Gita 02.17 – Nothing can destroy the soul because it pervades everything

Of their eternality and the ephemerality. Thank you.

So, here Krishna is continuing his instructions about the eternality of the soul, and he states, avinashitu tadviddhi, that viddhi, know that to be eternal, it's interesting that Krishna has not used the word Atma till now, it's implicit what he's talking about, it's not unclear, but still, it's just that Krishna again uses tad, that to refer to the Atma, avinashitu tadviddhi, yena sarvam idam tatam, by which everything is pervaded, vinasham avyasyasya, vinasham, the destruction, the destruction of the avyaya, that which is imperishable, so actually indestructible and imperishable are synonyms, Krishna is using those synonyms to re-emphasize a particular point, nobody and nothing can actually destroy that soul, so now, this verse, what is it exactly saying, the previous verse said that there is a, there is a something that is eternal, there is something that is non-enduring, and the eternal is truly existent, non-enduring is actually like non-existent, so now, Krishna is focusing on that which is eternal, and he says, avinashi, that which pervades, pervades, avinashi, no, that to be actually indestructible, yena sarvam idam tatam, that which pervades everything, now, what does the sarvam refer to, first point is that sarvam idam tatam, that which pervades, so the characteristic of pervasion of the soul is being mentioned over here, yena, by this sarvam idam, it pervades, now, the impersonalists often refer to, use this to refer to, that this refers to the spirit, the one spirit that pervades all of consciousness, or all of existence rather, now, that could be an interpretation, but then we see that the overall context of discussion is the body and the soul, Krishna has talked about dehi very clearly in 2.13, then he has talked in Matra's version 2.15, and then immediately after this verse, Krishna again talks about deha in antavantai me deha, so sarvam, suddenly to have it referred to as the body of the jagat, is at best uncontextual, or not just uncontextual, it's contra-contextual, it doesn't fit into the context, it actually goes somewhat against the context, so of course, we could say that Krishna has generalized in the previous verse, when he has stated that, actually, when Krishna states that na sattva, that of the eternal there is no sasi, of the existence there is no sasi, of the non-existent there is no interference, but there is no indication that Krishna is necessarily referring to the universe over there, so at the best it is uncontextual, at the worst it is contra-contextual, because the context is clearly about the body, Krishna is concerned about, Arjuna is concerned about the death of his loved ones, and Krishna is helping him to deal with the grief, so there is really not much talk about the universe going on over here, per se, so yena sarvam idam tatam, by which everything is pervaded, vinasham, so he gives the characteristic of the soul as that which pervades everything, everything if it is taken to refer to the body, then it means, the soul which pervades the body, now the soul is localized at one place, but it pervades the body through its energy, through the energy of consciousness, vinasham avyayasyasya, vinasham, the destruction of the avyayasyasya, na kashchit kartu marhate, no one can destroy this indestructible soul, na kashchit, nobody can do so, now interestingly, actually it is, Krishna who talks about, he is talking about the indestructibility of the soul, and he is reassuring Arjuna that actually the, his loved ones will not be destroyed, that na kashchit kartu, you cannot destroy, your astras cannot destroy, even celestial astras cannot destroy that soul, so do not be in anxiety, na kashchit arhati, it is not possible, to destroy that soul, now Manujacharya in his Gita Vashya, gives a very interesting interpretation of this verse, which actually fits into the context quite creatively, quite beautifully, so he says that here what is being talked about is the indestructibility, and that is mentioned in the first verse, avinashita tadviddhi, that know that that soul is indestructible, and then he gives the second line, rather than talking about the soul pervading the body, he says that why the soul is indestructible, that is mentioned in the second line, that is 2.17b talks about, that yena sarvam idam tatam, the soul pervades everything else, so normally one object is destroyed, when another object penetrates into it, pervades it, and by that destroys it, you know a bullet enters into our body, even poisonous gas, it enters into our body, and similarly fire when it burns, it enters into our body, when a person drowns, water enters into the body, so basically earth, water, fire, air, when they destroy, it is because one element pervades into another element, and by pervading that other element, the first element destroys the second element, but the soul is so subtle, that nothing can pervade it, nothing can leave alone pervading it, nothing can even penetrate it, so the soul actually pervades everything else, and because the soul is so subtle, and pervades everything else, and because nothing can pervade the soul. Therefore, Avinashi. So, by this explanation, the idea is that Avinashi is explained by Yena Sarvamidam.

Sarvam here refers neither to the body nor to the universe according to Ramacharya. It refers to the various elements in material existence. And those material elements are incapable of destroying the soul because they can't pervade or penetrate the soul.

It is the soul that pervades them. And therefore, because this is the reason, so no, the soul will be indestructible because it pervades everything. And therefore, because it pervades everything, Vinashyamavyasyasya, that the destruction of this, Nakashchit kartum arhati.

Nobody can do that destruction of the soul. Nakashchit. So, the point here is that generally to destroy a thing, we need an appropriate weapon.

That appropriate weapon is not there. We can't destroy. There is no weapon to destroy the soul.

That's how the soul is indestructible. So, this is now coming back to the point of Yena Sarvamidam tatam. That means now we have three explanations.

One is the Mayavadi explanation, which doesn't really fit the context of that consciousness pervades the whole universe. That the one is the standard explanation which Prabhupada gives that the soul which pervades the body through consciousness. And third is the Ramacharya's explanation that the soul being spiritual and subtle pervades all other material elements.

And that's why it can't be destroyed by any of the other elements. Now, coming to the standard explanation, Yena Sarvamidam tatam, the soul pervades the body through consciousness. So, now, Baladeva Devotion talks about this in his Govinda Bhashya commentary.

And he mentions that actually the soul has two things. There is Jnana Swarupa and Jnana Rupa. Or there is Atma and there is the Chetana.

I will use less technical words. Atma is the soul, Chetana is the consciousness. And in scripture sometimes it is said that the soul is unchanging, soul is unchangeable.

And that's what Krishna will also say, Akshara. Krishna will actually say that Avikaryoya, it doesn't undergo the changes. And yet we know that actually the soul in one body and soul in another body is having different consciousness.

So, what does it mean? He says that, that the soul itself does not change, but its consciousness can change. The whole process of Krishna Consciousness is a process of expanding our consciousness till it admits with the consciousness of, with the cosmic, till it becomes truly expanded consciousness in the form of Krishna Consciousness. So, in this way, the point of the verse is, Vinashyamave syasya nakashchit kartum arhati.

So, the consciousness, the pervasion of the consciousness refers at an immediate level to the pervasion of the body. Now, whichever body the soul enters into, it is conscious of that body. Now, even if I'm sitting next to you, I'm not directly conscious of what happens in your body unless you tell me or unless I have some instrument by which I can sense what is happening in the body.

But I can be conscious of my body to a significant extent. Of course, I'm not conscious of even my body entirely. And that again proves that we are not the omniscient super-soul who pervades everything because we are not conscious of everything in our own body, what to speak of other bodies.

So, now, yena sarvam idam tatam. So, we may not be able to perceive the soul, but we perceive the soul through its symptom consciousness. And consciousness is the defining characteristic of the soul.

As long as the consciousness is present, we understand the soul is present and the consciousness pervades throughout the body and that's how the soul is actually symptomized. Just as sun's presence in the sky is symptomized by sunlight. Similarly, the cold's presence in the body is symptomized by consciousness.

And consciousness is actually materially not explainable. It needs to be attributed back to something non-material, something spiritual. That is the soul.

And so, in that sense, this verse can also be used as a scriptural verse to point to the non-material origin of.