BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, USA, June 13, 2005: Amid chants of Sanskrit prayers, some 2,300 students of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) received their graduate and undergraduate degrees in Cambridge. Swami Tyagananda, the institution’s Hindu chaplain, offered an invocation in the language of the Gods to reflect the large international crowd’s spirit of unity and goodwill. “May we come together for a common purpose – common be our prayer, common our goal,” Tyagananda, told the institution’s 139th commencement exercise. “May the one and the same divine reality lead us. May we be granted clear understanding and the courage to pursue the goals of social justice, nonviolence, harmony and peace,” he said. MIT has 2,724 international students registered for the current academic year, with a bulk of them from India and China. Among the international students, 45 percent of the students and 41 percent of the scholars are from Asia. The institution has a vibrant Vedanta Society, which even holds a satsang and discourses every Tuesday including guided meditation, study and discussion. Even though the program is primarily designed for the MIT community, students from other campuses also attend.
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