What is Oppenheimer’s SBG reference?
If you saw Christopher Nolan’s movie Oppenheimer, you must’ve heard him quote a line from the Srimad Bhagavad Gita. But that’s the wrong translation so here’s the tea & the context.
The verse comes from Chapter 11, verse 32, in which Krishna is showing his real form, called as his Vishvaroopa, to his warrior friend in the Mahabharata battle, Arjuna, who wants to see it to confirm that the entire universe lives in & is God.
As beautiful as it looks on the movie or TV screen, our human eyes can’t understand it so Krishna gives him something like 3D glasses to experience new dimensions.
The reason Krishna does this is so that you & I today could get a tiny glimpse of it through Arjuna’s description because even with his new vision, Arjuna is still overwhelmed, seeing the brightness of many Suns, thousands of faces, all Gods, demigods, different deties and all other living beings inside this form.
When he says,
kälo ’smi loka-kñaya-kåt pravåddholokän samähartum iha pravåttaù
åte ’pi tväà na bhaviñyanti sarve
ye ’vasthitäù pratyanékeñu yodhäù
The translation goes, “I am mighty Time, the source of destruction that comes forth to annihilate the worlds. Even without your participation, the warriors arrayed in the opposing army shall cease to exist.”
He’s saying that he is Kala or Time, which is the Ultimate Death & Destoryer of all worlds, because all of us have to eventually die.
In practical terms, he’s telling us not to have a huge ego because we are just vessles or instruments of Divine Power. God doesn’t make us do bad or good stuff, nor is he to blame for our own karma, but he’s our inner moral compass which makes us think twice before doing something wrong.
So we should not be afraid of death because he is our end which is good news, and so we should always be humble, doing our work as a service to Him & the society which is his creation.
Oppenheimer used this line after his tests were successful because he realised the danger his atomic bomb had unlocked for innocent people & he was overwhelmed with the morality or ethics of it.