Hindu prayers will open the meeting of the Elko City Council in Nevada on May 26, containing verses from the world’s oldest extant scripture.

Distinguished Hindu statesman Rajan Zed will deliver the invocation from ancient Sanskrit scriptures before the Elko City Council. After the Sanskrit delivery, he will then read the English interpretation of the prayers. Sanskrit is considered a sacred language in Hinduism and the root language of Indo-European languages.

Zed, who is the President of Universal Society of Hinduism, will recite from the 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 the prayer with “Om”, the mystical syllable containing the universe, which in Hinduism is used to introduce and conclude religious work.

Reciting from the Brahadaranyakopanishad, Rajan Zed plans to say “Asato ma sad gamaya, Tamaso ma jyotir gamaya, Mrtyor mamrtam gamaya”; 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 the Bhagavad-Gita, he proposes to urge the council members and others present to keep the welfare of others always in mind.

Zed, a global Hindu and interfaith leader, has been bestowed with the World Interfaith Leader Award. Zed is on the Advisory Board of The Interfaith Peace Project, Senior Fellow and Religious Advisor to Foundation for Religious Diplomacy, etc. He has been a panellist for “On Faith”, a prestigious interactive conversation on religion produced by The Washington Post, and leads a weekly interfaith panel, “Faith Forum”, in a USA TODAY Network publication for over 15 years.

Hinduism, the oldest and third largest religion of the world, has about 1.2 billion adherents and moksh (liberation) is its ultimate goal. There are about 3.2 million Hindus in the USA.

Elko, settled in 1868 and incorporated in 1917, also known as the Basque capital of the American West, is home to the annual National Cowboy Poetry Gathering and Western Folklife Centre, and hosts the National Basque Festival. The Ruby Mountains are just outside Elko, which straddles the Humboldt River. Reece Keener and Jan Baum are the Mayor and City Manager, respectively.