NAME 102

One whose Nature cannot be comprehended. One who has His manifestations (Atma) in Infinite varieties, almost unaccountable (Ameya), 

Nāma 179 is also Ameyātmā.

Ameyātman means the one with immense power of mind. This refers to the Divine Will to create, sustain and absorb. The Divine Will is immeasurable, as from this alone, everything arises.

 Ameyaatma – He is Immeasurable

Ameya is linked to the root word ‘Maa’ which means ‘to measure’.  Maanadanda for example is a measuring rod which is famously used by Kalidasa in Kumarasambhavam ‘Himaalayo naama Nagaadhiraajah Sthitah Prithavyaa iva Maanadandah –Mount Himalaya stands majestically as if it is a measuring rod for the whole earth’.

Based on this root Meya mean measurable and Ameya means immeasurable.  Sri Adi Sankara says ‘Iyaan iti Maatum Paricchettum na Shakyate iti Ameyaatmaa – One whose self cannot be measured as to what it is and how much it is.

One is reminded of a name in the mystic Lalita Trishati ‘eedrik iti avinirdeshya – You cannot assign a physical measure to her nature’.

Ameya means unaccountable or incomprehensible. Swami ChinmayAnanda indicates that the Virat Purusha form of the Lord is suggested here.  His self or nature is such that it cannot be measured by any particular standard and determined.

१०२. ॐ अमेयात्मने नमः |

102. OM Ameyātmane Namaḥ

 Ameyaatmaa -One who has His manifestations (Aatmaa) in Infinite varieties, almost unaccountable (Ameya), The Viraat Purusha of the Form of All-Lord of the Cosmic Form is suggested here. As all forms have risen from Him, exist in Him, and dissolve into Him alone, all forms are His own different forms.

Ameyaḥ (iyā niti paricchettuṃ na śakyaḥ) ātmā yasya saḥ He whose ātmā (nature) cannot be measured (determined) as of what extent by division.

Śrīmad Bhāgavata – Canto 4, Chapter 11

Avyaktasyāprameyasya nānāśaktyudayasya ca,

na vai cikīrṣitaṃ tāta ko vedāthambhavam. (23)

:: श्रीमद्भागवत – चतुर्थस्कन्धे, एकादशोऽध्यायः ::

अव्यक्तस्याप्रमेयस्य नानाशक्त्युदयस्य च ।

न वै चिकीर्षितं तात को वेदाथम्भवम् ॥ २३ ॥

The Absolute Truth, Transcendence, is never subject to the understanding of imperfect sensory endeavor, nor is He subject to direct experience. He is the master of varieties of energies, like the full material energy, and no one can understand His plans or actions; therefore it should be concluded that although He is the original cause of all causes, no one can know Him by mental speculation.

INTERPRETATION GUIDED BY SANT VANI (WORDS OF SAINTS)

102. Ameyātmā (also name 179)

The one whose nature cannot be measured.

Mā means to measure. That which is used for measuring is called māna. A weighing balance is māna. What is measured is called meya. We are able to measure the distance between the earth and the stars. This distance is meya but the number of stars in a galaxy is ameya, countless. All the varieties of beings are also ameya, all of them are Bhagavān. Bhagavān’s manifestations are ameya, countless and the phenomena are also ameya. The means and ends are also ameya. The devatās are also ameya. Every phenomenon is a devatā and therefore, ameya. Thus, as His manifestations are ameya, countless, in His manifest form He is ameya, immeasurable and so is his Kripa. Hari Anant Hari Kripa Ananta. This vast creation with its perfectness invokes awe and wonder, at the countless manifestations of Bhagwan.

Essentially also the Lord is ameya. The nature of the Lord cannot be measured and pinpointed that this is how it is because, He is free from qualities and attributes that can be measured.

Further, He cannot be conceptualised or objectified through the sense organs or by any means of knowledge. Relating to the Lord through a picture or a Vigraha is the starting point as we discover Bhagavān to pervade us and others. But when we insist on relating to Bhagavān in a particular way only, we are limiting Bhagavān due to our perception.

Bhagavān is not an object of knowledge, because He cannot be objectified nor is He the subject of knowledge. As the ātmā of all, He is Ameya–neither the subject nor the object. We find that the subject can be objectified and the subject also undergoes change. When you say ‘I do not know’ this is with reference to the subject. Then there is an opinion about the subject. ‘I am ignorant’ is a judgement about the subject. That means that the subject is available for your objectification. But the ātmā I, can never be objectified.

Atma is I. That I am, I know. I knew this even before language was picked up. Am I a belief? I am aware of my body-mind-sense-complex and the world around me. I am a conscious being who happens to have many identities as I transact in this world. Do I, Atma have a gender? No.

Can Atma be seen in the mirror? The person can be seen in the mirror. I, Atma is neither the subject nor the object and at the same time there is no subject or object without the ātmā. Therefore, it is Ameyātmā. It is that which cannot be objectified, and therefore cannot be measured. At the same time, it is the content of every subject, of every piece of knowledge and also of the object.

He who is of incomprehensible nature. His essential nature cannot be comprehended by anyone(Śaṅkara). He whose form and nature cannot be measured or determined. He who is known as Janārdana is that Ameyathma.(Parāsara Battar)

The word Ameya refers to something that is incomprehensible, unaccountable, and immeasurable. And when connected with the word Ātma it is a reference to that Paramātman who is present as the in-dwelling Jeevātman within each being.

Swami Chinmayananda in his translation/commentary says that this name should be seen as referring to the Viratāpuruṣa as does Sri Narasimhan Krishnamachari in his annotated commentary on the Viṣhṇu Sahasranāma as the all incompassing indwelling Antaryami.

Sri Ramakrishna who could communicate the most profound truths using very simple stories and parables often told the story of “The Salt Doll” that set out to measure the depth of the ocean but the moment it stepped into that vast ocean of limitlessness, it lost all identity of its own ‘Self’ and became part of that great limitlessness – the ‘lone’ merging forever in that “alone” – no trace of the form or the taste of the salt.

In another conversation of Sri Ramakrishna with a Vaiṣṇava Goswami on the question of whether God is with form or without form, Sri Ramakrishna brings out these immeasurable, incomprehensible, and limitless aspects of the Supreme Being through simple but profound insight, using the allegory of the limitless ocean:

——Quote

“Satchitananda is like an infinite ocean. Intense cold freezes the water into ice, which floats on the ocean. Likewise, through the cooling influence of bhakti one sees forms of God in the ocean of the absolute. When the sun of knowledge rises, the ice melts; it becomes the same water it was before. Water above and water below, everywhere nothing but water. Therefore a prayer in the Bhāgavata says: ‘O Lord, Thou hast form, and thou art also formless. Thou walkest before us, O Lord, in the shape of a man; again thou has been described in the Vedas as beyond words and thought.’ But you may say that for certain devotees God assumes eternal forms. These are the places in the ocean where the ice doesn’t melt at all. It assumes the form of quartz.”

——–Unquote

From: The gospel of Sri Ramakrishna. Translated into English along with an Introduction by Swami Nikhilananda; [Pg: 191; ‘The Master’s Birthday Celebration at Dakshineswar]; 2004; Ramakrishna Math, Mylapore.

Who can measure such a being? Therefore he is Ameyātmāḥ – incomprehensible, unaccountable, limitless, and immeasurable – for those who approach him and try to measure him or determine his expanse by the means of the limited intellect and/or analytical abilities.

Within the human body itself there are a close to 37 trillion cells (according to research), each of which has its own local intelligence and within each micro unit dwells that Lord who is immeasurable. You are an entire Brahmanda (Macrocosm) inside the Pindanda (Microcosm).

“Becoming one with nature so you may expand your consciousness to an extraordinary scale. So that, each one of us, like a drop merging in ocean may become as vast and powerful as the ocean itself. One drop doesn’t make a sea but every drop is required or there’ll be no sea. Similarly, to gain the immensity of scale necessary to attract the universe, we have to tap into the collective consciousness.

Each one of us is a cell in the Universal Body. On our own, no matter how powerful one person is, our existence is infinitely smaller than the smallest number we can imagine. On a collective scale though, every individual is critical to the existence of universe. If every cell in our body gave up, the whole body will collapse in no time. Similarly, if all living beings gave up, it will have an unimaginable effect on the whole of creation.

When we raise the level of global happiness, personal peace and prosperity will rise automatically. With more and more happy people around, our world will naturally become a better place.”

– Om Swami

https://os.me/the-greatest-secret-of-collective-consciousness/

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The truth of all the borrowed understanding on any name can only be brought into your experience through meditating on its Essence and acting/adopting it’s virtue in the present moment which is the Truth – where the search stops, the yearning for what should be stops and all mental constructs dissolve.