US, Oct. 28 -- The clock read 0530 hours in Los Alamos, on July 16, 1945. Suddenly, a tremendous burst of man-made light appeared. It outshone the sun and was visible as far as Mars. A 40,000-foot-high mushroom cloud rose, followed by a deep, growling roar and a shockwave felt a hundred miles away.

That morning, as humankind discovered the atomic fire, a section of the ancient Indian scripture ran through the mind of Dr Robert Oppenheimer, who led the top-secret $2-billion project to devise the ultimate weapon of war. It was Chapter 11, Verse 32 of the Bhagavad Gita, "Shri-bhagavan uvacha, kalo 'smi loka-kshaya-krit pravriddho, lokan samahartum iha pravrittah."

Over a decade later, Oppenheimer, the emotional and intellectual heart of t...