J. Robert Oppenheimer: “I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.“

The profound moment when science met conscience. Step into the mind of the excellent physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer, who spoke these haunting words after witnessing the first successful test of the atomic bomb. In a 1965 television broadcast discussing the aftermath of the Trinity Test, J. Robert Oppenheimer said, “We knew the world would not be the same. A few people laughed, a few people cried. Most people were silent.“ Recalling a verse from the Hindu scripture, the Bhagavad-Gita, where Vishnu assumes his multi-armed form to impress upon the price the gravity of his duty, stating, “Now I am become death, the destroyer of worlds. I suppose we all thought that, one way or another.“ The quote derives from the Bhagavad Gita, an ancient Hindu text containing 700 verses, dating back to the first millennium BCE. The scripture revolves around a conversation between Prince Arjuna and Lord Krishna, an incarnation o the deity Vishnu. Arjuna grapples with reluctance to engage in a co