Pratima Dharm is US Army's first Hindu chaplain

New York, Jun 4 (PTI) Pratima Dharm, a serving woman
captain in the American Army, has been named the first-ever
Hindu chaplain in the US Defence Department.
Dharm, 40, is the first Indian-American woman to be
appointed as US Military's Hindu chaplain.
Coming from a diverse background, she migrated to
America just months before the 9/11 attacks. She was born in
New Delhi.
"My neighbours were Muslims, my neighbours were Jews,
Buddhists, Jains, Hindus, Christians," she was quoted as
saying.
"My close friends in school represented all the
different faith groups, and it never occurred to me then that
we were different or there was anything strange about it."
She said the US Army, and the United States itself
were founded on the idea that people can be united while
worshipping differently.
Hinduism, with nearly a billion adherents worldwide —
has fewer than 1,000 active service members, according to
Pentagon statistics — was the largest of the world faiths not
represented by a chaplain.
Dharm, a chaplain on the medical staff at Walter Reed
Army Medical Centre, has started getting emails from her
friends though the official announcement is yet to be made.
"I'm already on the job," she said.
"There's this tremendous sense of hope and relief that
there is someone who understands their story at a deeper
level, coming from the background I do."
"To be able to sit down and show compassion for
soldiers I have never met before is part of the message of
Christ as well as [the Hindu teachings] of Vedanta."
Until the past year, she wore the cross of a Christian
chaplain on her battle fatigues.
When she started on active duty in 2006, she was
endorsed by the Pentecostal Church of God, based in Joplin,
Mo.
But she's now sponsored by Chinmaya Mission West, a
Hindu religious organisation that operates in the United
States.
"She knows Christian theology, and she has a great
grasp of Hindu theology," said a spokesman of Chinmaya
Mission.
"This means she can help everyone."
She didn't convert from Christianity to Hinduism.
"I am a Hindu," she said.
"It's how I was raised and in my heart of hearts,
that’s who I am."
"In Hinduism, the boundaries are not that strict," she
said.
"It is to base your life on the Vedantic traditions,
and you can be a Christian and follow the Vedantic
traditions."
Dharm spent a year at a forward operating base near
Mosul, Iraq, in 2007 and 2008.
She received a Bronze Star and an Army Commendation
Medal, among other awards, but the most important thing she
came home with was a deeper understanding of what Army
chaplains are there for.
"You learn to grieve with someone you don't know on a
deep level," Dharm said.
"You watch someone die in front of you and comfort the
soldier left behind who had a connection to that person.
"Things of that nature you don't learn in seminary."
Anju Bhargava, member of the President Obama's Advisory
Council on Faith-Based and Neighbourhood Partnerships, said
that it was an exciting news.
"Hindus are making history. She is not only the first
Hindu Chaplain in Department of Defence but a woman - Shakti
in the trenches."