Saturday 14 July 2007

Hindu Prayers in the US Senate

The US Senate opened with the chanting of Gayatri Mantra for the first time on Thursday July 12th Hindu priest Rajan Zed sprinkled holy water from the River Ganga around the podium to purify it and them chanted prayers from several Hindu scriptures. He was the first Hindu to do so since the formation of the Senate in 1787.
Wonder if the Indian Parliament will ever commence with prayers from the Bible?
In God we trust.

6 Fertilize my soul:

Anonymous said...

"Wonder if the Indian Parliament will ever commence with prayers from the Bible?"

Are you sure this is true? Does Indian parliment start every session with a Hindu prayer? In fact, I have seen Indian politicians pandering more to the minorities like Muslims and Christians.

Jo's-D-Eyes said...

Hi Why is this 'statue' having more heads?

Nice blog you have,

Good sunday!

Amrita said...

Dear Vittal, I know the Indian Parliament does not open with any kind of religious ceremony but many government functions do.

Despite the fact of "Indian politicians pandering more to minorities like Muslims and Christians" we , Christians are being harrassed, denigrated and literally beaten up on the streets and burnt alive and the anti conversion law formulated against us ,this is not happening to people of non Christian faiths in the US.

Amrita said...

hi JoAnna, it is an idol of Hindu goddess Gayatri Devi and she is shown to have more than one head.

Anonymous said...

Dear Amrita,

I was only referring to your comment – “Wonder if the Indian Parliament will ever commence with prayers from the Bible?” For not-so-well-informed outsiders, this may paint a very different picture of India. You are right – there is no prayer in our Parliament.

I am from Mangalore. So, I am not new to Christianity. I’ve seen how certain political factions have turned on Christians over the years. If I am right, these sentiments and attacks started in the past 10-15 years. Whatever may be the reasons behind it, I’m not very proud of it. A religion should make us better human beings, not bigots.

Regarding US and the treatment of other faiths - This is, by any definition, a very open society. I have said the same thing in my blog too. However, I hope it stays the same. Looking at the treatment Hindu priest got, I am not very optimistic!! Remember – the total population of non-christian religions in US (yes, including Judaism!!) is only 3.7%!! Hinduism is only 0.4% of the population. Compare it with population of non-hindu religions (almost 20%) in India. It’s one thing to be nice and tolerant when other faiths are almost non-existing. But it’s a very different matter when the other faiths form a sizable population in the society.

Would there be no attack on a non-christian priest when they form almost 19% of the population here? I am not very optimistic looking at the raw bigotry displayed by certain factions of Christian community here.

On the footnote: My wife is an American Christian. I am not an anti-Christian. In fact, these days I end up going to Church more often than temple. But I don’t support bigotry from both sides.

Anonymous said...

Hey vittal whoever you are.. Don't support minorities this much if you have so much of love for muslims go settle down in Iraq or Afghanistan there they will show you how non- muslims are welcomed nd treated & if you survive after visting these places jus visit australia and UK and ask students living there how they live