[ad_1]
J. Robert Oppenheimer: “I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.”
[ad_2]
View Reddit by rawj5561 – View Source
[ad_1]
J. Robert Oppenheimer: “I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.”
[ad_2]
View Reddit by rawj5561 – View Source
The Joe Rogan Classic Hit
Interesting guy. One of the reasons I read the Bhagavad Gita
I can’t imagine the guilt those people felt. Having created the weapon responsible for over 110000 deaths.
The Pashupatastra is an irresistible and most destructive personal weapon of Shiva, Kali and Adi Para Shakti, which can be discharged by the mind, the eyes, words, or a bow. Never to be used against lesser enemies or by lesser warriors, the Pashupatastra is capable of destroying creation and vanquishing all beings. Pashupatastra is the most destructive, powerful, irresistible weapon mentioned in the Hindu mythology. In Mahabharata, only Arjuna; and in Ramayana, sage Vishvamitra and Rama possessed Pashupatastra. It is one of the six Mantramukta weapons that cannot be resisted.
*O thou of mighty arms, that weapon is superior to the Brahma, the Narayana, the Aindra, the Agneya, and the Varuna weapons. Verily, it is capable of neutralising every other weapon in the universe. It was with that weapon that the illustrious Mahadeva had in days of yore, burnt and consumed in a moment the triple city of the Asuras. With the greatest ease, O Govinda, Mahadeva, using that single arrow, achieved that feat. That weapon, shot by Mahadeva’s arms, can, without doubt consume in half the time taken up by a twinkling of the eyes the entire universe with all its mobile and immobile creatures. In the universe there is no being including Brahma, Vishnu and the Goddess Lakshmi, Parvati, Sarasvati that are incapable of being slain by that weapon.*
Probably off topic but what is up with the syntax of this phrase? I’ve always heard it throughout my life but have never heard anyone else say “I am become…”
“oopsy daisy!”
This went hard on that first leaked comic con trailer for godzilla (that was never ‘officially’ released)
The nuclear bombs are horrible, it was the invention of man at a time when death and victory was in the hearts of man. While the nuclear bomb dropped was a heinous act of an immature humanity still unable to make his inner world at peace. I also recognize that the Bomb, only made the business of killing a bit easier. By the time the Bomb dropped, fire bombing of Tokyo and other cities killed more people indiscriminately than the Bomb did. Over 60 million had already been killed in the most brutal war the world had ever known, and such a morbid feat was accomplished without the Bomb. If I had a look at the situation through deeply tinted glasses, The majority people of Nagasaki and Hiroshima likely died better a quicker than those of fire bombed Tokyo. Rationalization doesn’t indicate its rightness. The nuclear bomb was an inevitable discovery, its use, a product of immaturity, Its existence, a reminder of man need to wake up from our collective nightmare.
Intelligent enough to create it, not wise enough to realise they shouldn’t
he clearly knows what he’s created, I can’t imagine the mental horror of being “the father of atomic bombs,”
Yet the world became safer and we now live in the most peaceful time humanity has ever known. Even very intelligent people can be completely wrong about human nature.
I wonder if they’ll recreate this with Cillian Murphy in the upcoming Christopher Nolan movie about Oppenheimer.
My understanding is that the quote is taken out of context of the story and it may not mean what it appears to mean on the surface, though Oppenheimer seems to have purposely muddied the meaning.
Oppenheimer studied the Bhagavad Gita extensively, so he knew the deeper ideas behind the story intimately. In the parable, Krishna is attempting to convince Arjuna to join battle. Arjuna initially refuses, as he is friends and acquainted with those he must kill in battle.
Krishna impresses on Arjuna the idea of dharma, which is the Hindu idea that all people are placed on earth to perform a responsibility even if they don’t want to.
To further convince Arjuna, Krishna changes forms and demonstrates the overall oneness of the universe and cyclical nature of time. Krishna states, more properly translated, “I am become *time*, destroyer of worlds”.
Given that Oppenheimer is quoting Krishna in the first person, we assume Oppenheimer is comparing himself to Krishna. But a deeper interpretation, given Oppenheimer’s deep studying of the gita, is that Oppenheimer is actually comparing himself to Arjuna not Krishna. That is, Oppenheimer helped created Atomic Weapons not because he wanted to but because of dharma. And further, that time destroys all things and people eventually so Oppenheimer/Arjuna joining battle is not the right/wrong moral choice that we impulsively think it to be.
Also, given that most atomic physicists thought that nuclear weapons were theoretically possible and it was just a question of who and when they would be developed, we are again reminded of the ideas of fate, dharma, and the inevitable destruction caused by time.
Given all this, were the Trinity project atomic physicists gods or mere mortals performing dharma?
As an aside, Oppenheimer said that Kenneth Bainbridge’s quote was the best thing anyone said after the successful atomic test. Bainbridge simply said, “Now we are all sons of bitches.”
JRO
[obligatory](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H8K4rl2uvuA)
You didn’t think that this might be a repost??