Source: Punjab Newsline Network

http://www.punjabnewsline.com/content/view/4004/38/

N[E]VADA (USA): History was created when Rajan Zed, Director of Interfaith Relations of Hindu Temple of Northern Nevada, Public Relations Officer of India Association of Northern Nevada, and a Hindu chaplain, read ancient Hindu prayer/blessing in Sanskrit at the opening of the Nevada State Senate session here Monday.

This is the first time any Hindu prayer is delivered in the Nevada State Senate since its formation in 1864, says Pastor Albert Tilstra, Chaplain Coordinator for Nevada Legislature. Razen Zed is a former Indian Journalist who worked for The Indian Express in Chandigarh editopn before migrating to USA. in 1988.

Wearing saffron colored garb, ruddraksh mala (rosary), and traditional sandalpaste marks on the forehead, Zed started with first mantra of Hinduism in Sanskrit (said to be the language of the gods and root language of all Indo-European languages), which was the first hymn of Rig-Veda, dated from around 1,500 BCE, considered the oldest holy book still in common use in the world. “I open my prayer with an invocation to the divine—wherever it may be and however we may conceive it”, he added.