Robert Oppenheimer
on the Gita
Kees Boukema
“Batter my heart, three person’d God.”
This is the first line of a sonnet by John Donne, poet and Anglican clergyman (1572 – 1631). Just before his death, he did not pray for mercy and not for forgiveness of his sins, but for a harsh deliverance from evil that had a hold on him. As a city, usurpt by God’s enemy (the devil) Donne prayed: ‘Overthrow me, and bend your force, to break, blow, burn and make me new. Take me to you, imprison me. I never shall be free, nor ever chast, except you ravish me.’
The American composer John Adams used the text of this poem for an aria in his opera “Doctor Atomic” (2005). An opera dedicated to the atomic scientist Robert Oppenheimer (1905–1967). The tenor in the role of Oppenheimer sings the aria “Batter my heart” when the first atomic bomb is tested. John Adams knew that Oppenheimer knew this poem by heart. Was Oppenheimer, as ‘father of the atomic bomb’, really a scientist tormented by regret and remorse? Like the Swedish chemist, inventor of the method for controlled explosion of nitroglycerin: Alfred Nobèl (1833 – 1896)?
The American physicist Robert Oppenheimer said in the 1965 NBC documentary “The decision to drop
the Bomb” that he on July 16, 1945, as scientific director of the Los Alamos Laboratory, together with
General Groves, commanding officer of the ‘Manhattan Project’, had observed the effect of the first atomic
bomb test, a gigantic dazzling cloud of fire, and was then confronted for the first time with the enormous
destructive power of his invention. At that moment, however, he did not remember John Donne’s sonnet,
but the words of Krishna in the Bhagavad Gita: “Now I am becoming Death, the destroyer of worlds.”
“We knew then,” said Oppenheimer, “that the world would never be the same. Some people laughed,
others cried. Most people were silent. I remembered the line from the Hindu scripture, the Bhagavad-Gita.
Vishnu, a principal Hindu deity, is trying to persuade the prince that he should do his duty. And to impress
him, He takes on his multi-armed form and says : ‘Now I have become death, the destroyer of the worlds.’
(….) I suppose we all thought that, one way or another.” (YouTube – Oppenheimer Bhagavad-Gita
Quote.). In his biopic “Oppenheimer,” director Christopher Nolan depicted this episode.
In the passage of the Bhagavad Gita to which Oppenheimer refers, Arjuna was able to view the divine
form of Krishna. A terrifying vision in which a thousand suns suddenly appeared simultaneously in the
sky and the entire universe was destroyed within the body of God.
In the Chandi, a sacred scripture of the Hindus, Durga, the Divine Mother, is described as the Ultimate Reality, where neither time nor space exists. Sri Ramakrishna was once asked: “It is written in the Chandi that the Divine Mother kills all beings. What does that mean?” Ramakrishna replied: “This is all Her lila. Her sportive pleasure. That question used to bother me too. Later I found out that all is maya. Both creation and destruction are God’s maya.” (The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, p. 768).
In the cosmology of the Gita, this does not mean the final end of the world, but the beginning of a new cycle. The destroyed world contains the seed of the next creation. In his film ‘Oppenheimer’, Nolan incorporated this perspective in a scene in which Oppenheimer quotes the words of Krishna again, but now during an intimate moment with his beloved.
After seeing this vision, Arjuna shudders with horror. He bows deeply and says: “Nãmastu tẽ, devavara. prasĩda”. [Greetings Almighty God. Have mercy on me.] ‘Who are you, because I do not know your motives?’. Krishna replies: “I am Time (Kala) who devastate the world and destroys humanity here. Even without you, your opponents will not escape death. Therefore, stand up, command respect and defeat your enemies. They have been killed by Me before; you are only the instrument.”
Arjuna feels joy in his heart, but also fear. He asks Krishna to resume his former form. Then Krishna says:
“Do not be disturbed by what you have seen. Cast away fear, let your heart rejoice, and behold Me again
in the form familiar to you.” (Bhagavad Gita Ch. 11).
By referring to this passage in the Gita, Oppenheimer creates the impression that he was not only fully aware of the gigantic destructive power of the atomic bomb he developed, but that he was also convinced that, with his part in the creation of this weapon of mass destruction, had done what he was obliged to do. It was his ‘dharma’. In various interviews with journalists, he always made a sharp distinction between his duty to develop the atomic bomb and the duty of the American government to decide when and where the nuclear weapon would be deployed. After the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on August 6 and 9, 1945, the question of the justification for the use of nuclear weapons continued to preoccupy Oppenheimer. During a visit to President Truman, the man who ordered the use of the atomic weapon, Oppenheimer said: “Mr. President, I have blood on my hands.”
To that, Truman replied sharply: “Hiroshima isn’t about you.” (*) Oppenheimer may have then remembered what Krishna taught about ‘karma yoga’: “You have the right to work, but for the work’s sake only. You have no right to the fruits of work […]. Perform every action with your heart fixed on the Supreme Lord. Renounce attachment to the fruits […..]
To unite the heart with Brahman and then to act: That is the secret of non-attached work.” (Bhagavad Gita, 2:47ff.). In the years that followed, Oppenheimer has made himself known as a convinced pacifist and a fervent opponent of the spread of nuclear weapons, but without ever expressing any regret for his part in the development of this weapon.
From the perspective of ‘dharma’, the American writer and physician Alok A. Khorana sees no
contradiction in this. After the war, Oppenheimer was no longer a warrior. He was a citizen of this planet. His dharma, he recognized, had changed. He would continue to follow it (‘How J. Robert Oppenheimer was influenced by the Bhagavad Gita.’, Literary Hub, July 10, 2023).
(*) For the controversial decision to use the atomic bomb, see: J.S. Walker: ‘Prompt and Utter Destruction: Truman and the Decision to Use the Bombs Against Japan’ (University of North Carolina Press, 1997).
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