Media
Swarajya Staff
Aug 20, 2016, 01:08 PM | Updated 01:08 PM IST
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An eerie video of human sacrifice on the Geneva campus of Europe’s premier scientific establishment was thankfully declared fake, with the facility scrambling to play down the incident as simply humour gone awry even as it ordered an investigation.
The video clip went viral, raising questions about a security breach at the European Organisation for Nuclear Research (CERN) – home to the world’s largest and most powerful particle accelerator, known as the Large Hadron Collider.
Warning: The video contains strong language.
The dark footage shows a group of black-cloaked CERN ‘researchers’ gathering at the courtyard and performing a mock human sacrifice ritual in front of an idol of Nataraj – the depiction of Lord Shiva as the cosmic dancer.
The video ends abruptly with a bystander who was filming it letting out a scream and an expletive before pulling back.
It drew reactions from various quarters with many news outlets laughing it off as a tasteless prank. However, conspiracy theorists insisted that such secret rituals are taking place at the facility.
Distancing itself from the video, CERN stressed that it was unauthorised and that the organisation does not condone this type of spoof. It said such videos could “give rise to a misunderstanding about the scientific nature of our work”.
CERN, the home to the god particle, asserted that it was a practical joke that had gone too far, adding that an internal investigation is under way with no clear leads on the motive.
Famous astrophysicist and science commentator, Carl Sagan, speaks on the Hindu concept of the universe.
From 8:17 to 9:16 on the video, Carl Sagan speaks about Nataraj and its representation of the life cycle of the universe.
In India, there are many gods, and each god has many manifestations. These Chola bronzes cast in the eleventh century include several different incarnations of the god Shiva. Seen here at his wedding.The most elegant and sublime of these bronzes is a representation of the creation of the Universe at the beginning of each cosmic cycle – a motif known as the cosmic dance of Shiva. The god has four hands. In the upper right hand is the drum whose sound is the sound of creation. And in the upper left hand is a tongue of flame… a reminder that the universe now newly created… will billion of years from now will be utterly destroyed. Creation. Destruction.