Tony Scott, a prolific director, best known for his 1986 slick flick, “Top Gun” also directed the critically acclaimed “Crimson Tide” which was set in a nuclear submarine. On one level, the story deals with the complexities of nuclear deterrence in a nuclear world, and on another, it deals with the enduring dilemma of the humble soldier. The African-American commander Hunter agonizes over the question of whether he should wipe out a huge chunk of humanity just because his superior officer, Captain Ramsey has ordered him to, or wait for the confirmation that the enemy is indeed preparing to launch. The captain, on the other hand, a Caucasian who likes to see things in black and white, insists on launching a nuclear strike, convinced that any action by the US armed forces can never be immoral. The writer or the director didn’t pretend to provide any solution to this pickle – Admiral Anderson, in the last scene, subtly indicates the inability of even highly trained, and wise men to provide any answers when he admonishingly tells both the captain and his deputy:

“In so far as the letter of the law is concerned, you were both right. (Pause) And, you were also both wrong. This is the dilemma that will occupy this panel, this navy and the armed forces of this country as a whole, long after you gentlemen have left this room”.

This was the eternal conundrum that Arjuna was faced with just before the great Mahabharata war. The detailed response by Shri Krishna to this predicament was the distillation of the Vedas, the Upanishads as well as various Darshanas. The Bhagavadgita not only forms an extremely important part of the Hindu spiritual repertoire but has also awed and inspired quite a few thinkers, philosophers, and even scientists around the world. In the Gita, Shri Krishna enjoins Arjuna to abide by Dharma in all his actions.

The movie, Oppenheimer, is primarily a reflection on this perennial puzzlement that deeply affected the builder of the atomic bomb. He remained conflicted about his actions; and, the story portrays this emotion adroitly.

The director, Christopher Nolan, has not delved deeply into Oppenheimer’s connection with Hindu philosophy – he’s shown reciting one verse from the Gita, once during an intimate scene with his girlfriend and another during the Trinity test. The treatment of this subject is handled rather frivolously in the film and the influence of the Gita on him is understated. Each of the seven Hindu systems of philosophy interpreted reality differently. Indeed, they are referred to as Darshanas, or one that is “perceived”. They don’t claim to be the sole torchbearers of truth, nor are they based on commands and commandments. Rather, they are different ways of perceiving the same reality based on diverse, but equally acceptable interpretations of the Vedas and Upanishads. The Sankhya is a Vedic Darshana that is atheistic, whereas the Yoga Darshana of Patanjali, is actually based on Sankhya but, emphasizes the importance of the creator, Iswara.  On the other hand, Advaita Vedanta constructs a sublime ontology that suggests that the reality or Brahman is revealed to the observer when he removes the veil of ignorance through the light of Jnana. Till then, the observer can only theorize, but can never realize Brahman. This is quite similar to the “Schrodinger’s cat” experiment in quantum mechanics – the condition of the cat is truly known only when the lid is opened.

The protagonist, a Jew, studied Hindu texts extensively even reading them in the original Sanskrit. He never spoke about anything with certainty, except the science of uncertainty – quantum physics.  He explored liberal politics and communism but, rejected the offer to become a card-carrying member – something a true believer like his brother, Frank would do unhesitatingly. He believed in love, but not fully enough to be a monogamist. He was somewhat of a misfit in the United States when he returned from Europe after studying quantum physics under Max Born.  The freemen in the land of the brave were (and, are, even in the present) never unsure about anything. They were sure that they had to annihilate Hiroshima first and then Nagasaki through atomic bombs even though Japan could’ve been easily defeated through conventional bombs. Just as the Americans were completely sure (and, verily wrong) that all the innocent Vietnamese who died of Napalm bombs were Vietcong, and that Saddam had weapons of mass destruction due to which his country needed to be bombed back to the stone age. In all of these cases, they were eventually proven wrong but that didn’t let them question their arrogance even once.

Initially, they were dismissive of the quantum theory being championed by Oppenheimer because of its inherent incertitude. They became convinced later when they realized that only quantum physics provided a true picture of the sub-atomic particles and energies involved in the atomic realm, and could help them build a weapon of mass extermination. But, by the time the Manhattan Project team led by Oppenheimer had finished the development of the bomb, the war was teetering to an end – the murderers involved in the Holocaust had already surrendered and there were doubts about the capability, if not the intention of the Japanese, to prolong the war as they’d been left standing alone after the defeat of Germany and Italy. Oppenheimer, himself unsure of what to do with the monster he had helped create, was partly relieved when the military decided to take over the responsibility. Even though he made sure to relay the serious misgivings of many of his colleagues regarding the deployment of such a weapon on innocent civilians, it didn’t sway an establishment intent on a return on their $2 billion investment. Burdened by the consequences of his actions, he later refused to lend support to the Hydrogen bomb.

Eventually, the very uncertainties that helped form Oppenheimer’s personality and shape his worldview returned to bite him. When he expressed remorse for being responsible for the deaths of thousands, Truman dismissively, and without even a tinge of sorrow, suggested that it was he, the president, and not Oppenheimer who was responsible for the bombings. The American establishment, then veering to the right of the political spectrum, viewed anyone harbouring even faint leftist sympathies with extreme suspicion and refused to renew his security clearance, preventing him from being involved in the national security of the country that he loved more than anything else. Today, the metaphorical pendulum has swung to the other extreme and any professor, academic, or politician not conforming to the tenets of the woke mob is cancelled, humiliated, and forced out of his job. Ironically, Oppenheimer too would be cancelled today because he refused to toe the line of the leftists with full conviction. Fascism is not the exclusive domain of the right – it exists wherever there’s an absence of doubts about, and unblinkered scrutiny of, the acceptable idea of the day.

The answer to Oppenheimer’s conundrums lay in the Gita – in the elucidation of Dharma by Shri Krishna. Dharma does not mean the Hindu religion, or even religion as it is narrowly interpreted to mean – the English term that might come closest to it is “universal justice”. It is the law that flows from the natural, cosmic order called Rta. It is not tied to the ideas of right and wrong, whose interpretations vary with space and time. When one imbibes the spirit of true Dharma, he realizes that he’s one with nature, the cosmos, and indeed the Supreme being. The eternal fight therefore, is not between good and evil, or between believers and non-believers, but between Dharma and Adharma. Understanding Dharma however requires a spirit of liberal analysis and questioning, similar to what Arjuna did. The deep-seated intellectual disinclination of ordinary humans to free enquiry, tempts them to seek solutions in books filled with hatred, and ties them to venomous ideologies that have been, and still are, responsible for the genocides of thousands. The insular views reflected in these abominable texts teach them to only hate the “other”, and prevent them from understanding that only those whose actions are in accordance with Dharma are free of any attachment to the ever-changing illusion of reality, and thus can attain true unity with the divine.