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Hindu Prayer to Open Utah Senate for First Time

Utah State Senate of USA will have its first Hindu prayer containing ancient Sanskrit mantras on February 13.

Rajan Zed, a prominent Hindu chaplain and Indo-American leader, will read this historic opening prayer from ancient Hindu scriptures before Utah Senate in Salt Lake City on this day. After first delivering in Sanskrit, he will then read the English translation of the prayer.

According to reports, no Hindu has delivered opening prayer in Utah State Senate since its formation. Sanskrit is considered a sacred language in Hinduism and root language of all Indo-European languages.

Rajan Zed will recite from Rig-Veda, the oldest scripture of the world still in common use, dated from around 1,500 BCE, 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 roughly translates as "Lead us from the unreal to the Real, from darkness to Light, and from death to Immortality." Reciting from Chapter three of Bhagavad-Gita, he will urge the Senators to act selflessly.

Hinduism, oldest and third largest religion of the world, has no datable beginning but some scholars put it around 3,000 BCE. It has no founder, no one authoritative figure, and no single prophet or holy book. One of its scriptures, Mahabharata, is the longest poem ever written, comprising over 100,000 couplets. Hinduism in North America was introduced in 1830s with Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau studying Hindu scriptures like Upanishads and Bhagavad-Gita. Vivekananda made a strong impression at World's Parliament of Religion in Chicago in 1893 and he then founded Vedanta Society. Protap Chunder Mozoomdar of Brahmo Samaj delivered his first American address on September 02, 1883 in Concord, Massachusetts.

Utah State Senate is composed of 29 members, with each constituency representing a population of about 77,000. Utah, which is the world headquarters of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, is a great vacationland with 11,000 miles of fishing streams and 147,000 acres of lakes and reservoirs. It ranks number one in the country in average household size, highest birth rate, and population of wild horses; while it ranks at the bottom in alcohol consumption. Known for Mormon Tabernacle Choir, Utah is rich in natural resources and has long been a leading producer of gold, zinc, molybdenum, silver, lead and copper.