The link to the original paper is dead, here is it.
* The Gita of J. Robert Oppenheimer
https://web.archive.org/web/20131126020921/http://www.amphil...
Oppenheimer and the Gita (2014)
21–30 of 78 posts
Re: Oppenheimer and the Gita (2014)
#22I know, I know ... deep stuff. But, I read the Gita (German translation) and - frankly speaking - I was quite underwhelmed and didn't see the big deal about it. It's a rather dull and repetitive story about a guy going to war and having a chat over it with some Hindu god. The famous quotes masterfully recited by Dr. Oppenheimer are not being built up to - they just appear out of nowhere. My conclusion is that this pamphlet is rather overrated, though, no doubt plays historically an important role in Hindu religion and philosophy.
I know this is an unpopular opinion as among a part of the tech crowd it seems be en vogue to engage in cargo cult spirituality by dwelling on literature which has been endorsed by reputed personalities.
Re: Oppenheimer and the Gita (2014)
#23Bhagavad Gita is a deep scripture about yogic teachings. The premise of the story is a war between a family fighting for dominance. Arjuna is one of the greatest archer at the time and he was fighting against one side of his family. Both side sought out Lord Krishna for help for their cause. Lord Krishna gave each a choice - His army or Him as a guide. Arjuna chose Him as a guide and majority of the book is about the…
> The war is actually talking about the "war" every human being is fighting inside themselves. The "good" versus the "bad" or virtues versus vices. That's the whole reason why we suffer. It's all an inner journey :)
This is called the Greater Jihad in Islam.
Condition of Arjuna as he stands in the middle of the two armies and gets chided by Krishna is called "Wavering" and addressed in line four of Hexagram 1 (Ch'ien).
A place of transition has been reached, and free choice can enter in. A twofold possibility is presented to the great man: he can soar to the heights and play an important part in the world, or he can withdraw into solitude and develop himself. He can go the way of the hero or that of the holy sage who seeks seclusion. There is no general law of his being. If the individual acts consistently and is true to himself, he will find the way that is appropriate for him. This way is right for him and without blame.
One day humanity will recognize the unity of the spiritual heritage of Humanity. It will be a good day.
Re: Oppenheimer and the Gita (2014)
#24I think Wellerstein reads more into what Oppenheimer said (years later) about what he thought when he saw the explosion than what he may have meant. My take is that Oppenheimer was saying the quote from the Bhagvad Geeta accurately described his thoughts at the time. That with the atom-bomb we (the United States) have (the power to) become the destroyer of the whole world. I think what he said about Vishnu and Arjuna was to merely provide the context of the quote. He did not mean imply anything about his own duty. This is borne out by what he says next: “I suppose we all thought that, one way or another”. No matter what their personal motivation may be for working on the bomb, they must all have sensed the enormous destructive power of the bomb.
Re: Oppenheimer and the Gita (2014)
#25I would highly recommend reading Bhagavat Gita(and other Vedic scriptures), it’s available freely with translation to many different languages here at [1].
Specific verse in article at [2]
Re: Oppenheimer and the Gita (2014)
#26Also discovered this on a previous thread on HN;
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14940606
https://www.searchgita.com/
A beautiful tool that lets you search for particular cantos from the Tome.
Re: Oppenheimer and the Gita (2014)
#27Earlier quoted context omitted.
Gita means many things when you read it from a perspective It helps you deal with life aka tells you that nothing is more important than Karma and that money/sex/costly things are bad It also encourages familal war. It literally tells Arjuna to wage a war against his entire family "for righteousness". That being said, Gita is great.
It's important, in my view, to not only study but to sincerely experiment and eventually embody the teachings. I also read the Upanishads and the Dhammapada often to get the full message of Vedanta and living in accordance with Dharma. I also study Greek and Egyptian wisdom, it's amazing how much overlap there is when you put all of them side by side. I've spent a good deal of my 20's exploring the American National…
I understand. I have read Gita 2 times, in Sanskrit. The book was an excellent philosophy treatise, it opened my eyes which was rivaled only by Sapiens. But it still depends on the perspective.
From one reading it teaches you that you don't need to obsess on material things
Re: Oppenheimer and the Gita (2014)
#28Earlier quoted context omitted.
What I took away from the Bhagvat Gita is that it is a treatise on why you should accept, internalize and submit to the role or place that society has assigned you.
Yes. Lord Krishna said that to Arjuna that you might fight because it's your "duty". The death blow Arjuna deals to one of his enemy is that that enemy's "karma". Arjuna is merely an instrument/tool of God/Lord Krishna. That enemy is already "dead" whether by Arjuna's hands or another's. That's why Lord Krishna said to Arjuna "Whatever you do, do unto Me." You're not the "doer", the "Doer" is Creation/God/shaki/energ…
Interestingly this also aligns with Advaita/non duality.
One of Advaita’s pointers is to observe one’s choices. Where do they originate? How come some do manifest and some don’t? Since I’ve started doing this I’ve had to give up the concept of free will as I have been unable to observe such a thing.
This is not to say that actions and destinies are predetermined. It’s neither; the free-will-or-predetermined view of the universe is a result of limitations in perception and ability to think/imagine. We can only see the universe as we are.
For the interested, here’s a brief introduction to the False Sense of Authorship :)
Re: Oppenheimer and the Gita (2014)
#29I've been fascinated by Sanskrit because some of the words sound so much like old english/germanic. There need to be more study done on indian languages because there have just soo many of them and every region has their own dialects. It's as if the tower of babel incident happened over there.
> words sound so much like old english/germanic.
The relationship you are seeing was discovered nearly two centuries ago, and has been thoroughly studied since then [1].
> there have just soo many of them and every region has their own dialects.
If linguistic diversity is the measure you are interested in, Papua New Guinea [2] and Sub Saharan Africa [3] are orders of magnitude more diverse that Europe and South or East Asia.
1. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indo-European_languages
2. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Languages_of_Papua_New_Guine...
3. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sub-Saharan_Africa#Languages...
Re: Oppenheimer and the Gita (2014)
#30The Bhagavad Gita is a bit like Moby Dick in that it is abstract enough that everyone projects their own interpretation onto it, filtered through their own experiences. However, because it is a religious text, people have been fighting over the meaning for millenia, often to justify or motivate one political stance or another, no doubt because motivating the protagonist to political action of physical battle is itself the most concrete reading of the Bhagavad Gita's meaning.
But the Gita is just one highly contested chapter of the larger, arguably more interesting epic, the Mahabharata, which is the story of war and conflict spanning generations of an extended clan of warriors.
The Mahabharata is a treasure trove of the complex sociology of ancient South Asia, and quite unlike the Gita, it's content is largely non-judgemental and mostly secular.
In some traditional families, they actually prefer not to keep a copy of Mahabharata in the home per the superstition that it will engender conflict in the family, instead preferring "thou shalt" texts like the Bhagavad Gita, or Ramayana.