Both North Dakota Senate & House to start the day with Hindu mantras in April

Both North Dakota Senate and House of Representatives in capital Bismarck will open their April one and April two sessions respectively with Hindu prayers, containing verses from world’s oldest existing scripture.

Hindu invocation will also start the Burleigh County Commission meeting of April one in Bismarck.

Distinguished Hindu statesman Rajan Zed will deliver the invocations from ancient Sanskrit scriptures before the Senate and House and Burleigh County. After Sanskrit delivery, he then will read the English interpretation of the prayer. 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.” Reading from Bhagavad-Gita, he proposes to urge Senators and Representatives and Commissioners 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.

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.

North Dakota, whose tagline is “Be Legendary”, claims to rank number one in water quality, air quality, quality of life; and “shortest average commute time in the country”. Doug Burgum is the Governor, Lieutenant Governor Brent Sanford is Senate President, and Lawrence R. Klemin is Speaker of the House of Representatives. Burleigh is the second-most populous county in North Dakota and Jim Peluso is Chairman of County Commission.