Cit — The Conscious Principle
In the Viśiṣṭādvaita Vedānta of Rāmānujāchārya, ultimate reality is understood as a unity of three inseparable reals: Brahman (Śrīman Nārāyaṇa), cit (conscious beings), and achit (insentient matter). Cit refers to the entire class of individual conscious souls — the jīvātmās — who are eternal, sentient, and distinct from both Bhagavān and achit.
The defining quality of cit is self-luminous consciousness (svayam-prakāśa-jñāna). Unlike achit, which is inert and requires an external knowing principle to illuminate it, each jīvātmā is intrinsically aware. Even in deep ignorance (ajñāna), the ātmā's consciousness is not extinguished — it is merely contracted or veiled, just as a lamp in a closed room still burns, though its light does not illuminate the surroundings.
Cit is further distinguished by its dharmī-jñānam (self-constituting consciousness) and dharma-bhūta-jñānam (attributive knowledge that flows outward to illuminate objects). In bondage, dharma-bhūta-jñānam is contracted by karma, limiting the soul's awareness. In liberation, it expands to omniscience within the scope of Paramapadham. This distinction — the soul being both the knower and the knowing — is unique to Viśiṣṭādvaita.
Bhagavān's relationship to cit is that of the Inner Controller (antaryāmi) and the soul (cit serving as His body). The Antaryāmi Brāhmaṇa of the Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad establishes this: 'He who dwelling in the ātmā, ruling the ātmā from within, is the antaryāmin — the immortal.' This body-soul relationship (śarīra-śarīrī bhāva) means cit never exists independently of Bhagavān; all jīvas are, at all times, supported by (ādhāra) and controlled by (niyāmya) Bhagavān.
The liberation of cit (mukti) is not the dissolution of individual consciousness into Brahman (as in Advaita) but its full flowering — expanded dharma-bhūta-jñānam, the complete realization of its śeṣatva (nature as Bhagavān's eternal servant), and the beginning of unending kainkaryam in Paramapadham.