Jottings - Slice of life - 379 ( The art and secret of excellence in action - musings on the Bhagavad Gita )
Jottings - Slice of life - 379 ( The art and secret of excellence in action - musings on the Bhagavad Gita ) In 1945, When the atomic bomb was detonated in the arid deserts of New Mexico, Robert Oppenheimer’s immediate thought was “ Now I have become Death, the destroyer of worlds” — paraphrasing a haunting verse from the eleventh chapter of the Bhagavad Gita. Oppenheimer was the head of the Manhattan Project, the team of brilliant scientists who worked on creating the atom bomb. Like most scientists, Oppenheimer was drawn towards eastern philosophy for its wisdom and depth of inquiry into the nature of the world. Oppenheimer formally studied Sanskrit in the 1930s and had read the Bhagavad Gita in its original. The Gita touched a deep chord within him. A copy of it lay on his desk all the time, and its verses were a soothing balm to his soul when doubts crept in. The verse he was paraphrasing that fateful day was this: दिवि सूर्यसहस्रस्य भवेद्युगपदुत्थिता। यदि भाः सदृशी सा स्याद्