Press Release

Rajan Zed

HUNTINGTON — Reportedly in a historic first, Hindu mantras will open the Huntington City Common Council meeting on Tuesday, April 13, containing verses from the world’s oldest extant scripture.

Hindu statesman Rajan Zed will deliver the invocation from ancient Sanskrit scriptures remotely before Huntington City Common 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 council members and others present to keep the welfare of others always in mind.

Zed, a global Hindu and interfaith leader, has been bestowed with the World Interfaith Leader Award. Zed is Senior Fellow and Religious Advisor to the Foundation for Religious Diplomacy and on the advisory board of The Interfaith Peace Project, etc. He has been a panelist for “On Faith,” a prestigious interactive conversation on religion produced by The Washington Post, and produces a weekly multi-faith panel “Faith Forum” in a Gannett publication for over 10 years.

Hinduism, the oldest and third largest religion of the world, has about 1.2 billion adherents and moksh (liberation) is its ultimate goal. There are about three million Hindus in the United States.