Oppenheimer could not understand Bhagavad Gita? Devdutt Patnaik said – Perhaps that religion was in trouble!
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Renowned writer Devdutt Pattanaik, who has made Indian mythological stories more accessible to the masses through his work, has spoken about physicist J Robert Oppenheimer’s fascination with the Bhagavad Gita in Christopher Nolan’s film ‘Oppenheimer’. Oppenheimer talked about a verse from the Gita after successfully completing the Trinity test, which led him to build the world’s first atomic bomb. Or rather, to prove his point right, he tried to take the help of religion, to wear a cloak. Because even though he had built the world’s first atomic bomb, it had also cost millions of lives.
Oppenheimer’s video went viral
When the test was successfully conducted in New Mexico in 1945, Oppenheimer thought, ‘If the brightness of a thousand suns burst into the sky, it would be like the glory of the mighty… I have become Death, the destroyer of worlds.’ Although he initially celebrated this achievement, as well as the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, he later had a crisis of conscience.
Devdutt was surprised to hear Oppenheimer’s quote
Devdutt Patnaik told The Indian Express that when he came to know what Oppenheimer had quoted from the Gita, he was surprised, because he did not know about this quote at all. He said, ‘I did some research on Oppenheimer and I never came across this line. I had never heard this line. Someone said that it is Chapter 11, Verse 32, which actually says ‘Kaal-Asmi’, which means ‘I am Time, the destroyer of the world’. So his translation itself is wrong. It is not ‘I am death’. This is the time, time is the destroyer of the world.
‘It is not a part of Hindu traditions’
Christopher Nolan and his film ‘Oppenheimer’ are being discussed a lot. There is craze about this film all over the world. The film is scheduled to release on July 21. Obviously, in such a situation, there will be questions in your mind that who is Christopher Nolan, what is there in his films that people are making so much hue and cry. All the answers are here for you.
He further 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.’ It is quite clear, ‘I am time’. ‘Kaal’ means ‘time’. That’s what he’s saying, but of course he gets excited, because he’s seeing massive death and destruction and he’s clearly looking for some sort of spiritual background… He comes from a Judeo-Christian background, where God is known to punish people with flood and fire. This act of killing humanity with violence is a part of biblical traditions, it is not a part of Hindu traditions, not a part of Jain or Buddhist traditions… I think he was looking for some solace and found this poem very dramatic.’
Oppenheimer was in trouble with religion!
Devdutt Pattanayak said that when Oppenheimer took the test he was probably in a ‘Dharma Sankat’ (moral dilemma) and that humanity has a history of varying interpretations of religious texts. Patnaik speculates, ‘perhaps there was an Indian in his team’ who suggested that he should read the Gita, adding that he did not know whether Oppenheimer ever read the text.
Oppenheimer had learned Sanskrit
In fact, Oppenheimer was not only a student of the Gita, but had also read Kalidasa’s Meghdoot. He also learned Sanskrit in order to read these texts in their original form. He is portrayed by Cillian Murphy in the Christopher Nolan film. Murphy also read the Gita as a part of his research, he revealed in an interview.
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