Rep Arvind Venkat read a prayer from the Isha Upanishad at the Pennsylvania House Wednesday and said he wanted to say the prayer from the Hindu text as this year is the 50th anniversary of the opening of the Sri Venkateswara Temple in Penn Hills. The temple is the first freestanding Hindu temple that was built by Hindu immigrants in North America in 1976, Venkat said as he read out the Sanskrit text and then the English translation.
Arvind Venkat is an Indian-born American physician and Democratic politician who serves in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives. He represents District 30 in Allegheny County, covering suburbs of Pittsburgh, and first took office in January 2023 after winning the 2022 election; he was re-elected in 2024. Born on June 6, 1974, in Madurai, India, he later grew up in the United States, primarily in Michigan. He is noted as the first Indian-American to serve in the Pennsylvania legislature and one of the few physicians in the state assembly in recent decades.
