliss, apparently, there is tranquil abiding… !

My friend Teresa just gave me her guru, Nithyananda's, book Meditation is for You in which, on the second page, I learn: "The word 'Ananda' itself means, 'that which cannot be reduced, which cannot be lost'. Ananda is not a word for happiness! You will be surprised to know, it simply means 'that which cannot be reduced or lost'

Ananda (bliss) is not pleasure. Ananda is that tranquil, silent state which you experience when you have gone beyond both pain and pleasure. It is the state in which both pain and pleasure have ceased to affect you. You could say, Ananda is the state of 'permanent and causeless tranquility'."

"sat, chit, ananda," truth, mind, tranquil abiding: the form of God.
Tranquil abiding, the irreducible clear light of love that pervades… all…