Hindu mantras to open Las Vegas, Clark, Henderson, N. Las Vegas, Mesquite Councils

Clark County Board of Commissioners and City Councils of Las Vegas, Henderson, North Las Vegas, Mesquite in Nevada will start one each of their meetings during May with ancient Hindu prayers, containing verses from world’s oldest extant scripture.

Distinguished Hindu statesman Rajan Zed will deliver the invocations from ancient Sanskrit scriptures before these meetings. 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 prayers 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.” Reading from Bhagavad-Gita, he proposes to urge commissioners and councilors and others present to keep the welfare of others always in mind.

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

Rajan Zed recently opened with Hindu prayers all the sessions of Nevada State Senate and Nevada State Assembly in Carson City held during the week of April 22-26.

Hinduism, oldest and third largest religion of the world, has about 1.1 billion adherents and moksh (liberation) is its ultimate goal. There are about three million Hindus in USA.

Nevada, largest gold producer and seventh largest state, was admitted to USA in 1864. Nevada, also called “Silver State”, is known for Las Vegas, Burning Man, Lake Tahoe, etc. Steve Sisolak is Governor.

Source: World Hindu News (WHN)