Not just the Bhagavad Gita, Oppenheimer was ‘enchanted’ by Kalidasa’s Meghaduta, but found the Vedas to be ‘rather too learned’

According to Time magazine article from 1948, Oppenheimer read the Gita for his ‘personal delight’ in the evenings, and sometimes to entertain friends while he was at Berkeley, which is where he also took lessons in Sanskrit from resident expert Arthur W Ryder. It was his eighth language. A copy of the Gita, bound in pink and held together with scotch tape, was placed in his study at Princeton.

He would regularly write to his brother Frank about his fascination for the arts, after discovering the work of French writer Marcel Proust, and the works of poet John Dunne. Oppenheimer would also keep Frank updated about his studies in Sanskrit, and revealed through these letters that his knowledge about ancient Indian texts wasn’t limited to the Gita, but also extended to the Meghaduta, a lyric poem written by Kalidasa, and the Vedas, the oldest scriptures of Hinduism. “I have been reading the Bhagavad Gita with Ryder and two Sanskritists,” he wrote in 1933, the same year as Adolf Hitler came to power in Germany. A year later, in another letter to Frank, Oppenheimer wrote, “Only a very long letter can make up for my great silence, and for the many sweet things for which I have to thank you, letters and benevolences stretching now over many months. Benevolences starting with the precious Meghaduta, and rather too learned Veda… The Meghaduta I read with Ryder, with great delight, some ease, and great enchantment; the Veda lies on my shelf, a reproach to my indolence.”

In a letter written in 1932, Oppenheimer referenced the Gita and drew connections between its philosophies and war. “I believe that through discipline… we can achieve serenity… I believe that through discipline we learn to preserve what is essential to our happiness in more and more adverse circumstances… Therefore I think that all things which evoke discipline: study, and our duties to men and to the commonwealth, war… ought to be greeted by us with profound gratitude; for only through them can we attain to the least detachment; and only so can we know peace,” he wrote.

Actor Cillian Murphy, who plays Oppenheimer in the film, revealed in a recent interview that he read the Bhagavad Gita in preparation for the role, and told journalist Sucharita Tyagi that he found it ‘absolutely beautiful’. The movie opens in theatres on Friday.