BG 2.17
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Devanagari
अविनाशि तु तद्विद्धि येन सर्वमिदं ततम् ।
विनाशमव्ययस्यास्य न कश्चित्कर्तुमर्हति ॥ १७ ॥
Verse text
avināśi tu tad viddhi
yena sarvam idaṁ tatam
vināśam avyayasyāsya
na kaścit kartum arhati
Synonyms
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.
Translation (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)
17. Know that the soul by which the body is pervaded is indestructible. No one can destroy that which indestructible.
Translation (Baladeva Vidyabhusana)
17. Know that it is indestructible. By it the body is pervaded. No one can destroy that which indestructible.
Purport
This verse more clearly explains the real nature of the soul, which is spread all over the body. Anyone can understand what is spread all over the body: it is consciousness. Everyone is conscious of the pains and pleasures of the body in part or as a whole. This spreading of consciousness is limited within one’s own body. The pains and pleasures of one body are unknown to another. Therefore, each and every body is the embodiment of an individual soul, and the symptom of the soul’s presence is perceived as individual consciousness. This soul is described as one ten-thousandth part of the upper portion of the hair point in size. The Śvetāśvatara Upaniṣad (5.9) confirms this:
bālāgra-śata-bhāgasya śatadhā kalpitasya ca bhāgo jīvaḥ sa vijṣeyaḥ sa cānantyāya kalpate
“When the upper point of a hair is divided into one hundred parts and again each of such parts is further divided into one hundred parts, each such part is the measurement of the dimension of the spirit soul.” Similarly the same version is stated:
keśāgra-śata-bhāgasya śatāṁśaḥ sādṛśātmakaḥ jīvaḥ sūkṣma-svarūpo ’yaṁ saṅkhyātīto hi cit-kaṇaḥ
“There are innumerable particles of spiritual atoms, which are measured as one ten-thousandth of the upper portion of the hair.”
Therefore, the individual particle of spirit soul is a spiritual atom smaller than the material atoms, and such atoms are innumerable. This very small spiritual spark is the basic principle of the material body, and the influence of such a spiritual spark is spread all over the body as the influence of the active principle of some medicine spreads throughout the body. This current of the spirit soul is felt all over the body as consciousness, and that is the proof of the presence of the soul. Any layman can understand that the material body minus consciousness is a dead body, and this consciousness cannot be revived in the body by any means of material administration. Therefore, consciousness is not due to any amount of material combination, but to the spirit soul. In the Muṇḍaka Upaniṣad (3.1.9) the measurement of the atomic spirit soul is further explained:
eṣo ’ṇur ātmā cetasā veditavyo yasmin prāṇaḥ paṣcadhā saṁviveśa prāṇaiś cittaṁ sarvam otaṁ prajānāṁ yasmin viśuddhe vibhavaty eṣa ātmā
“The soul is atomic in size and can be perceived by perfect intelligence. This atomic soul is floating in the five kinds of air ( prāṇa, apāna, vyāna, samāna and udāna ), is situated within the heart, and spreads its influence all over the body of the embodied living entities. When the soul is purified from the contamination of the five kinds of material air, its spiritual influence is exhibited.”
The haṭha-yoga system is meant for controlling the five kinds of air encircling the pure soul by different kinds of sitting postures – not for any material profit, but for liberation of the minute soul from the entanglement of the material atmosphere.
So the constitution of the atomic soul is admitted in all Vedic literatures, and it is also actually felt in the practical experience of any sane man. Only the insane man can think of this atomic soul as all-pervading viṣṇu-tattva.
The influence of the atomic soul can be spread all over a particular body. According to the Muṇḍaka Upaniṣad, this atomic soul is situated in the heart of every living entity, and because the measurement of the atomic soul is beyond the power of appreciation of the material scientists, some of them assert foolishly that there is no soul. The individual atomic soul is definitely there in the heart along with the Supersoul, and thus all the energies of bodily movement are emanating from this part of the body. The corpuscles which carry the oxygen from the lungs gather energy from the soul. When the soul passes away from this position, the activity of the blood, generating fusion, ceases. Medical science accepts the importance of the red corpuscles, but it cannot ascertain that the source of the energy is the soul. Medical science, however, does admit that the heart is the seat of all energies of the body.
Such atomic particles of the spirit whole are compared to the sunshine molecules. In the sunshine there are innumerable radiant molecules. Similarly, the fragmental parts of the Supreme Lord are atomic sparks of the rays of the Supreme Lord, called by the name prabhā, or superior energy. So whether one follows Vedic knowledge or modern science, one cannot deny the existence of the spirit soul in the body, and the science of the soul is explicitly described in the Bhagavad-gītā by the Personality of Godhead Himself.
Purport (Visvanatha Cakravarti Thakura)
This verse clarifies the meaning of the previous verse. “Know this jīva (tat) which is spread throughout the body (sarvam idam tatam) is indestructible.”
“But, being spread throughout the body by its consciousness, this soul would be impermanent because it is of medium size only (being the size of the body). [Note: In Nyāya philosophy there are three sizes: minute (paramāṇu or atoms), medium size (combination of atoms), and all pervading. A medium size object, being made of the combination of atoms, is subject to destruction and therefore cannot be eternal.]”
This is not so, for the Lord says, sūkṣmānām apy ahaṁ jīvaḥ: of small things I am the jīva”. (SB 11.16.11) As well, śruti says:
eṣo ’ṇur ātmā cetasā veditavyo yasmin prāṇaḥ paṣcadhā saṁviveśa
One should know by the pure consciousness the small ātmā near which the five life airs rest. Muṇḍaka Upaniṣad 3.1.9
bālāgra-śata-bhāgasya śatadhā kalpitasya ca bhāgo jīvaḥ sa vijṣeyaḥ
One should know that the jīva is the size of one ten thousandth of the tip of the hair. Śvetāśvatara Upaniṣad 5.9
ārāgra-mātro hy aparo ’pi dṛṣṭaḥ
The inferior soul is seen to be the size of the tip of a spoke. Śvetāśvatara Upaniṣad 5.8
By these statements of śruti we understand that the jīva is very small. It has the power to spread itself throughout the whole body, just as pulverized gems or herbs when applied to the head have the power to spread their nourishing influence throughout the whole body. There is nothing contradictory in being small and pervading the body.
Because of its dependence on upādhis (mistaken identity), the soul goes to various bodies in heaven and hell. In this way the soul is sarva-gataḥ, going everywhere (pervading everywhere). [Note: This is another meaning of sarvam idaṁ tatam. The jīvas are spread throughout the universe in different bodies.] Dattātreya (in the form of the avadhūta brāḥmana) says how the jīva, taking shelter of the mahat-tattva at the beginning of creation, goes to different bodies:
tām āhus tri-guṇa-vyaktiṁ sṛjantīṁ viśvato-mukham
yasmin protam idaṁ viśvaṁ yena saṁsarate pumān
According to great sages, that which is the basis of the three modes of material nature and which manifests the variegated universe is called the sūtra or mahat-tattva. Indeed, this universe is resting within that mahat-tattva, and due to its potency the living entity undergoes material existence. SB 11.9.20
Thus the soul’s pervasion of the body (and still being minute) is not contrary to its eternal nature stated in the previous verse. Therefore the word avyayasya is used in this verse also. It refers to the soul being eternal or nitya. No one can destroy the eternal soul. As the śruti says:
nityo nityānāṁ cetanaś cetanānām eko bahūnāṁ yo vidadhāti kāmān
The Lord is the chief eternal among all eternals (souls). He is the chief conscious entity among all conscious entities. He is the one person who fulfills the needs of all others. Śvetāśvatara Upaniṣad 6.13
Or the meaning of the verse can be as follows.
The body, the jīva and the Paramātmā are all seen everywhere in all forms such as human and animal. The first two, the body and jīva, were mentioned in the previous verse. The third, Paramātmā is mentioned in this verse. It is indestructible and spread everywhere in the universe (idam) [Note: In the first interpretation idam referred to the body. Here it refers to the universe.]. The word tu serves to distinguish Paramātmā from the body and jīva. The Paramātmā is by its very nature different from matter and the jīva.
Purport (Baladeva Vidyabhusana)
The Lord further explains the nature of the body and jīvātmā just discussed, in two more verses. Know that the substance known as jīvātmā is eternal (avināśi). This whole body (idam sarvam) is pervaded by this soul: the body is pervaded by the ātmā’s consciousness, its capacity to know objects beyond itself (dharma bhūta jṣāna) [Note: This is a term used by Rāmānuja, indicating that the jīva has the ability to know objects other than itself as well as having self-knowledge. Impersonalists argue that Brahman is pure consciousness without knowledge of itself or anything else.] (including the body). No gross object, and not even the body of a living entity, can destroy (vināśam) that jīva which is indestructible (avyayasya), because it has very small size. It is not accepted that the jīva is the same size as the material body. [Note: This is the Jain theory.] That it is very small is understood from śruti statements such as the following:
eṣo’ṇur ātmā cetasā veditavyo yasmin prāṇaḥ paṣcadhā saṁviveśa
This small ātmā, on which five prāṇas rest, is to be known by the consciousness. Muṇḍaka Upaniṣad 3.1.9
However, the infinitesimal jīva’s spreads throughout the body through its capacity to know objects other than itself (dharma bhūta jṣāna). Thus the Lord, as the author of Vedānta Sūtras, says: guṇād vālokavad: the soul is pervasive like light. (Vedānta Sūtra 2.3.26) In the Gīta also the Lord says yathā prakāśayaty ekaḥ: just as one sun lights up the whole world, this ātmā illumines the whole body, O descendent of Bharata. (BG 13.33)
Surrender Unto Me
And then to explain the point that the material body is temporary and doesn't factually exists, Krsna explains: