Letter # 80: "Contradiction"

Blaise Pascal didn't condemn contradiction; he embraced it. A French child prodigy, and later a first class mathematician and physicist, he died at 39 years of age (1623-1662), leaving a monumental legacy in mathematics. Eight years before his death, he had a mystical experience. He wrote, “Contradiction is not a sign of falsity, nor the lack of contradiction a sign of truth."
About five thousand years before Pascal, the Indian sage Vyasa documented the Vedas, and left a stunning legacy of spiritual philosophy in the form of the Bhagavat Purana, also known as the Srimad Bhagavatum. This is what that sacred text says about contradiction.
“Na hi voradha ubhayam …” which verse, when translated in the full, means: “O Supreme Personality of Godhead, all contradictions can be reconciled in You. O Lord, since you are the Supreme Person, the reservoir of unlimited spiritual qualities, the supreme controller, Your unlimited glories are inconceivable to the conditioned souls. Modern theologians argue about right and wrong without actually knowing what is right. Their arguments are always false and their judgments are inconclusive because they have no authorized evidence with which to gain knowledge of You. Because their minds are agitated by scriptures containing false conclusions, they are unable to understand the truth concerning You. Furthermore, because of polluted eagerness to arrive at the right conclusion, their theories are incapable of revealing You, who are transcendental to their material conception. You are one without a second, and therefore in You contradictions like doing and not doing, happiness and distress, are not contradictory. Your potency is so great that it can do or undo anything, as You like. With the help of that potency, what is impossible for You? Since there is no duality in Your constitutional position, you can do everything by the influence of Your energy.” [SB C6:9:36]
Srila Prabhupada explains, “Such freedom from duality applies not only to the Lord but also to His devotees … There is no question of material pains and pleasures for either the Supreme Personality of Godhead or His pure devotees, although they are sometimes superficially said to be distressed or happy. One who is atmarama (lit. blissful soul) is blissful both ways … The Supreme Lord and His form, name, pastimes and paraphernalia are inconceivable to non-devotees, and one should not try to understand such realities by logical arguments. They will not bring one to the right conclusion about the Absolute Truth.”

God Bless; Allah Hu Akbar; May The Forces Of The Universe Bring You Harmony; Hare Krishna; Radha-Swami; and Nanak Naam Chardi Kala Tere Bhane Sarbat Dha Bhalla.

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Jas Bhopal
Copyright© 2008References: "The Holy Bible" Online version; "The Koran" as translated by SV Mir Ahmed Ali 2005 ISBN 0-9761870-0-0); "The Bhagavad Gita As it Is" as translated by Srila Prabhupada ISBN 0-89213-268-X; The Srimad Bhagavatum as translated by Srila Prabhupada ISBN0-89213-259-0; "I Am That. Talks With Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj” ISBN 0-89386-022-0; The Dhammapada ISBN-10:1-84483-344-5; The Sacred Sukhmani ISBN 81-7205-098-4; Wikipedia.