Rajan Zed has read Hindu invocations in over 300 legislative bodies in two dozen US states and Canada, creating a kind of record.
Distinguished Hindu statesman Rajan Zed, who read the opening prayer in the United States Senate in Washington, DC in 2007, is scheduled to deliver it again on July 30.
In addition to the US Senate and House of Representatives, Reno, Nevada-based Zed, who is President of the Universal Society of Hinduism, has read Hindu invocations in over 300 other legislative bodies in 44 US states and Canada, including state senates and state houses, creating a kind of record.
Rajan Zed plans to start and end the July 30 prayer in the Senate chamber with ‘Om’, the mystical syllable used in Hinduism to introduce and conclude religious work.
Zed will read the English interpretation of the original hymns in Sanskrit from Rig-Veda, the oldest scripture of the world still in common use and lines from the Upanishads and Bhagavad-Gita, the foundational books of Vedanta. Instructions to Senate guest chaplains clearly state that the opening prayer “must be given exclusively and entirely in the English language”.
Beginning with Gayatri Mantra, considered the single most sacred mantra of Hinduism, Zed plans to say from Brahadaranyaka Upanishad: “Lead us from the unreal to the real. Lead us from darkness to light. Lead us from death to immortality.” Reciting from Bhagavad Gita, he proposes to urge Senators and others present to keep the welfare of others always in mind.
Rajan Zed will be wearing a traditional saffron kurta-pajama, a rudraksha mala (rosary), besides sandal-paste tilak on his forehead.
His opening prayer at the US Senate in July 2007 was interrupted by three Christian protesters who were arrested by the Capitol Police; the incident was reported widely in the US media.
Zed, a global Hindu, and interfaith leader has been bestowed with the World Interfaith Leader Award. He is also on the Advisory Board of The Interfaith Peace Project, among other honors. He has been a panelist for ‘On Faith’, a prestigious interactive conversation on religion by The Washington Post, and has produced a weekly multi-faith panel, ‘Faith Forum,’ in a Gannett publication for over 13 years.
Hinduism, the oldest and third-largest religion in the world, has about 1.2 billion adherents. Its goal is moksha (liberation). There are about three million Hindus in the USA.
