J. Robert Oppenheimer, a physicist working on the Manhattan Project during the second world war, became quite interested in things outside of the sciences including the Hindu religion. An anecdote from one of the first tests of the atomic bomb, he had translated a phrase from the Bhagavad Gita where Vishnu changes into his many armed form and says : "I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds" This just gives me chills every time I read it. Sects of Hinduism see death more as a renewal rather than the western idea of "death as end", so that creates a whole other aspect to the verse.
Hence this reddit post, maybe my favorite from that site ever. Deserves its own thread really.
Good read, makes me want to read some Indian mythology. I can't imagine what Oppenheimer, a pacifist must have felt knowing what he had a hand in. I'd like to read more about him too. Thanks for the link.
To me his line is up there with One small step for man in terms of words fitting and even surpassing an occasion. Whenever I think about stuff like this I get really fuzzy inside about the sheer wonder of language, the greatest invention in history -- and then I go off and frantically bang words together to see what I come up with.
Great post. I read Oppenheimers biography 'American Prometheus' a few years ago and he comes across just as described here, a highly gifted polymath. I can remember during his time in Góttingen he wanted to read some poetry written in Dutch with some other class mates. Apparently he went off by himself and learned the Dutch language in 6 weeks. Great biography and well worth a look.