DENVER—A Hindu chaplain delivered the morning prayer in the state Senate on Tuesday for the first time in the chamber’s history.
Rajan Zed of Reno, Nev., opened the prayer by saying “om” to represent the universe and then read passages from both the Rig-Veda and Bhagavad-Gita. He read them first in Sanskrit and then English.
“We meditate on the transcendental glory of the deity supreme, who is inside the heart of the earth, inside the life of the sky and inside the soul of heaven. May he stimulate and illuminate our minds,” he read.
Zed, a native of India, sprinkled water from India’s Ganges River around the podium before the prayer. He ended by saying “Om shanti, shanti, shanti” which he translated as “Peace, peace, peace be unto all.”
Zed made history in the U.S. Senate last July when he delivered the first Hindu prayer there at the invitation of Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada. Three protesters shouted from the visitors’ gallery that it was “an abomination” and had to be removed by police.
There were no disruptions in the Colorado Senate. About a half dozen Colorado Hindus had gathered in the visitors gallery but were soon invited to the Senate floor by Majority Leader Ken Gordon, D-Denver. The chamber was quiet as Zed prayed with about half the 35 senators present, a typical number for the morning prayer.
Zed said he hoped the prayer would help spread awareness about Hindus and Hinduism, the world’s third-largest religion after Christianity and Islam.
“The whole community feels very proud about this,” said Zed, surrounded by those who had come to watch.
Ved P. Nanda, vice provost at the University of Denver’s law school, was among them.
“In Hinduism, we don’t simply tolerate differences, we celebrate diversity. That is one virtue of being a Hindu,” Nanda said.
Zed said he has been invited to deliver prayers before lawmakers in Utah, Arizona and Washington State and has offered to do so in Nevada, California and New Mexico.
