By IANS
Los Angeles : Hindu priest Rajan Zed opened the California State Senate session with prayers Monday after he created history by chanting the Gayatri Mantra in the US Senate last month.
Attired in a saffron dress, a ruddraksh mala (rosary) and traditional tilak (religious mark) on the forehead, Zed started the senate session with “Om” and read from the Rig Veda, the oldest scripture of the world, dating back to 1,500 BC.
He also delivered hymns from the Bhagavad Gita and ended the prayer with the last mantra of the Rig Veda, “samani va akutih”, before concluding with “Om Shanti, Shanti, Shanti”, which he then translated as “Peace, Peace, Peace be unto all”.
Zed, the director of interfaith relations at a Hindu temple in Reno, New Jersey, made history in July when he opened the country’s senate with the chanting of ancient Hindu scriptures in a ceremony disrupted by a few Christian protestors from the visitor’s gallery.