Who was Oppenheimer? What was his link to Hinduism?

Christopher Nolan’s much-awaited new film Oppenheimer opens on Friday. The blockbuster, starring Cillian Murphy, Emily Blunt, Robert Downey Jr and Matt Damon, traces the rise of American theoretical physicist J Robert Oppenheimer – the man who oversaw the creation of the atomic bomb during World War II as part of the Manhattan Project. But who was the man known as the ‘father of the atomic bomb?’ And what was his connection to Hinduism? Who was he? Early years As per Britannica, Oppenheimer was born on 22 April,1904 in New York. His father was a German immigrant who made money in the textile business His family, German-American Jews, had links to Felix Adler’s Society for Ethical Culture. As a boy, Oppenheimer attended the society’s school in New York – where his father was on the board of directors. The school abandoned the spiritual and supernatural aspects propagated by religion, and rather focused on teaching students the importance of human welfare based on rationality and moral principles. It also provided quality training in science and literature.

Oppenheimer did his undergraduate studies from Harvard University, as per Britannica.

Here, he aced  Latin, Greek, physics, and chemistry, published poetry, and even studied Eastern philosophy. Oppenheimer graduated from Harvard with a major in Chemistry. He then went to English to study at the Cavendish Lab at Cambridge University. It was here that Oppenheimer first worked with British scientists in the field of atomic research. Oppenheimer was then invited by Max Born to the University of Göttingen – from which he received his doctorate in 1927. Oppenheimer then returned to the United States to teach physics at Berkley. The bomb Oppenheimer had been following the rise of Adolf Hitler in Germany with unease. While Albert Einstein and other scientists warned the US government of the dangers of the Nazis developing the bomb first, Washington was slow to act. It was only in 1942 that the US government finally appointed Oppenheimer as well as other prominent scientists to look into developing nuclear weapons. Oppenheimer headed up the secret Los Alamos Laboratory, established under President Franklin D Roosevelt as part of the Manhattan Project to build the first atomic bomb. He oversaw the first atomic bomb detonation in the New Mexico desert, code-named “Trinity”, before the weapons were used in the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. [caption id=“attachment_12883182” align=“alignnone” width=“640”] The August 9, 1945, bombing in the Japanese city of Nagasaki came three days after the United States dropped its first atomic bomb on Hiroshima. News18[/caption] However, Oppenheimer’s views changed after the successful test and the deployment of the weapon.

Oppenheimer in 1945 told President Truman about the bombings, “I feel I have blood on my hands.”

To which the president responded, “I told him the blood was on my hands – to let me worry about that.” Soon, Oppenheimer became an ardent supporter of pacifism and began speaking out. However, there would be one last tragic twist in the tale. During the Red Scare in America led by Senator Joe McCarthy, Oppenheimer was accused of having communist sympathies. His security clearance was revoked following a four-week, closed-door hearing. Ironically, some argue Oppenheimer was picked to head up the Manhattan Project because of his dubious background. As David Cassidy, a physicist and historian emeritus at Hofstra University, told Science.Org, " [Lt. Gen. Leslie] Groves picked him specifically. First of all, because of Oppenheimer’s grasp of the physics and his ability to explain it to him. Also, because Oppenheimer was highly respected by the other physicists. But the main reason was Groves knew that Oppenheimer would be permanently vulnerable because of his political associations. Groves suppressed a lot of the security agents’ reports on him and said, “I want this man for the job.” So, Oppenheimer knew he was there only because he was under Groves’s protection.” Oppenheimer passed away in 1967. Interestingly, the Biden administration in December reversed the decision to revoke his security clearance. US energy secretary Jennifer Granholm said the 1954 decision by the Atomic Energy Commission was made using a “flawed process” that violated the commission’s own regulations. “As time has passed, more evidence has come to light of the bias and unfairness of the process that Dr. Oppenheimer was subjected to while the evidence of his loyalty and love of country have only been further affirmed,” Granholm added. What was his connection to Hinduism? Oppenheimer had an interest in Hinduism – particularly the Bhagavad Gita. While Oppenheimer was never an adherent of Hinduism, he was entranced by the Bhagavad Gita which he called “the most beautiful philosophical song existing in any known tongue.” As per BBC, Oppenheimer first discovered the book in the early 1930s and even learned Sanskrit in order to be able to read its untranslated version.

In a letter to his brother in 1932, Oppenheimer cited the Gita.

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“I believe that through discipline… we can achieve serenity… I believe that through discipline we learn to preserve what is essential to our happiness in more and more adverse circumstances… Therefore I think that all things which evoke discipline: study, and our duties to men and to the commonwealth, war… ought to be greeted by us with profound gratitude; for only through them can we attain to the least detachment; and only so can we know peace.” Oppenheimer used the Bhagavad Gita as a means of understanding his own life and his actions. He kept a well-worn copy of the Bhagavad Gita close by his desk, and even distributed copies among his friends, including once at the memorial service of president Franklin D Roosevelt. Throughout his career, he made several references to the Bhagavad Gita. None more famous than the quote “now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds” which he said came to mind in the aftermath of the Atomic bomb test. The Gita continued to influence Oppenheimer even later in life. When asked which books influenced his “philosophy of life”, Oppenheimer listed the Gita alongside Eliot’s ‘The Waste Land’, which was itself inspired by the Upanishads, and Shakespeare’s ‘Hamlet’, among the ten books that most shaped his life. “We knew the world would not be the same…few people laughed…few cried…most people were silent…I remembered the line from the Hindu scripture the Bhagavad Gita…Vishnu is trying to persuade the prince that he should do his duty and to impress him, takes on his multi-armed form and says, now ‘I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds’,” Oppenheimer recalled in the 1965 NBC news documentary The Decision to Drop the Bomb. Interestingly, Murphy, the star of the movie, also read the Bhagavad Gita in preparation for his role. “I did read the Bhagavad Gita in preparation, and I thought it was an absolutely beautiful text, very inspiring. I think it was a consolation to him, he kind of needed it and it provided him a lot of consolation, all his life,” Murphy said. With inputs from agencies