This scholarly article examines the influence of the Hindu scripture, the Bhagavad-Gita, on the life of physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer. It delves well beyond Oppehhiemer's often quoted statement, "I am become Death, the shatterer of worlds," made after he witnessed the first nuclear explosion in New Mexico in 1945. The author discusses the scriptures and their relation to Oppenheimer's view of life, from his Jewish origins to his experiences at Los Alamos during World War II. Extensive references are provided in the footnotes.