Pratima Dharm is US Army8217;s first Hindu chaplain

Coming from a diverse background,she migrated to America just months before the 9/11 attacks. She was born in New Delhi.

8220;My neighbours were Muslims,my neighbours were Jews,Buddhists,Jains,Hindus,Christians,8221; she was quoted as saying.

8220;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.8221;

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.

8220;I8217;m already on the job,8221; she said.

8220;There8217;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.8221;

8220;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.8221;

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 she8217;s now sponsored by Chinmaya Mission West,a Hindu religious organisation that operates in the United States.

8220;She knows Christian theology,and she has a great grasp of Hindu theology,8221; said a spokesman of Chinmaya Mission.

8220;This means she can help everyone.8221;

She didn8217;t convert from Christianity to Hinduism.

8220;I am a Hindu,8221; she said.

8220;It8217;s how I was raised and in my heart of hearts,that8217;s who I am.8221;

8220;In Hinduism,the boundaries are not that strict,8221; she said.

8220;It is to base your life on the Vedantic traditions,and you can be a Christian and follow the Vedantic traditions.8221;

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.

8220;You learn to grieve with someone you don8217;t know on a deep level,8221; Dharm said.

8220;You watch someone die in front of you and comfort the soldier left behind who had a connection to that person.

8220;Things of that nature you don8217;t learn in seminary.8221;

Anju Bhargava,member of the President Obama8217;s Advisory Council on Faith-Based and Neighbourhood Partnerships,said that it was an exciting news.

8220;Hindus are making history. She is not only the first Hindu Chaplain in Department of Defence but a woman Shakti in the trenches.8221;