Rajan Zed will make history Thursday by reading the first Hindu prayer to open a public meeting of Frederick’s mayor and Board of Aldermen.
Seven years ago, Zed, who is the president of the Universal Society of Hinduism, read the first Hindu opening prayer in the U.S. Senate as guest chaplain. Knowing that he would be in the metropolitan region next week, he contacted Frederick to offer the invocation at a meeting, he said Thursday in a telephone interview.
All denominations are welcome to offer prayers at the board meetings, and the city sends invitations to local houses of worship, said Nikki Bamonti, assistant to Mayor Randy McClement. Zed’s request was honored in part because Frederick does not have a Hindu temple, she said.
“I think it’s wonderful,” Zed said.
Zed gave the brief prayer that opens each day’s Senate session on July 12, 2007. Anti-Hindu Christians protested and had to be removed from the gallery.
Zed is an interfaith leader who supports environmental and human rights causes and is a director of interfaith relations at a Hindu temple in Reno, Nevada. He opposes apartheid faced by about 15 million Gypsies, also known as Roma, in Europe.
“It is very shocking to see their plight,” he said. “Europe should be better than that.”
He announced on his website intentions to open more than a dozen U.S. city and state legislative bodies with Hindu prayers by Aug. 2.
“I heard good things about Frederick,” he said. “I think they’re very welcoming.”
In addition to invitations, the city sends instructions concerning the types of prayers and invocations permitted to local houses of worship, Bamonti said.
Zed will deliver the Frederick invocation from ancient Sanskrit scriptures. After the Sanskrit delivery, he plans to read the English translation of the prayer.
He will recite from the ancient Hindu scriptures “Rig-Veda,” “Upanishads” and “Bhagavad-Gita” (“Song of the Lord”), he said in a news release.
Zed 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 “Bhagavad-Gita,” he will pray that the mayor and board work selflessly for the welfare of the public, he said.
Zed is senior fellow and religious adviser to the Foundation for Religious Diplomacy, and spiritual adviser to the National Association of Interchurch & Interfaith Families.
Hinduism, the oldest and third-largest religion in the world, has about 1 billion adherents, and moksha, or liberation, is its ultimate goal, Zed said. There are about 3 million Hindus in the United States.
“Many people don’t understand Hinduism,” Zed said.