![Pinterest](https://pinterest.com/pin/create/button/?url=https://uknews.evprotec.com/how-a-hindu-holy-book-influenced-oppenheimer/&media=https://uknews.evprotec.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/130499231_gettyimages-545021299-594x594-1.jpg&description=By Soutik Biswas India correspondent Image source, Getty Images Image caption, Robert Oppenheimer had a leading role in developing the atomic bomb, changing the course of World War II 8 hours ago Oppenheimer, Christopher Nolan's sweeping new biographical thriller about the "father of the atomic bomb", has opened to a glowing reception around the world. In India, it's been a hit too but some have protested against a scene depicting the scientist reading the Bhagavad Gita, one of Hinduism's holiest books, after sex. Oppenheimer learnt the ancient Sanskrit language and counted the book as one of his favourites. In July 1945, two days before the explosion of the first atomic bomb in the New Mexico desert, Robert Oppenheimer recited a stanza from the Bhagavad Gita , or The Lord's Song. Oppenheimer, a theoretical physicist, had been introduced to Sanskrit, the ancient Indian language, and subsequently the Gita, as a teacher in Berkeley years before. The 2,000-year-old Bhagavad Gita is part of the Mahabharata - one of Hinduism's greatest epics - and at 700 verses, the world's longest poem. Now, hours before an event that would change history, the "father of the atomic bomb" relieved his tension by reciting a stanza he had translated from Sanskrit: In battle, in forest, at the precipice of the mountains On the dark great sea, in the midst of javelins and arrows, In sleep, in confusion, in the depths of shame, The good deeds a man has done before defend him Image source, Getty Images Image caption, Oppenheimer with Albert Einstein in an undated picture As Kai Bird and Martin J Sherwin write in their authoritative 2005 biography American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J Robert Oppenheimer, a young Oppenheimer was introduced to Sanskrit by Arthur W Ryder, a professor of Sanskrit at the University of California, Berkeley. The precocious physicist had arrived there as a 25-year-old assistant professor. Over the next few decades, he helped build one of the "greatest schoo){kind=link}
Oppenheimer, Christopher Nolan’s sweeping new biographical thriller about the “father of the atomic bomb”, has opened to a glowing reception around the world. In India, it’s been a hit too but some have protested against a scene depicting the scientist reading the Bhagavad Gita, one of Hinduism’s holiest books, after sex. Oppenheimer learnt the ancient Sanskrit language and counted the book as one of his favourites.
In July 1945, two days before the explosion of the first atomic bomb in the New Mexico desert, Robert Oppenheimer recited a stanza from the Bhagavad Gita, or The Lord’s Song.
Oppenheimer, a theoretical physicist, had been introduced to Sanskrit, the ancient Indian language, and subsequently the Gita, as a teacher in Berkeley years before. The 2,000-year-old Bhagavad Gita is part of the Mahabharata – one of Hinduism’s greatest epics – and at 700 verses, the world’s longest poem.
Now, hours before an event that would change history, the “father of the atomic bomb” relieved his tension by reciting a stanza he had translated from Sanskrit:
In battle, in forest, at the precipice of the mountains