अविनाशि तु तद्विद्धि येन सर्वमिदं ततम्। विनाशमव्ययस्यास्य न कश्चित्कर्तुमर्हति॥
avināśi tu tad viddhi yena sarvam idaṃ tatam / vināśam avyayasyāsya na kaścit kartum arhati
That which pervades everything cannot be destroyed — nothing and no one has the power to end it.
Word by word (4)
- avināśi tu tad viddhi
- — know that to be indestructible · 'Avināśi' — without destruction, indestructible. 'Viddhi' — know! A command: this is something to be known with certainty, not just believed.
- yena sarvam idam tatam
- — by which all this is pervaded · 'Tatam' — spread, pervaded, extended throughout. The Atman (or Brahman) pervades all of manifest existence the way space pervades a room. It is not located in a specific place because it is everywhere.
- vināśam avyayasya asya
- — the destruction of this inexhaustible one
- na kaścit kartum arhati
- — no one is able to bring about / no one can accomplish
'Know that to be indestructible by which all of this is pervaded. No one can bring about the destruction of this inexhaustible, all-pervading Reality.'
A modern analogy
Space cannot be cut with a sword. Water cannot burn. The container for all experience — the awareness that is present in every moment — has no location that can be targeted, no substance that can be destroyed. Krishna is saying: that is what you are.
Take with you
- The Atman 'pervades all this' — it is not a thing among other things but the ground of all things.
- Indestructibility follows from all-pervasion: there is no 'outside' from which a destructive force could come.
- 'Viddhi' — know this. A command to direct knowledge, not belief. The Gita throughout emphasizes direct knowing.
Verse 17 states the Atman's indestructibility with the strongest possible grounds: it pervades everything (yena sarvam idaṃ tatam). What pervades everything cannot be destroyed because destruction requires an agent that is outside the thing being destroyed, and there is nothing outside what pervades everything. This is the Brahmanical argument for the Atman's permanence: not that it is very durable or very strong, but that it is the ground of all existence — the condition of possibility for everything including the would-be destroyer.
Advaita lens
This is one of Advaita Vedānta's foundational declarations: the ātman is avināśi (indestructible) and it pervades all ('yena sarvam idaṃ tatam' = by which all this is spread out). Śaṅkarācārya's commentary is precise: the ātman is not a small entity inside the body but the all-pervasive Consciousness in which the body appears. Nothing can destroy it because there is no second thing that could act upon it—the destroyer would itself be the ātman. This is the metaphysical grounding for all fearless action.
Bhakti lens
In bhakti, this indestructible all-pervader is recognized as Viṣṇu/Nārāyaṇa—'yena sarvam idaṃ tatam' = the Lord as the inner soul of every being and every object. The devotee who meditates on the all-pervading, indestructible Lord finds that love for that Lord is love for the innermost essence of all things. Grief over the loss of any being dissolves when one sees that being as simply one more form of the indestructible Beloved.
Karma-Yoga lens
The karma-yogi acts fearlessly because the indestructible Consciousness cannot be harmed by any action or its result. If the deepest 'I' is avināśi (indestructible) and all-pervading, then no outcome—success or failure, victory or defeat—can truly damage it. This is the metaphysical ground of nishkāma karma: why should one fear results when the real Self cannot be touched by any result? V17's philosophical certainty is the backbone that makes Ch.2 V47's instruction ('your right is to action only') possible to live.
Public-domain translations (4) compare all →
Know that to be indestructible by which all this is pervaded. No one is able to cause the destruction of that which is immutable. [4]
Know that to be indestructible by which all this is pervaded; no one is able to cause the destruction of this imperishable being. [6]
That which is unknown, undying, not to be changed, permeating, inward, subtlest of all — this, and none other, is the soul that shall not die. [7]
But know that to be indestructible which pervades all this; the destruction of that which is imperishable none can bring about. [9]
This verse speaks to
Where this thread continues
Unborn. Undying. Ancient. Eternal. Not slain when the body is slain — this is what you are.
I am the ātman, O Guḍākeśa, seated in the heart of all beings — their beginning, middle, and end.
A blind king asks what happened on the battlefield — and the Gita begins.
You grieve for those who should not be grieved for — and call it wisdom.
The soul does not slay, and cannot be slain — both the slayer and the slain have mistaken the soul for the body.
You've changed your clothes a thousand times — this is all that death is.