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Contradictions and Truths

I love this word oxymoron. Oxymoron is a Greek term which can be translated literally as "sharp-witted absurdity". In present day English, it is a short phrase that appears self-contradictory in a context. Some of the interesting examples are

Deafning silence
Act naturally
Cold sweat
Fuzzy logic
Friendly fire
Agree to disagree

Another word which is similar to this is paradox. Paradox is an apparently true statement that seems to lead to a logical self-contradiction, or to a situation that contradicts common intuition. The identification of a paradox based on seemingly simple and reasonable concepts has often led to significant advances in science, philosophy and mathematics. Following are some interesting examples.

When you increase your knowledge, you see how little you know. You see how much you still have to learn.
God is not all-powerful as he cannot build a wall he cannot jump

My personal view is that the truths of this world are not absolute, but are paradoxes. What I mean to say is truth is nothing but a bunch of contradictions. Simply put, truth lies in contradictions. Couple of years back I happened to read a verse from Bhagavad Gita which hit me real hard. This is a verse told by Krishna to Arjuna.

uddhareth atmanatmanam
natmanam avasadayeth
atmaiva hyatmano bandhu
atmaiva ripuatmanaha

It means "We can elevate ourselves to greatest heights and we can degrade ourselves to lowest depths. We are our own best friend and we are our worst enemy". Observe the contradictions in these four lines and the revealed truth. So true, if we empower ourselves, we can scale greatest of heights and if we disempower ourselves, we can sink in an unfathomable abyss. Let us all elevate ourselves to see how degraded we are. Hey my last sentence was a paradox.

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