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Most of the time Scientist are considered as geeks unaware of practically reality and just theorist but they are brilliant people aware of what their actions can do to the mankind and even to a galaxy leave alone earth. When J Oppenheimer undertook the Manhattan Project which ultimately led to trinity test and then the unfortunate atomic bombing on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945 he was aware that he has become as per Bhagavad Gita:
“kaalo asmi loka kshaya kritpraviddho”
“Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds” (chapter 11, verse 32).
While Christopher Nolan is a brilliant filmmaker and has millions of following around the world to watch his science fictions or Superhero stuff, as a filmmaker he could have been more sensitive towards the liberal Hinduism which in his recent flick where his protagonist (J Oppenheimer) was a Sanskrit Reader himself since 1930s much before he undertook the world changing job of creation of the atomic bomb. He could have easily gotten away with the current timing of the bed scene and Bhagawad Gita verse coming together whether it’s an intentional effort to create controversy? I personally don’t think as he already has millions of fans waiting for his movie the moment, he announces it or is it an attempt to show a particular religion or faith is a discounted manner? which again seems unlikely as he has himself shown so many science fiction that I have no doubt he has a rational mind himself, Afterall very few folks in today’s world choose not to use a smart phone even if they can afford one and Mr Nolan is one of them, The only reason one could guess is in order to avoid oneself as a preacher of any religion or a book based on Hinduism when significant revenue comes from west audience can be only a possible reason, although in past few sections have labelled him a bit high handed in approach when depicting a Chinese or a South Asian Culture.
Although it’s too difficult to comprehend the character of J Oppenheimer whether he was right or wrong and if at all he would have not done the job someone else would have done it for sure as the discoveries during the 1930s era and publishing of the paper in 1939 “ The Mechanism of Nuclear Fission” has made it quite clear in science community at that time that it’s a matter of just few years before a nuclear bomb will come into existence, as most of the scientist at that time considered even our solar system Sun as nothing but a live Hydrogen Bomb in action going on for billions of years now and we human species just a small dot in that time frame of live bomb lifecycle, but no doubt he regretted his actions later and find solace in Gita Shloka, hence even in his 1965 interview which is now famous on social media he is quoting it.
The debate of Nolan now and Oppenheimer previously using Bhagawad Gita reminds me of a wonderful book which came few years ago “ The Difficulty of Being Good: On the Subtle Art of Dharma ” written by Gurcharan Das in which Lord Krishna Quote to Price Yudhishthira at the end of the Mahabharata war “ You were lucky that you won!” sparking a debate how God himself can say to winners that they were lucky in war? Doesn’t He Know who will win? The answer given is that when the war gets started both sides are going to perform “Karma “ and actions and results of those Karma even God cannot predict beforehand at least as per Hinduism, So Actions and Fate both have some say sometimes to predict any outcome. Finally whether J Oppenheimer in last century and Christopher Nolan in this century just got lucky or its their Karma which led them to the path of love or hate from millions is hard to decide and pass a judgement as only time can tell, the only fact we know is that J Oppenheimer regretted in the end while Mr Nolan still need to look back to decide in future whether use of Bhagawad Gita in this way is regretful or not if it hurts a billion plus Hindus.
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