A bomb - Vedic connections

Just the other day, Paul Tibbet the chap who dropped the first nuclear bomb on human populace died at 92. I wondered, like a fellow blogger Happy Kitten, if he had a single nights peaceful sleep for the six decades after the event that killed 140,000 Japs (and many more years later). But what mystified me was the report that throughout his life, Tibbets seemed more troubled by people's objections to the bomb than by his having led the crew that killed tens of thousands of Japanese in a single stroke. And he insisted he slept well, believing that using the bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki saved more lives than they erased because they eliminated the need for a drawn-out invasion of Japan. In a 1975 interview he said: "I'm proud that I was able to start with nothing, plan it and have it work as perfectly as it did... I sleep clearly every night." Some guy that.

After the tests at Los Almos, Oppenheimer the father of the A bomb, said - Quoting from the Bhagavad Gita Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds - The full verse in the Bhagavad Gita verse 32 from Chapter 11 is "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. Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds." kalo 'smi loka-kshaya-krit pravriddho, lokan samahartum iha pravrittah. He actually, mistranslated it to say only the one part, as translated above.



Like the late Turkish President Ecevit, in this time of uncertainty (Check the link if you want to read about the impact of Gita on Oppenheimer) Oppenheimer often revisited one of his favorite books, the Bhagavad-Gita, and from it drew encouragement that steadied him in his work. Oppenheimer understood the Gita and other Sanskrit texts well enough to formulate a code for living that, while the product of his unique mind and experience, nevertheless showed signs of its origins in the sacred literature of India. Although the scientist himself never reduced his homemade Hinduism to a catalogue of principal tenets, a distillation of his words and actions might produce a short list of three: duty, fate, and faith. Without the inspiration of the Gita, Oppenheimer might not have been able or willing to direct Los Alamos.
Like Tibbet, Oppenheimer never regretted his action, comparing himself to Arjuna in the Gita. Many years later, somebody asked him after the Trinity tests if that was the first nuclear explosion. Pensively he said “Yes, in modern times” never providing further explanations. He was supposedly going back to passages from the Mahabharata describing a nuclear event that occurred some 8,000 -10,000 years ago.

Leslie Drake & Berlitz quoted from the Mahabharata (Karna Parva) in their books, to create ominous text that people then re-quoted for years. The quote explained a catastrophe…

Gurkha flying in his swift and powerful Vimana hurled against the cities of the Vrishnis and Andhakas a single projectile charged with all the power of the Universe. An incandescent column of smoke and fire, as brilliant as ten thousands suns, rose in all its splendour. It was the unknown weapon, the Iron Thunderbolt, a gigantic messenger of death which reduced to ashes the entire race of the Vrishnis and Andhakas It was an unknown weapon, an iron thunderbolt, a gigantic messenger of death, which reduced to ashes the entire race of the Vrishnis and the Andhakas…the corpses were so burned as to be unrecognizable. The hair and nails fell out; pottery broke without apparent cause and the birds turned white. After a few hours all foodstuffs were infected…… to escape from this fire the soldiers threw themselves in streams to wash themselves and their equipment.

Dense arrows of flame, like a great shower, issued forth upon creation, encompassing the enemy... A thick gloom swiftly settled upon the Pandava hosts. All points of the compass were lost in darkness. Fierce wind began to blow upward, showering dust and gravel. Birds croaked madly... the very elements seemed disturbed. The earth shook, scorched by the terrible violent heat of this weapon. Elephants burst into flame and ran to and fro in a frenzy... over a vast area, other animals crumpled to the ground and died. From all points of the compass the arrows of flame rained continuously and fiercely. "
But this is all sounding wrong to me – The Mahabharata mentions of a number of Bhramastras being used, not just once - also some parts were about the scene many years after the war!! So many inconsistencies, I decided to check and found no such text in the translated Karna Parva. Some parts could be discerned in Mausala parva.

Comments by Colin Biggs revealed that sentences from various parts of the epic were cleverly joined by Leslie & Berlitz for effect. Berlitz incidentally used Protap Chandra Roy's Mahabharata translation of 1889 to quote in his 1974 book ‘The Bermuda Triangle’.

A single projectile charged with all the power of the Universe. Karna Parva, section 34
It was the unknown weapon, the Iron Thunderbolt, a gigantic messenger of death which reduced to ashes the entire race of the Vrishnis and Andhakas Mausala Parva section 1
It was an unknown weapon, an iron thunderbolt, a gigantic messenger of death, which reduced to ashes the entire race of the Vrishnis and the Andhakas…the corpses were so burned as to be unrecognizable. Drona Parva section 201
The hair and nails fell out; pottery broke without apparent cause and the birds turned white. After a few hours all foodstuffs were infected…… Mausala Parva, section 2
To escape from this fire the soldiers threw themselves in streams to wash themselves and their equipment. Drona Parva section 197

More fuel was added to the fire by interconnections with other mysteries in the locale such as explained in this site and by many others (Check on Google & you will go after a wild goose chase thorough a 10,000 year period covering India, Europe, Atlantis, UFO’s and so on…).

Oppeneheimer also said - Access to the Vedas is the greatest privilege this century may claim over all previous centuries. Yes, he could be right. There is so much mystery & history behind the texts in the Vedas & the epics that it will take much convoluted thought to even understand the implications..

I found that the Atharva Veda even explains Nuclear Fission. Then again there are the Vimana mentions, flights to the moon, galactic wars. It was starting to become very heady, so finally, I decided to leave it all to the proficient sages who brave the elements of the Himalayas & other places. Not for us mere mortals.