Achintya
Acintya (IAST)Translation: "inconceivable"
From Mandukya Upanishad (Verse 7)
A Sanskrit-English Dictionary (Monier-Williams)
Sanskrit: अ-चिन्त्य
Transliteration: a-cintya
Translation: "inconceivable, surpassing thought"
A Concise Dictionary of Indian Philosophy
Sanskrit: अचिन्त्य
Transliteration: acintya
Translation: unthinkable; incomprehensible; inexplicable (from the root cin – “to think + a – “not”)
- A name denoting the Divine because it is said that the mind cannot cognize the Ineffable.
- A type of power.
Mundaka and Mandukya Upanishads (Swami Sharvananda)
Sanskrit: अचिन्त्यम्
Transliteration: acintyam
Translation: "beyond all thought"
The Māṇḍūkya Upaniṣad (Swami Krishnananda)
Sanskrit: अचिन्त्यम्
Transliteration: acintyam
Commentary: "It is unthinkable by the mind. You cannot form a thought of this Being. You cannot, therefore, meditate upon it in the usual manner. You cannot think it, because to think would be to bring the object to the realm of space and time, to externalize it. It is not an object, and it is not in space and time, and, so, it is not thinkable."
References:
- Monier-Williams, Monier (1899). A Sanskrit-English Dictionary: Etymologically and Philologically Arranged with Special Reference to Cognate Indo-European languages. Oxford: Clarendon Press
- Grimes, John (1996). A Concise Dictionary of Indian Philosophy: Sanskrit Terms Defined in English. Albany: State University of New York Press
- Sharvananda, Swami (1920). Mundaka and Mandukya Upanishads: With Sanskrit Text; Paraphrase with Word-For-Word Literal Translation, English, Rendering and Comments. Mylapore, Madras: Sri Ramakrishna Math
- Krishnananda, Swami (1996). The Māṇḍūkya Upaniṣad. Retrieved from https://www.swami-krishnananda.org/mand_0.html. p. 83.
