A video of a woman reciting Sanskrit verses has been viewed thousands of times on Facebook and Twitter alongside a claim that she was delivering sacred verses on a Spanish radio station during the novel coronavirus pandemic.
Below is a screenshot of the misleading post:, The post’s Hindi-language caption translates to English as: “Radio in Spain is broadcasting this in the morning. See the power of Sanatan Dharma. They are rituals of opting Hindu religion in the time of crisis. Please share this video more and more. Hail to Lord Rama.”, The verses heard in the video are spoken\xa0in Sanskrit, an ancient Indo-Aryan language mostly spoken on the Indian subcontinent. They\xa0translate to English as: “O giver of food, may you provide us with health and energy. The foolish man wins food with fruitless labour. That fruit, I speak the truth, shall be his ruin. Who feeds no friend, no man to love him. All guilt is he who eats alone (so eat together, give or share). Om, peace, peace and peace.”, "On April 4, 2020, Spainish\xa0Prime Minister\xa0Pedro Sanchez announced\xa0an extension of the countrys lockdown to combat the coronavirus, as reported here by AFP.", The video was also shared alongside a similar claim\xa0on Facebook here, here, here and here; as well as\xa0on Twitter here, here, here and here., The claim is false., A reverse Google image search using video keyframes extracted with InVID-WeVerify, a video verification tool, found a longer version of the video. It\xa0was published here on November 19, 2019 on a YouTube channel owned by a London-based Sanskrit singer and tutor, Gabriella Burnel., The clip seen in the misleading Facebook posts starts at the one minute 16-second mark of the YouTube video., “These recordings were made in a studio in London. Their purpose is to share sounds with the world that are pure in their vibration so hearing them may be of benefit to the listener, give peace of mind and open the heart,” Burnel told AFP by email on March 31, 2020., In the About section of Burnel’s YouTube channel, which is called Gaiea Sanskrit, the singer linked to several other social media and music streaming platforms, including Facebook, Soundcloud\xa0and Apple Music, that are under the same name. Burnel also has a website under the same name., Burnel is listed as a London-based private Sanskrit tutor by Oxford University., , , Copyright © AFP 2017-2020.  All rights reserved.  Users can access and consult this website and use the share features available for personal, private, and non-commercial purposes.  Any other use, in particular any reproduction, communication to the public or distribution of the content of this website, in whole or in part, for any other purpose and/or by any other means, without a specific licence agreement signed with AFP, is strictly prohibited.  The subject matter depicted or included via links within the Fact Checking content is provided to the extent necessary for correct understanding of the verification of the information concerned.  AFP has not obtained any rights from the authors or copyright owners of this third party content and shall incur no liability in this regard.  AFP and its logo are registered trademarks.
This video of a Sanskrit teacher was recorded in London in November 2019 | AFP Fact Check