Trinity

July 16, 1945 5:29am


From the book Day One: Before Hiroshima and After by Peter Wyden

The Bhagavad Gita
10: Pervading Power

The Blessed Lord said:
Now as a higher message yet
listen to this that I shall tell
both because you delight in it
and also that I wish you well

The mighty seers and hosts of gods
know nothing of my origin
I am the beginning of the gods
and mighty seers in everything

He who knows me, Great Lord of Worlds,
the Unborn and the Beginningless,
he of undeluded mortals
from every evil finds release.

From me alone all states of beings
derive in their diversities;
in mind and wisdom, non-delusion,
in patience, truth, control and peace,

In pleasure, pain, existing, dying,
in fear or safety, harmlessness,
in contentment, fame or infamy,
in austerity or bounteousness.

...

Whoever knows my Pervading Powers
and energies which work therein
is integrated certainly
in undivided discipline.

I am the Origin of all,
from me all creatures emanate
the wise know this and give me love
as thoroughly affectionate.

...

Come then, I will explain to you
at least the chief ones which transcend
of my divine Pervading Powers,
because unbounded I extend.

In the heart of every being
I am the Soul installed to dwell,
the Origin and Midst of beings
I also am their End as well.

I am Vishnu of the sky gods,
the radiant Sun among the lights,
I am Marichi of the storm gods,
I am the Moon of stars at nights.

I am Indra among the deities,
the Sama of the Vedas taught,
I am Mind among the senses
and among the beings I am Thought.

I am Shiva of destroyers,
the Lord of Wealth of sprites and freaks,
I am Fire among the brilliant
and Meru of the mountain-peaks.

I am the chief among the priests,
their god Brihaspati is me,
I am the God of War of captains,
among the waters I’m the Sea.

I am Bhrigu of great sages,
of words the single Syllable,
I am the murmured Prayer of worship,
Himalaya of things immovable.

The sacred Fig of all the trees
and Narada of seers divine,
Chitra-ratha of musicians,
wise Kapila of perfect line.

Indra’s steed among the horses
from Nectar of the sea I spring,
as Indra’s mount of elephants
of human beings I am King.

Of cows I am the Cow-of-wishes,
of weapons the Thunderbolt that shakes
I am the God of Love creating
and I am the Serpent King of snakes.

The Endless of the fabled serpents,
the Water—god of water—beings,
the Senior of the ancestors
and I am Death the all-decreeing.

I am Prahlada of the demons
and I am Time of reckoning,
I am Vishnu’s Mount among the birds
and of the animals I am King.

I am Ganges of the rivers,
I am the Wind of purifiers,
Leviathan of water-monsters,
I am Rama of the warriors.

The Beginning of creations
I am the End and Middle too,
of sciences the Science of the Soul,
in disputation I am True.

I am the letter A of letters
and of compounded words the Pair,
I truly am immortal Time,
the Ordainer facing everywhere.

I am Death that carries all away,
the Origin of things to be,
and female nouns: Fame, Wisdom, Speech,
Luck, Firmness, Patience, Memory.

I am the Gayatri of metres,
the Greatest Chant of those men sing,
I am the First amid the months
and of the seasons I am Spring.

I am Conquest, Resolution,
the Dice of those who speculate,
I am the Goodness in the good,
I am the Greatness in the great.

I am Vasudeva of Vrishnis,
you Arjuna of Pandu’s Sons,
I am Vyasa of the hermits,
wise Ushanas of thoughtful ones.

I am the Craft of would—be rulers,
I am the Rod when men chastise,
I am the Silence of the secret,
I am the Wisdom in the wise.

I am whatever is the Seed
in every other kind of being,
without me nothing could exist,
not one unmoved or moving being.

So my divine Pervading Powers
as I have said can never end,
in these examples I declared
how my Pervading Powers extend.

Whatever shows Pervading Powers
in either majesty or might
be sure it springs in every case
from just a part of my own light.

Yet what’s the use for you to know
so much of this extensive flow?
since all the cosmos I sustain
with part of me yet full remain.

So ends the TENTH CHAPTER and its name is The Yoga of Pervading Power

It is written in most histories of the creation of the first nuclear weapon in 1945 that physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer, who led the Manhattan Project camp at Los Alamos, New Mexico, recited a verse from The Bhagavad Gita upon ignition of the explosion he named Trinity. The name represents the unified concept of creation, preservation, and destruction of the universe embodied in Indian philosophy.

Usually, the quote is written, ``I am become death, the shatterer of worlds''. This is how the Lord Krishna in part answers Arjuna's inquiries into the nature of the universe.

Above is the 1974 lyric translation of Chapter 10 of The Bhagavad Gita by Geoffrey Parrinder. I think it shows why Oppenheimer, or any physicist for that matter may have affinity for the 'Gita. Here, the Oppenheimer line is translated, ``I am Death that carries all away''.

No matter how we read The Bhagavad Gita, that fateful day sixty years ago was the day that the destroyer of worlds arrived in New Mexico, USA.

Update 7/19/2005 10:30am: I have to correct a couple of things I wrote here. First, I have the wrong citation for the Oppenheimer quote from The Bhagavad Gita. The citation should be Chapter 11:32. In the translation I cite by Parrinder, 11:32 reads ``Lo, I am Time, the cause of world decay, matured, resolved the worlds to take away...''

This illustrates the danger in basing anything on a lyric translation where artistic license is taken. It is a beautiful text, but.... Here is a more literal translation of 11:32:

The Blessed Lord said: Time I am, destroyer of the worlds, and I have come to engage all people. With the exception of you [the Pandavas], all the soldiers here on both sides will be slain.

One more correction... The website I cited on the origin of the name ``Trinity'' for the test apparently was wrong. Accorning to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Oppenheimer:

Oppenheimer named "Trinity", which he later said was after a John Donne verse. According to the historian Gregg Herken, this naming could have been an allusion to Jean Tatlock (who had introduced him to Donne when they had dated in the 1930s), who had committed suicide a few months previously. He later recalled that while witnessing the explosion he thought of a verse from the Hindu text, the Bhagavad Gita:

If the radiance of a thousand suns were to burst at once into the sky, that would be like the splendor of the mighty one...