What does Anahata mean in Sanskrit?

Anahata is a Sanskrit word that means unstruck or unbeaten. It refers to the Anahata Nada — the mystical unstruck sound heard in deep meditation at the heart centre. In ordinary experience, all sound arises from the striking of two objects — but the Anahata Nada is a sound that arises without any external cause. It is the primordial, self-arising sound of existence itself. The name also points to the nature of the heart when fully healed and opened: an inner space that has not been beaten by life suffering into permanent closure, that remains fundamentally undamaged in its essential capacity for love.