City Council opens recent meeting with Hindu prayer

Last month (July 16), the Susanville City Council opened its meeting for the first time with a Hindu prayer.

Rajan Zed, the president of the Universal Society of Hinduism, of Reno, chanted OM, and then read from the Gayatri Mantra, an ancient, sacred religious text, and then others dating back as far as 1500 BCE — first in Sanskrit and then in English.

The opening of the Gayatri Mantra in 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 the heaven. May He stimulate and illumine our minds.”

According to the Sri Chinmoy Library, “The Gayatri Mantra is the most hallowed mantra of the Vedas. It is the mother of all the mantras. Mantra means incantation. A mantra can be a one-syllable word or a few words, a sentence or a few sentences. The Gayatri Mantra can offer to the sincere seeker the Light of the Infinite, the Delight of the Eternal, and the Life of the Immortal.”

A second reading — “ … Lead us from darkness to light. Lead us from death to immortality.”

A third reading — “Strive constantly to serve the welfare of the world. With devotion to selflessness, one obtains the supreme goal of life, doing your work with the welfare of others always in mind.”

A fourth reading — “May we be protected together, may we bring knowledge together, may we work together … ”

And finally, a fifth reading — “United in our souls, united in our hearts, may your spirit be as one that you may long to develop in unity and conquer. Peace, peace, and peace be to all.”