CERN - Why does the world’s largest physics lab at have a statue of Lord Shiva?

Unveiled on June 18, 2004, the two-metre-tall statue was a gift from the Government of India. A plaque next to the statue, with a quote by Fritjof Capra, explains its significance: “Hundreds of years ago, Indian artists created visual images of dancing Shivas in a beautiful series of bronzes.

In our time, physicists have used the most advanced technology to portray the patterns of the cosmic dance. The metaphor of the cosmic dance thus unifies ancient mythology, religious art and modern physics.”

Physicist Fritjof Capra further explained in The Tao of Physics: “The Dance of Shiva symbolises the basis of all existence. At the same time, Shiva reminds us that the manifold forms in the world are not fundamental, but illusory and ever-changing. Modern physics has shown that the rhythm of creation and destruction is not only manifest in the turn of the seasons and in the birth and death of all living creatures, but is also the very essence of inorganic matter.”
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“According to quantum field theory, the dance of creation and destruction is the basis of the very existence of matter. Modern physics has thus revealed that every subatomic particle not only performs an energy dance, but also is an energy dance; a pulsating process of creation and destruction. For the modern physicists then, Shiva’s dance is the dance of subatomic matter, the basis of all existence and of all natural phenomena.”

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