Devdutt Patnaik questions Oppenheimer’s understanding of Gita

Mumbai (Best Hindu News): Christopher Nolan’s biopic ‘Oppenheimer’ is doing exceptionally well in Indian theatres. For two weeks (in pre-booking) all its tickets have been sold out, especially in IMAX. However, the film has come under controversy due to a scene in which J.J. Robert Oppenheimer reciting a line from the Bhagavad Gita to Taro while having sex with him.

Due to this, some sections of people who believe in Hinduism are very angry. Mythologist and writer Devdutt Patnaik has said that ‘Oppenheimer’ has wrongly translated the line ‘Kalo’smi Lokakshayakritpravruddha’.

During the Manhattan Project, when he witnessed the first nuclear explosion during the Trinity test, he quoted a verse from the Gita to describe the mushroom cloud and huge firepower he saw, which was used when Arjuna described Krishna upon seeing his full divine form.

The quote reads, “Divi Suryasahasrasya Bhavedyugapadutthita. यदि भाः सद्रिशी स्यादभासस्तस्य महात्मनः। … Kalo’smi Lokakshayakritpravruddha.” What he told his colleagues in Los Alamos, New Mexico in 1945. This line was when Krishna, while describing his divine form to Arjuna, explained to him about his duties, that sometimes one should follow one’s dharma even if it kills them from inside.

Patnaik further said that while researching ‘Oppenheimer’ he was surprised to find this quote as he himself had never seen it in the Gita.

He said, “I had never heard this line. Someone said that it is Adhyay 11, Shloka 32, which actually says ‘Kaal-asmi’, which means ‘I am Time, the destroyer of worlds’. Therefore, his translation itself is wrong. It is not ‘I am death’. It is time, time is the destroyer of the world.

According to him, when J.J. Robert Oppenheimer examined it as “religion crisis (moral dilemma), and he noted that humanity has a history of interpreting religious texts differently.”

He further stated that Oppenheimer came from a Judeo-Christian background, where God is known to destroy humanity with flood and fire.

Continuing, Patnaik said, “For a scientist, if he has used this sentence… and I have also seen his video where he keeps saying, ‘I am death, I am death.’

“This act of killing humanity with violence is a big part of biblical religions, but it has nothing to do with any religious school and is not found in any Sanatana scripture, be it Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism or Sikhism.”

He added, “I think he was looking for some solace and found this poem very dramatic.”

J. Robert Oppenheimer, credited as the ‘father of the atomic bomb’, had a keen interest in Hinduism and classical Sanskrit, reading the Gita in the original Sanskrit. Although he did not turn to Hinduism as a devotee, he was philosophically engaged with it as the Gita helped him to ‘explore the spiritual aspects and mysteries of the great unknown, which lie beyond scientific calculations.’

He also called the Gita ‘the most beautiful philosophical song in existence’ and it influenced him throughout his life, even calling it one of the most important books in his life because it shaped his thinking.

However, despite his knowledge of the Gita, the scientist’s own interpretation has come under scrutiny not only by Devdutt Patnaik, but also by several other researchers, who have stated that he simply interpreted the text and its verses in the way he wanted to.