# All Your Base Are Belong To Us?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/all-your-base-are-belong-to-us/214233>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Created:** [November 20, 2003, 1:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/all-your-base-are-belong-to-us/214233 "2003-11-20T01:58:59Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\
**Post date:** [November 21, 2003, 11:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/all-your-base-are-belong-to-us/214233/21 "2003-11-21T23:10:16Z")

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> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Chronos \*  
> \*\*And I think that “I am become death, destroyer of worlds” was also uttered by Susan Ivanova at some point in Babylon V. Which may be a more relevant reference for nerds. \*\*

You may be right. However, it was first popularized by atomic physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer, in relation to witnessing the first atomic bomb test in 1945:

> [@](#):
>
> Recalling the scene, Oppenheimer said: "A few people laughed, a few people cried, most people were silent. There floated through my mind a line from the “Bhagavad-Gita” in which Krishna is trying to persuade the Prince that he should do his duty: “I am become death: the destroyer of worlds.”

Other sites report the original Sanskrit as _Kalosmi lokaksaya krt pravrddho_.

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**Author:** ![tanstaafl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ba8739/32.png) [@tanstaafl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tanstaafl)\
**Post date:** [November 21, 2003, 11:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/all-your-base-are-belong-to-us/214233/22 "2003-11-21T23:10:56Z")

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The “I am become death…” line was also supposedly spoken by Robert Oppenheimer after the Trinity atomic bomb test.

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**Author:** ![joshmaker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a587f6/32.png) [@joshmaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/joshmaker)\
**Post date:** [November 21, 2003, 11:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/all-your-base-are-belong-to-us/214233/23 "2003-11-21T23:17:44Z")

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The translation “I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds” is from Oppenheimer who recalled the quote after witnessing the explosion of the first atomic bomb July 15, 1945.

The quote is from the Bhagavad Gita (“Song of God”) a famous ancient Indian poem, and part of a larger text known as the Mahabharata. In the Bhagavad Gita Krishna convinces the warrior Arjuna (whose resolve to fight is wavering) that he must do his duty and fight in an upcoming battle.

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