Mantras chanted remotely to open 7 Utah City Councils & a County Commission

Madhu Patel

CHICAGO: Remotely chanted Hindu prayers will open the meetings of seven city councils and one county commission in Utah during the next two weeks, containing verses from world’s oldest extant scripture.

These invocations via Zoom or web-conferencing or another electronic method will start the day of city/town councils of Orem, Brigham City, South Ogden, West Haven, West Point, Ivins, Mantua and county commission of Box Elder.

Rajan Zed, President of Universal Society of Hinduism will chant the invocations from ancient Sanskrit scriptures before these city councils and county commission. After the 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.

He 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 each prayer with “Om”, the mystical syllable containing the universe, which in Hinduism is used to introduce and conclude religious work.

Reciting from Brahadaranyakopanishad, Zed plans to say “Asato ma sad gamaya, Tamaso ma jyotirgamaya, Mrtyormamrtamgamaya”; 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 councilmembers and county commissioners and others present to keep the welfare of others always in mind.

Rajan Zed had opened Utah State Senate, Utah House of Representatives; county commission meetings of Juab, Salt Lake, Utah, Wasatch, Washington, Weber counties; city council meetings of Alpine, Bluffdale, Centerville, Charleston, Draper, Heber City, Herriman, Layton, Oakley, Payson, Perry, Provo, Salem, Sandy, St. George, South Jordan, Syracuse, Taylorsville, Vineyard, West Bountiful, West Valley, Willard, Woods Cross—all in Utah; with Hindu invocations in the past.

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.

Utah is the world headquarters of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which has over 16.5 million members and 30,940 congregations worldwide.