Nuclear Weapons and Bhagavad Gita - Robert Oppenheimer’s Quote Still Lingers in US Discussions but This Time It Is for Peace.
Upon witnessing the first atomic bomb explosion, Robert Oppenheimer, the head of the team of scientists who built that first nuclear bomb, recalled a verse from the tenth chapter of the Bhagavad Gita: "Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds." Robert Oppenheimer limited his comment to the first part of the first verse of thirty fourth stanza in the Chapter 10 of Bhagavad Gita. Robert Oppenheimer never mentioned the next words in the same line – I am the Source of things to be. Perhaps he thought human beings only knew how to destroy or did not then realize the peaceful use of nuclear energy. The original Quote from Chapter X म्र्त्युह सर्वह्रास्चाहमुद्भावास्चा भाविश्यतम किर्तिही श्रीवाकिचा नारीणँ स्मृतिँमृधा Mrtyuh sarvahras-ca-ham-udbhavas-ca bhavishyatam Kirtih sririvakca narinam smrtir-medha I am the all-embracing Death, and the Source of things to be, and of Women, the Fame, Fortune, Speech, Memory, Intelligence. (Verse 34) Now in 2