Here is some interesting bit of news from the halls of MIT. Hope itdoesn't gag those netters who find everything wrong with India orHinduism. Nevertheless hope y'all enjoy it. --Ram______________________________________Issue Date: Sunday, June 12, 2005Shanti, shanti rings out in MIT K.P. NAYAR Washington, June 11: Five years after a Hindu priest gave the openingprayer on Capitol Hill for the first time in the history of the USCongress, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) has followedsuit. The 139th commencement ceremony of MIT, which has produced 59 NobelPrize winners in all, began this year with an invocation in Sanskritand English. "May we come together for a common purpose. Common be ourprayer, common our goal," prayed Swami Tyagananda. "May the one and the same Divine Reality lead us. May we be grantedclear understanding and the courage to pursue the goals of socialjustice, non-violence, harmony and peace." The swami, who belongs to the Ramakrishna order and heads its Bostonbranch, is MIT's Hindu chaplain. He has been in Boston since 1998,assigned to the Vedanta Society there. The presence of Swami Tyagananda apart, India was all over theceremony, reflecting the dominant presence of Indian and IndianAmerican students at prestigious US educational institutions. Amongthe speakers was Barun Singh, president of the Graduate StudentCouncil, who saluted the Class of 2005. "We celebrate the hope and promise of times to come in the world weall share. You have demonstrated the ability to reason. Be open tounconventional solutions. Keep alive your passion and drive. The worldneeds this, and it waits for you," Singh said. The president of the senior class presented MIT's president, SusanHockfield, with a senior class gift — $31,000 this year — for a newstudent lounge. The senior class president's name is Rohit Gupta. Senior class gift is a tradition at MIT. Since 1935, they have so farraised $138.56 million for MIT. An Indian American from California, Sandhya Sitaraman, a brain andcognitive sciences major, was among those graduating this year. Shewas a resident academic adviser for three years at MIT's women's dorm,McCormick Hall. "When I was accepted to MIT, many boys were surprised that a girlcould get accepted to this institution," Sitaraman said. "My fouryears here have been absolutely wonderful in terms of helping me growas an individual, and I leave this place with many fond memories." MIT said in a press release that the invocation in Sanskrit andEnglish "reflected the large international crowd's spirit of unity andgoodwill" at the commencement ceremony of this venerable institution. Reflecting the diversity of the occasion, the chaplain said in hisprayer: "May the one and the same Divine Reality who is the Father inheaven of the Christians, Holy One of the Jewish faith, Allah of theMuslims, Buddha of the Buddhists, Dao of the Chinese faith, AhuraMazda of the Zoroastrians, The Great Spirit of the Native Americansand Brahman of the Hindus, lead us from ignorance to knowledge, fromdarkness to light, from death to immortality." He began his invocation with a quote from Swami Vivekananda thatsuited the occasion: "Education is the manifestation of the perfectionalready within us." He concluded with the chant, shanti, shanti,shanti. The opening prayer at the US Congress by a Hindu priest in 2000 was onthe occasion of then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's visit.Venkatachalpathi Samuldrala, a priest from the Shiva Vishnu Hindutemple in Parma, Ohio, was brought to Capitol Hill at the initiativeof Sherrod Brown, a Congressman from Ohio. During this year's Commencement ceremony, 1,094 MIT students receivedbachelor's degrees, 1,078 received master's degrees, 257 gotdoctorates and 12 students were given engineering degrees, accordingto an MIT press release. _______________________________________________ Assam mailing list [email protected] http://pikespeak.uccs.edu/mailman/listinfo/assam
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