Bhagavad Gītā Chapter 2, Verse 17: Krishna to Arjuna — Sāṅkhya-Yoga

Bhāṣyakāra purports

• Śaṅkaraadvaita

  Know that as indestructible by which all this world is pervaded — Brahman named Sat permeates every object as space permeates a pot, present in each yet untouched by it. This Brahman is avyaya (undiminishing): it neither increases nor decreases, having no parts as a body has, and owning nothing that could be lost as a man loses his wealth. Therefore no one — not even Īśvara — can bring about its destruction, for no act can operate on the ātman within the ātman itself.

  divergence: येन सर्वम् इदं जगत् ततं व्याप्तं सदाख्येन ब्रह्मणा साकाशम् आकाशेनेव घटादयः — the world is pervaded by Brahman named Sat, as pots are pervaded by space

• Rāmānujaviśiṣṭādvaita

  Know this ātman — the conscious reality — as indestructible: it is the very ātman by whose pervasive presence all insentient matter, everything other than itself, is sustained and spread through. Because the ātman is supremely subtle and all-pervading, nothing external to it — sword, water, fire, wind — can touch it, for every such agent destroys only by first penetrating and loosening what it attacks, and nothing can penetrate what already pervades it. The body, by contrast, is inherently destructible precisely because it is coarser than, and contained within, this all-pervading consciousness.

  divergence: येन आत्मतत्त्वेन चेतनेन तद्व्यतिरिक्तम् इदम् अचेतनतत्त्वं सर्वं ततं व्याप्तम् — the conscious ātman pervades all insentient matter distinct from it

• Madhvadvaita

  Whatever is spatially boundless is necessarily eternal — this is the rule. Know this ātman as precisely that: indestructible not merely by weapons or elements but even by curse, divine decree, or any power in the created order. It is avyaya, undiminishing, because no external agent — however potent — has jurisdiction over what is by nature infinite. The jīva (individual soul) is eternally distinct from Hari, yet eternally dependent; its indestructibility is real, not a feature of identity with Brahman.

  divergence: यद्देशतोऽनन्तं तन्नित्यमेव — what is infinite in extent is necessarily eternal; नापि शापादिना विनाश — nor can a curse or any such agent destroy it

• Vallabhaśuddhādvaita

  Know this ātman-substance as indestructible — understand it with full immediacy. It pervades this entire universe: body, world, all of it; even what appears unreal, even what appears to be in the act of perishing, is spoken of as real precisely because this indestructible reality has spread through it. No person, no weapon, no fire can produce the disappearance of what is imperishable, because that disappearance would have to land on something, and this avyaya (inexhaustible) leaves nowhere for destruction to take hold.

  divergence: असदपि विनश्यदवस्थमपि सदिति व्यवह्रियते — even the apparently unreal and perishing is spoken of as real by virtue of being pervaded by this ātman-reality

• Śrīdharabhakti

  The previous verses stated the indestructible nature of Sat in general; this verse shows it specifically. The ātman's own form is indestructible — know this — because it pervades all this: bodies and the rest, which by their nature come and go, arise and perish. The ātman pervades them not by being mixed into them but by being their witness, their sākṣin (witness-consciousness). Because no agent can produce the destruction of what is avyaya, no act of weapons or elements can reach it.

  divergence: येन सर्वमिदमागमापायधर्मकं देहादिततं तत्साक्षित्वेन व्याप्तम् — by which all this, having the character of arising and passing away — bodies and their like — is pervaded through its witnessing presence

• Madhusūdanaadvaita-bhakti

  Know as truly indestructible that one Existence-Luminosity (sphuraṇa, self-luminous awareness) — eternal, all-pervading, free from every kind of limitation: spatial, temporal, or substantial. The entire visible world, lacking any intrinsic being or self-luminosity of its own, is pervaded by this one Luminosity through superimposition — as a rope-fragment supports the appearance of a serpent or a stream. This pure sphuraṇa cannot be delimited by any substrate, any object, or any causal condition, for no projected object can impose real boundaries on the unprojectible ground; therefore no one can bring about the destruction — meaning any form of limitation whatsoever — of this boundless, self-manifest, all-threaded Existence.

  divergence: येन सद्रूपेण स्फुरणेनैकेन नित्येन विभुना सर्वमिदं दृश्यजातं स्वतः सत्तास्फूर्तिशून्यं ततं व्याप्तं स्वसत्तास्फूर्त्यध्यासेन रज्जुशकलेनेव सर्पधारादि — as a piece of rope appears as serpent and stream, the entire visible world, itself devoid of intrinsic being and luminosity, is pervaded by the one eternal all-pervasive Luminosity of Existence