S Rajagopalan/Newindpress

Washington, Jan 29: Senate halls in five different States across the United States will reverberate with Sanskrit shlokas as these legislatures will for the first time be opening their session with Hindu prayers.

Rajan Zed, the Nevada-based Hindu chaplain, will preside over the recitation from Hindu scriptures in the New Mexico Senate in Santa Fe on Monday and the Colorado Senate in Denver on Tuesday.

Similar recitations will be held in the Utah Senate in Salt Lake City on February 13, the Washington State Senate in Olympia on February 22 and the Arizona Senate in Phoenix on March 24.

After first reciting the hymns in Sanskrit, Zed will render them in English.

When the US Senate in Washington DC made history last July with the first-ever Hindu invocation in its 218-year existence, Zed presided over the ceremony. The solemn proceedings on that occasion was briefly disrupted by three shouting members of a right-wing Christian group who were taken into custody.

Zed, who lives in Reno, Nevada, has since then delivered prayers in the Califronia Senate in Sacramento and the Nevada State Assembly at Carson City.

As in the past, he plans to start and end the prayer with Om, recite Asato ma sadh gamaya, tamaso ma jyotir gamaya from Brahadaranyakopanisha and recite from Chapter III of Bhagwad Gita.

The Nevada Clergy Association has lauded Zed for his efforts to spread the message of love and peace. Its president, Right Reverend Gene Savoy Jr, said in a statement that he was “proud of Zed because of his outstanding contributions in social, religious, and humanitarian causes”.