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SANSKRIT INVOCATION AT NEWMAN COUNCIL
 Newman City Council in California (USA), which celebrated 125th Anniversary in 2013, had its first historic Hindu invocation on April 8 evening, containing verses from world’s oldest existing scripture.
Hindu statesman Rajan Zed delivered the opening prayer from ancient Sanskrit scriptures before the City Council. After Sanskrit delivery, he then read the English translation of the prayer. Sanskrit is considered a sacred language in Hinduism and root language of Indo-European languages.
Zed, who is President of Universal Society of Hinduism, recited 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 started and ended 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 said, “Asato ma sad gamaya, Tamaso ma jyotir gamaya, Mrtyor mamrtam gamaya”, which he then translated as “Lead me from the unreal to the Real, Lead me from darkness to Light, and Lead me from death to Immortality.” Reciting from Bhagavad-Gita, he urged council members to keep the welfare of others always in mind. Council members, city employees and public were seen standing in prayer mode with their heads bowed down during this invocation.
Wearing saffron colored attire, a ruddraksh mala (rosary), and traditional sandalpaste tilak (religious mark) on the forehead,Zed sprinkled few drops of water from river Ganga of India, considered holy by Hindus, around the podium before the prayer.Zed presented a copy of Bhagavad-Gita to Mayor Ed Katen, who introduced and thanked Zed. “It is a historic moment of pride for the community when the prayers from ancient Sanskrit scriptures are being read in this great hall of democracy of this great city of Newman”, Zed stated before starting the invocation.
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HINDU STUDIES AT BERKELEY
 Hindus have welcomed plans to establish a program of Hindu studies at prestigious Graduate Theological Union (GTU) at Berkeley in California (USA). Hindu statesman Rajan Zed, in a statement in Nevada (USA) welcoming Hindu studies program at GTU, said that religion was the most powerful, complex and far-reaching force in our society, so we must take it seriously. And we all knew that religion comprised much more than our own particular tradition/experience.
Rajan Zed, who is President of Universal Society of Hinduism, pointed out that in our shared pursuit for the truth, we could learn from one another and thus could arrive nearer to the truth. As dialogue brought us reciprocal enrichment, we would be spiritually richer than before the contact.
The first two courses in Hinduism at GTU will be offered in the fall semester, which will include sacred texts of Hinduism, and there is a goal to establish a Center for Dharma Studies within GTU.
GTU, “where religion meets the world”, founded in 1962 and said to be home to the largest Ph.D. program in religious studies in North America, includes nine seminaries and a variety of centers and affiliates. It enrolls about 1,300 graduate students representing 20 countries from around the world and its library has over 440,000 volumes. Riess Potterveld and Arthur Holder are Acting President and Dean respectively.
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