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the Sciences are the means to the ends of the Humanities. "A balanced culture should bring the two great halvas into harmony. The Bhagavdagita is a valuable aid for understanding the Supreme ends of life." .
Off at a tangent, a famous incident deserves to be mentioned here. When the first atomic bomb was tested at the Los Alamos desert, Robert Oppenheimer. the famous scientist, who masterminded the test was so struck with awe by the shattering brightness of the bomb, he recited to himself the famous sloka from the Viswaroopa Darshana chapter in the Gita (Adhyaya XI Verse 12). Oppenheimer, incidentally was a student of Sanskrit at one time.
12. divi suryasahasrasya
bhaved yugapad utthita yadi bhah sadrsi sa syad blasas tasya mahatmanah
If the light of a thousand suns were to blaze forth all at once in the sky, that might resemble the splendour of that exalted Being.
Oppenheiner's reference to "brighter than a thousand sums" was splashed on the "Time" magazine's cover the next week. Subsequently, when Robert Jungk wrote a well-documented book on the horrendous tragedy unleashed by the atom bomb over Hiroshima and Nagasaki he entitled it as "Brither than a Thousand Suns." Oppenheimer and Jungk. must have also hoped that the Sciences should be the means for the ends of Humanities.
Yet another aspect that Radhakrishnan has emphasised is that the Gita has sought to "reconcile varied and apparently antithetical forms of religious consciousness" and highlight "the root conceptions of religion which are neither ancient nor modern but eternal and belong to the very flesh of humanity, past. present aad future."
Radhakrishnan's 55-page introductory essay is invaluable and indispensable for any student of the Gita. It deals with date and the text used, the various commentators starting with Samkara and ending with Mahatma Gandhi the concept of Reality and Maya, in the Gita, the role of Krishna as a teacher, the three paths to knowledge, the cultivation of Yoga and so on. It is written with clarity, in impeccable English and in great style.
"The notes and footnotes scattered throughout the book are in a way an extension of the essay. Clarifying subtle points or providing historical
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