Sumantránanda: Su is an upasarga. In English upasarga means “prefix”. Sanskrit has twenty prefixes.

Pra parápa-samanvava-nirdurabhi-vyadhi-súdati-niprati -paryyapah;

Upa-ángiti biḿshatireśa sakhe upasargavidhih kathita kaviná.

[Pra, pará, apa, sam, anu, ava, nir, dur, abhi, vi, adhi, su, ut, ati, ni, prati, pari, api, upa, á – these are the twenty Sanskrit upasargas.]

One of these is Su which means bhála [good] – this word comes from the Sanskrit word bhadra. When bhála refers to “physically good” then the Sanskrit word for this is accha. Su + accha = svaccha – svaccha jal [pure water]. From accha comes the modern Hindi ácchá – ácchá-acchii-acche. Acchá means “physically good”, good in the sense of when it is a qualification. Where su refers to “physically good” the word ácchá is used. Ácchá means sundarákrti — physically good. Sundaram here means “good”; the prefix su is used in this sense.

Now, how does the word “mantra” come about? Mananát tárayet yastu sah mantrah parikiirtitah. Mantra is that by which, when it is ideated upon, one obtains the path of liberation. Manana kará means “to think”. The mind has two functions – to think and to remember. Mana + trae + d́a. Adding the suffix d́a to the root verb trae gives tra. The root verb trae means “to liberate”, and tra means “that which liberates”, “liberator.” Gae + trae + d́a plus the feminine iṋiiś makes gáyatrii, that is, that which, by singing, the human being attains the path of liberation. Mantra means “that by which, when it is thought about or remembered or ideated upon, one attains the path of liberation.” Mananát tárayet yastu sah mantrah parikiirtitah.

Sumantra means “a good mantra”, that is, the best mantra. What is the best mantra? The brahmabiija [acoustic root of Supreme Consciousness]. The brahmabiija is the best acoustic root because the universe is produced from it. Of all the sounds that exist, of all the acoustic roots, the most powerful acoustic root, the most powerful mantra is the brahmabiija. Thus sumantra means brahmamantra, brahmabiija. The bliss that one derives with the help of this sumantra or brahmabiija is called sumantrananda.

Sucetánanda: I have just talked about the meaning of su. The meaning of the word ceta is “consciousness” or “cognitive faculty”. The bliss that one gets from this cognitive faculty or sundaram ceta or citishakti, paráshakti or Parama Puruśa or suceta, that is, the bliss that one gets by coming into close proximity with Brahma, is called sucetánanda.

Ártapremánanda: In Sanskrit rta means “influenced by”. The word árta comes from the word rta – árta or átura. That person who has been affected by any kind of pleasure or pain, by any disease or illness or anxiety, is árta, for example, duhkhárta, mohárta or shokárta, that is, one who is overcome or afflicted by grief. If someone close to us or dear to us dies, then shoka [grief] + árta = shokárta [grief-stricken]. The original word is rta. When a person is overcome by something – be it anxiety or disease, physical or mental illness – that distressed person, neglected person, troubled person, looks to others for sympathy. When you are in a normal state then it is fine if no one is close by, but if you are distressed or overcome by grief then you will want at least one or two persons to be with you. In times of happiness – say, for example, you receive some good news – what will your mind like to do? “Let me tell him; let me tell her. Let me call him; let me call her.” Don’t you do this? Of course, you do. Similarly, if you eat something tasty, it feels good afterwards. Then you feel like telling everyone how good it was. The norm is that when a person feels some happiness they want to tell others about it, because at that moment they are overcome by that happiness, they are sukhárta. In the same way, when someone is in distress they cry and moan and say: “O, look what happened to me.” They want to call others and tell them about it. This is the norm.

When some misfortune occurs they lament: “This is what you had in mind for me, Lord? This is what you do to me after all that’s happened?” At other times they don’t bother about the Lord, whether he has eaten or not, or slept or not. But when misfortune strikes they wail and moan: “This is what you had in store for me, Lord? This is your judgment?” For an afflicted person there is only one ally and that is the Lord. When everyone else has rejected or abandoned them, when they have no one else to turn to, they call on Parama Puruśa. They know that there is someone who has love (prema) for the afflicted. He is ártaprema [having love for the afflicted], and the bliss of this ártaprema, that is, ártapremánanda, the bliss which comes from proximity to Parama Puruśa, the bliss that comes from imposing the ideation of the Lord in times of distress, is ártapremánanda.