2-17

अविनाशि तु तद्विद्धि येन सर्वमिदम् ततम् ।
विनाशम् अव्ययस्य अस्य न कश्चित् कर्तुमर्हति ॥ १७ ॥

avinAzi tu tadviddhi yena sarvamidam tatam |
vinAzam avyayasya asya na kazcit kartumarhati || 17 ||

विद्धि [viddhi] Know that तत् [tat] the Self येन [yena] - by which इदम् सर्वम् [idam sarvam] all this ततम् [tatam] is pervaded अविनाशि [avinAzi] - is indestructible. न कश्चित् [na kazcit] Nothing कर्तुम् अर्हति [kartum arhati] is capable of विनाशम् [vinAzam] destroying अव्ययस्य अस्य [avyayasya asya] the indestructible Self

Know without any doubt, that the Self is indestructible.

The Self is indestructible because it is subtle. It’s not made up of anything else.

The Self is conscious. It pervades all the other stuff that lacks consciousness. Know that this ‘Self’ is indestructible. Since it pervades everything, it is extremely subtle. It cannot be destroyed by anything, due to its pervasiveness.

Things other than the Self are gross. Things that cause destruction, such as weapons, water, fire and air overwhelm only those things that can be destroyed and achieve their decomposition.

For example, a hammer can destroy something when it strikes with speed. It shatters an object by generating shock and vibration within the object. It cannot destroy anything subtle, since there is no material to shatter. An example of something that’s subtle is space- it cannot be destroyed in the way we would destroy an object.

In this way, the Self is indestructible due to its subtle nature.

The following Shloka teaches that our bodies are destructible by their very nature.