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“Hard Rock” sells “Hindu Pizza”, upsetting Hindus
 
Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Punta Cana (Dominican Republic) has a “Hindu” pizza on its menu containing “chicken tikka masala with yogurt, cilantro and mint”, which has upset the Hindus.
 
Distinguished Hindu statesman Rajan Zed, in a statement in Nevada today, termed it as a trivialization of the oldest and third largest religion of the world with about 1.1 billion adherents and a rich philosophical thought.
 
Zed, who is President of Universal Society of Hinduism, urged Orlando (Florida) headquartered Hard Rock International ((HRI), whose tagline is “Love All, Serve All”; to immediately rename the “Hindu” pizza, and its Chairman Jim Allen to offer a formal apology.
 
Rajan Zed pointed out that Hindus were mostly vegetarian and selling a meat topped pizza in their name was highly inappropriate. No faith, larger or smaller, should be taken frivolously and mishandled for mercantile greed, Zed added.
 
Zed suggested that HRI and other companies should send their senior executives for training in religious and cultural sensitivity so that they had an understanding of the feelings of customers and communities when introducing new products or launching advertising campaigns.
 
“Hindu” pizza was available at the Pizzeto restaurant (in HRI’s largest property located in Punta Cana) which opens daily from 12pm to next day 7am and has a “Dress Code”.
 
HRI, whose history goes back to 1971, owns-operates restaurants, hotels, live performance venues and casinos globally and sells collectible fashion and music-related merchandise. It claims: “no one does hospitality like us” and it recently launched “Rock Om”; “an in-room yoga experience, energizing the body and soul through the power of music.” It delivers “Rock Om yoga kit” to each hotel room free of charge. Select HRI hotels also reportedly offer live, on-site yoga classes.

Mantras to start the day of Heber City Council in Utah for 1st time on June 7
 
Heber City Council in Utah (USA) will start its day with Hindu prayers on June seven, reportedly for the first time since its settling in 1859, containing verses from world’s oldest existing scripture.
 
Distinguished Hindu statesman Rajan Zed will deliver the invocation from ancient Sanskrit scriptures before the Council. After Sanskrit delivery, he then will read the English interpretation of the prayers. Sanskrit is considered a sacred language in Hinduism and root language of Indo-European languages.
 
Zed, who is the President of Universal Society of Hinduism, will recite from 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 prayer with “Om”, the mystical syllable containing the universe, which in Hinduism is used to introduce and conclude religious work.
 
Reciting from 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 Bhagavad-Gita, he proposes to urge councimembers and others present to keep the welfare of others always in mind.
 
Zed will also have a meeting with Mayor Kelleen Potter before the prayer.
 
Rajan Zed, a global Hindu and interfaith leader, has been bestowed with World Interfaith Leader Award. Zed is Senior Fellow and Religious Advisor to Foundation for Religious Diplomacy, Spiritual Advisor to National Association of Interchurch & Interfaith Families, on the Advisory Board of The Interfaith Peace Project, etc. He has been panelist for “On Faith”, a prestigious interactive conversation on religion produced by The Washington Post; and leads a weekly interfaith panel “Faith Forum” in a Gannett publication for over seven years.
 
Mark Anderson is the City Manager of Heber City, which is located in the neighborhood of three large reservoirs—Deer Creek, Jordanelle and Strawberry.
 
Hinduism, oldest and third largest religion of the world, has about 1.1 billion adherents and moksh (liberation) is its ultimate goal. There are about three million Hindus in USA.

Arizona State University using “spiritual principles of yoga” to heal addiction
 
Arizona State University (ASU), a public research university headquartered in Tempe (Arizona), is offering Yoga of 12-Step Recovery Classes combining the “spiritual principles and practices of yoga” and 12-step recovery.
 
These free seven-week long program for ASU students, staff and faculty; ending April 27; claims to offer “a safe space for healing and growth” if “you are in any form of recovery (addiction, eating disorders, etc.), seeking to overcome self-destructive or addictive tendencies or have been affected by the addictive behavior of others”. Its philosophy is stated as “the issues live in the tissues.”
 
Meanwhile, distinguished Hindu statesman Rajan Zed, in a statement in Nevada (USA) today, called this usage of spiritual principles and practices of yoga in addiction recovery “a step in the positive direction”. Zed urged all major world educational institutions and hospitals to explore various benefits yoga offered.
 
Yoga, referred as “a living fossil”, was a mental and physical discipline, for everybody to share and benefit from, whose traces went back to around 2,000 BCE to Indus Valley civilization, Zed, who is President of Universal Society of Hinduism, noted.
 
Rajan Zed further said that yoga, although introduced and nourished by Hinduism, was a world heritage and liberation powerhouse to be utilized by all. According to Patanjali who codified it in Yoga Sutra, yoga was a methodical effort to attain perfection, through the control of the different elements of human nature, physical and psychical.
 
According to US National Institutes of Health, yoga may help one to feel more relaxed, be more flexible, improve posture, breathe deeply, and get rid of stress. According to a “2016 Yoga in America Study”, about 37 million Americans (which included many celebrities) now practice yoga; and yoga is strongly correlated with having a positive self image.  Yoga was the repository of something basic in the human soul and psyche, Zed added.
 
ASU, whose history goes back to 1886 and which reportedly enrolls over 98,000 students, claims to be the “most innovative school”. Michael M. Crow is the President.