Was Oppenheimer a hinduist?

by Frigorifico

Everyone agrees that he was A LOT into hindu mythology, even learning sanskrit to read the sacred Hindu text.

Everyone seems reluctant to say that he was a hinduist, rather saying that he was "curious" or even "overeducated", and apparently he never said it either, instead saying that those text: "shaped his philosophy in life", but all this seems to me that hue was a hinduist, his friends knew he was a hinduist, but back then it was better to keep quiet about such unusual things.

Is my impression correct or was he really just curious?

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Oppenheimer was not religious in any sense, as far as we know. He was interested in philosophical issues, and like many quantum physicists (and intellectuals) of his time found it interesting to dabble in eastern philosophies and religion (which seemingly have more tolerance for ambiguity than many Western ones). But beyond that — it seems not. He never did anything that would demonstrate any kind of serious commitment to religion of any sort.

With Oppenheimer in particular, it is hard not to see this as one of several "rebellions" against his upbringing and assumed identity. Oppenheimer was raised a wealthy, secular Jew on the upper-west side of Manhattan, and his father was a hardcore supporter of Felix Adler's Ethical Culture movement. Ethical Culture is essentially a form of secular Jewish ethics — very self-serious, very un-mystical. Oppenheimer's push in two directions (eastern philosophies and "cowboy" culture) both seemed to come with his going to Harvard during a time of extreme anti-Semitic sentiment. So it is easy to paint a portrait of rebellion/rejection there: to embrace Hindu philosophy, and New Mexican horseback riding, are one and the same approach to diversify his sense of self, and to reject his own (and his father's) Jewishness. These sorts of things became hallmarks of his identity, especially in the years after he recovered from a "nervous breakdown" sort of incident in Europe and reinvented himself as "Oppie," the eccentric and confident wunderkind.

This is all interpretation, to be sure. For a very nice psychological portrait of Oppenheimer, I have found Ray Monk's Oppenheimer: A Life Inside the Center very perceptive on these kinds of identity issues.

Shashank1000