The Concord City Council will open with Hindu prayers from Hindu statesman Rajan Zed at its meeting Monday, March 8. Zed will deliver the invocation from ancient Sanskrit scriptures remotely before city council. After Sanskrit delivery, he then will read the English interpretation of the prayers. Sanskrit is considered a sacred language in Hinduism and root language of Indo-European languages.
Zed, who is the President of Universal Society of Hinduism, will recite from Rig-Veda, the oldest scripture of the world still in common use; besides lines from Upanishads and Bhagavad-Gita (Song of the Lord), both ancient Hindu scriptures. He plans to start and end the prayer with “Om,” the mystical syllable containing the universe, which in Hinduism is used to introduce and conclude religious work.
Reciting from Brahadaranyakopanishad, Rajan Zed plans to say “Asato ma sad gamaya, Tamaso ma jyotir gamaya, Mrtyor mamrtam gamaya,” which he will then interpret as “Lead us from the unreal to the real, Lead us from darkness to light, and Lead us from death to immortality.” Reciting from Bhagavad-Gita, he proposes to urge councilmembers and others present to keep the welfare of others always in mind.
Zed, a global Hindu and interfaith leader, is a recipient of the World Interfaith Leader Award. He is senior fellow and religious advisor to Foundation for Religious Diplomacy, and on the advisory board of The Interfaith Peace Project. He has been panelist for “On Faith,” an interactive conversation on religion produced by the Washington Post.
Zed was invited by President of European Parliament, Hans-Gert Pottering, in December 2008 in Brussels (Belgium) for a meeting to promote interfaith dialogue and discuss Hindu issues. He read the groundbreaking first Hindu opening prayer in United States Senate in Washington, D.C.
Hinduism is the oldest and third largest religion of the world and has about 1.2 billion adherents and moksh (liberation) is its ultimate goal. There are about three million Hindus living in the U.S.