Gita 02.17 – Nothing Can Destroy The Soul Because It Pervades Everything
avināśi tu tad viddhi
yena sarvam idaṁ tatam
vināśam avyayasyāsya
na kaścit kartum arhati (Bg 2.17)
Word-for-word:
avināśi — imperishable; tu — but; tat — that; viddhi — know it; yena — by whom; sarvam — all of the body; idam — this; tatam — pervaded; vināśam — destruction; avyayasya — of the imperishable; asya — of it; na kaścit — no one; kartum — to do; arhati — is able.
Translation:
That which pervades the entire body you should know to be indestructible. No one is able to destroy that imperishable soul.
Explanation:
In this verse, Kṛṣṇa continues His instructions about the eternality of the soul and states:
avināśi tu tad viddhi: “Know that to be eternal.”
It is noteworthy that Kṛṣṇa has not yet used the word ‘ātmā.’ While it is implicit what He is referring to, and there is no ambiguity, Kṛṣṇa again uses the word tad (“that”) to refer to the ātmā.
yena sarvam idaṁ tatam: “By which everything is pervaded.”
vināśam avyayasyāsya: “The destruction of that which is imperishable.”
Here, “indestructible” and “imperishable” are synonyms used by Kṛṣṇa to re-emphasize this vital point.
na kaścit kartum arhati – “Nobody and nothing can destroy that soul.”
The previous verse differentiated between the eternal and the non-enduring, stating that the eternal (sat) is truly existent, while the non-enduring (asat) is essentially non-existent. Building on that, in this verse, Kṛṣṇa shifts focus entirely to the eternal and affirms its imperishable nature.
yena sarvam idaṁ tatam—”That which pervades everything.”
This line highlights the characteristic of pervasion attributed to the soul. While some impersonalists interpret this as referring to the one spirit pervading all of existence or consciousness, such a reading is inconsistent with the context of this discussion.
The overall theme here revolves around the distinction between the body (deha) and the soul (dehī). In Bhagavad-gītā 2.13, Kṛṣṇa explicitly speaks about the dehī (the embodied soul) transitioning through various bodies. In 2.14, He addresses the sensory experiences caused by mātrā-sparśās (sense perceptions). Then, in 2.18, immediately after this verse, He again discusses the body, stating antavanta ime dehā—”These bodies are perishable.”
Given this progression, interpreting ‘sarvam’ here as referring to the entire universe (jagat) is, at best, uncontextual and, at worst, contra-contextual. It does not align with the immediate subject of the body and soul, which forms the central theme of this part of the discourse.
While Kṛṣṇa does generalize in the previous verse, where He states that “of the existent there is no cessation, and of the non-existent there is no endurance,” there is no definitive indication that He is referring to the universe. The focus remains on addressing Arjuna’s grief over the potential deaths of his loved ones and helping him understand the eternal nature of the soul. Thus, there is little to suggest that the verse is pointing to the universe per se.
Kṛṣṇa describes the soul as that which pervades everything. If this is understood in the context of the body, it means that the soul pervades the body. While the soul itself is localized in one place, it extends its influence throughout the body via its energy—specifically, the energy of consciousness.
Kṛṣṇa further declares: vināśam avyayasyāsya na kaścit kartum arhati—”No one can destroy this indestructible soul.”
Interestingly, it is Kṛṣṇa who emphasizes the indestructibility of the soul, reassuring Arjuna that his loved ones will not be destroyed. He explains that neither Arjuna nor his astras (weapons), nor even celestial astras, can destroy the soul. Therefore, Kṛṣṇa urges Arjuna not to be anxious, as the soul is beyond destruction.
Śrīla Rāmānujācārya, in his Gītā Bhāṣya, provides a very interesting interpretation of this verse, which aligns beautifully and creatively with the context. He explains that the focus here is on the indestructibility of the soul, as stated in the first line: avināśi tu tad viddhi—”Know that the soul is indestructible.”
In the second line, rather than interpreting it as the soul pervading the body, he suggests that it explains ‘why’ the soul is indestructible. The soul’s pervasiveness, mentioned in the second line—yena sarvam idaṁ tatam (“That by which everything is pervaded”)—underscores its imperishable nature. Thus, according to Rāmānujācārya, the second line provides the rationale for the soul’s indestructibility.
Normally, an object is destroyed when another object penetrates or pervades it, causing its destruction. For example, a bullet enters the body, a poisonous gas infiltrates it, or fire burns by penetrating it. Similarly, when a person drowns, water enters the body. Essentially, earth, water, fire, and air destroy other elements by pervading and overpowering them.
However, the soul is so subtle that nothing can pervade it, let alone penetrate it. In fact, the soul pervades everything else, and because it is impervious to pervasion and penetration, it is indestructible (avināśi).
Śrīla Rāmānujācārya explains that this indestructibility of the soul (avināśi) is clarified by the phrase yena sarvam idaṁ tatam—”That by which everything is pervaded.” Here, ‘sarvam’ does not refer to the body or the universe. According to Rāmānujācārya, it refers to the various elements of material existence. These material elements are incapable of destroying the soul because they cannot pervade or penetrate it—rather, it is the soul that pervades them.
Thus, the reasoning is clear—the soul is indestructible because it pervades everything, and nothing can pervade it. Therefore, Kṛṣṇa asserts that the soul is eternal and beyond destruction.
The point here is that, generally, to destroy something, an appropriate weapon is required. Without the right weapon, destruction is not possible. Since there is no weapon capable of destroying the soul, it remains indestructible.
Returning to the phrase ‘yena sarvam idaṁ tatam’, we now have three explanations:
1. The Māyāvādī interpretation, which suggests that consciousness pervades the entire universe. However, this interpretation does not align well with the context.
2. The standard explanation given by Śrīla Prabhupāda, which states that the soul pervades the body through consciousness.
3. Śrīla Rāmānujācārya’s explanation, which asserts that the soul, being spiritual and extremely subtle, pervades all material elements. Because of this, the soul cannot be destroyed by any of the material elements.
Now, coming to the standard explanation of yena sarvam idam tatam, which interprets this phrase to mean that the soul pervades the body through consciousness. Baladeva Vidyābhūṣaṇa elaborates on this in his Govinda Bhāṣya commentary. He explains that the soul has two characteristics — jñānasvarūpa and jñānarūpa — or to use less technical terms, the ātma and the chetanā. The ātma is the soul, and chetanā is the consciousness. The scriptures sometimes describe the soul as unchangeable, which is what Kṛṣṇa also affirms in the Bhagavad-gītā. For instance, He describes the soul as avikāryo ’yam (unchanging, as stated in Bg 2.25).
Yet, it is evident that the soul in one body and the soul in another body experiences different levels of consciousness. Baladeva Vidyābhūṣaṇa explains that while the soul itself does not change, its consciousness can expand or contract. The entire process of Kṛṣṇa consciousness is essentially a journey which involves expanding our consciousness until it becomes fully realized as Kṛṣṇa consciousness.
In this way, the verse emphasizes that the pervasion of consciousness refers, at an immediate level, to the soul’s consciousness extending throughout the body. Whichever body the soul inhabits, it is conscious of that body. For example, even if I sit next to you, I cannot directly sense what is happening in your body unless you inform me or I use some instrument to detect it. However, I can be conscious of my own body to a significant extent. Even so, I am not entirely conscious of my body. This limitation further demonstrates that we are not the omniscient Supersoul (Paramātmā), who pervades and is conscious of everything. We are not conscious of everything within our own body, let alone the bodies of others.
We may not directly perceive the soul, but we can perceive it through its symptom—consciousness. Consciousness is the defining characteristic of the soul. As long as consciousness is present, we understand that the soul is present. Consciousness pervades the entire body, serving as the indicator of the soul’s presence.
Just as the presence of the sun in the sky is evident through sunlight, the presence of the soul in the body is evident through consciousness. Consciousness cannot be adequately explained in material terms; it must be attributed to something non-material and spiritual—the soul.
In this way, this verse can also serve as scriptural evidence pointing to the non-material origin of consciousness, rooted in the soul.
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