I remembered the line from the Hindu scripture, the Bhagavad-Gita; Vishnu is trying to persuade the Prince that he should do his duty and, to impress him, takes on his multi-armed form and says, ‘Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.’ I suppose we all thought that, one way or another.

- J. Robert Oppenheimer, The Decision to Drop the Bomb (1965) The ancient Vedic text of the Bhagavad Gita, dated between the 5th and 2nd centuries BCE, is recognized as one of the most influential spiritual and philosophical works of the Hindu tradition. There are myriad interpretations of the work, which consists of the dialogue between the divine Krishna and the Pandava prince Arjuna just before the epic battle between the Pandavas and Kauravas to establish the rightful ascendant to the throne. Although interpretations of the text vary widely across schools of Hindu thought, much can be illuminated by