“Oppenheimer wouldn’t have liked Nolan’s treatment of Gita”, The Sunday Guardian, July 30, 2023:

The blockbuster Oppenheimer movie by Christopher Nolan, shows the physicist reciting a sloka, a verse from the Bhagavad Gita while having sex. The hurt felt by millions of Hindus all over the world cannot be overstated. The Bhagavad Gita is the Bible of Hindus. They take the oath on it. However writing in the Times Amrita Dhillon claimed that it were the India’s Hindu hardliners who were furious. According to Soutik Biswas of the BBC some right-wing Hindus were objecting to the sex scene in Oppenheimer.

It is as if we are living in a surreal world where Hindu Gods and scriptures are portrayed in a grossly negative way and when Hindus object they are called militant, hardliners and intolerant. J. Robert Oppenheimer (1904-1967), known as “the father of the atomic bomb”, had great respect for the Bhagavad Gita. He said: “The Bhagavad Gita is the most beautiful philosophical song existing in any known tongue.” He added that “access to the Vedas is the greatest privilege of this century”. He became familiar with the notions of karma, destiny and earthly duty from the Bhagavad Gita. 

He would have been deeply disturbed by the sex scene and the disrespect shown to the Bhagavad Gita. Oppenheimer also had great admiration for the Sanskrit language. His favourite Sanskrit text was Meghduta by Kalidas. He had named his Chrysler car, Garuda after the Garuda of the Ramayana.

Read the full article at Sundayguardianlive.com