Military's first Hindu chaplain brings a diverse background

By CHRIS CARROLL
Stars and Stripes
Published: June 2, 2011

WASHINGTON — As a child in New Delhi and other cities of India’s northern Plains, Pratima Dharm moved easily through a kaleidoscopic swirl of religions and cultures.

“My neighbors were Muslims, my neighbors were Jews, Buddhists, Jains, Hindus, Christians,” she said. “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 feels the same decades later. The U.S. Army, where she holds the rank of captain, and the United States itself, where she immigrated just months before the 9/11 attacks, were founded on the idea that people can be united while worshipping differently, she said.

Dharm, 40, has been named the first Hindu chaplain to serve the Department of Defense. Hinduism, with nearly a billion adherents worldwide — but fewer than 1,000 active servicemembers, according to Pentagon statistics — was the largest of the world faiths not represented by a chaplain.

Though the Army hasn’t yet publicized her appointment, the rumor has spread among Hindu servicemembers around the world. And Dharm, a chaplain on the medical staff at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, has started getting emails from them.

“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.”

Still, most of her time at Walter Reed is spent reaching across faiths to minister to anyone who needs it. That’s a key responsibility of military chaplains, she said.

“Some of them come back having lost their buddies, some of them come back having lost their limbs, and things have changed for them forever,” she said. “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.”

Dharm speaks easily of Christian teachings. A unique aspect of her story is that until this 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 organization that operates in the United States. A Washington, D.C.-area religious teacher who interviewed her for the organization before giving her an endorsement said her multifaith background is an advantage.

“She knows Christian theology, and she has a great grasp of Hindu theology,” said Kuntimaddi Sadananda of Chinmaya Mission’s Washington center. “This means she can help everyone.”

She didn’t convert from Christianity to Hinduism, she said.

“I am a Hindu,” she said. “It’s how I was raised and in my heart of hearts, that’s who I am.”

But — and perhaps it is hard for some Western Christians to understand — she hasn’t rejected Christianity either.

“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.”

An Indian-American Army Reserve veteran said that during his years in the service, he was always comfortable meditating in Christian services and talking to non-Hindu chaplains about spiritual matters.

“Hinduism has a strong interfaith philosophy,” said Chaturbhuj Gidwani.

But having a Hindu chaplain available, even if only by email, will make one important group very happy — military mothers who want to make sure their children can practice their faith properly. Sometimes that means explaining cultural fine points.

“Mothers would ask, can you give proper rites to the soldiers?” he said. “For example, if I die, I don’t want to be buried, I want to be cremated. I don’t want to eat beef, I want vegetarian food.”

The Air Force officer who led the Pentagon action group that established Chinmaya West as a chaplain endorsing agency said Dharm’s story is testimony to American pluralism and democracy.

“I get emotional when I talk about it,” said Lt. Col. Ravi Chaudhary, a cargo plane pilot and acquisitions officer. “When you consider Pentagon bureaucracy ... when people here saw that in a fundamental way this is an expression of American values, people moved so quickly to accomplish this.”

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.

It isn’t to advocate for their own faiths, but to bind up the wounded spirits soldiers of any background receive in the brutality of battle.

“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.”

carrollc@stripes.osd.mil

A turning point

What would you do if you were brought up from a very young age to become the savior of humanity? What would you do if you were picked from obscurity and poverty in India, separated from your family, with the exception of your younger brother, and educated and groomed in the best colleges of Europe? Could you be true to yourself? Jiddu Krishnamurti was such a man, please explore the strength of self resolve and dedication to the truth.

Within You / Without You

My dear friend James Ford Roshi posted a wonderful blog today at Monkey Mind, which is titled "Dawning of the Age." In his post he mentioned that he was speaking with a few people about the Bealtes having and association with the late Maharishi Mahesh Yogi and that they not only had not heard of the Guru or even knew what Transcendental Meditation was.

This took me back to my early formative years when I discovered a song on the White Album that changed my young life by opening me to a world I could only imagine back then. I posted the lyrics in response to James' post and in the process happily found the above video which delighted me to no end. Sadly both George Harrison, who wrote "Within you - Without you," as well as John Lennon, who wrote "Imagine," which was another song that changed my life, are no longer with us. I am not sure how life would have been had I not listened to their music during those formative years of my life. Thanks for the reminder James, I guess its time to return to the present and post this blog.

Al Halláj Mansur

Al Halláj Mansur was a legendary Iranian Sufi Master who lived between 858—922 ACE and is reputedly one of the earliest Islamic Sufi Masters recorded in history. He is said to have lived his life as a dervish wandering through the vast expanse of the Middle Eastern Desert teaching and sharing his love of Allah (God) wherever he went. He would often go into trance where his only explanation of the state of mind he connected with was that it seemed he had become one with all creation, existence, and with Allah.

In 922, Halláj was convicted of blasphemy by the leaders of a local religious community and was executed through the slow tortuous process of pouring molten lead into his ear. The case against him was that he had claimed to have discovered God within himself and that he had repeatedly declared, “Ana al-haqq” which means; “I am the truth.” This statement may seem innocuous to those of us in the West, but following the tradition of the Sufi’s who would purposefully build ambiguity into their songs and poetry, this statement also had a dual meaning and he was also saying: “I am God!” Jesus Christ, was quoted as saying, “I am the way; I am the truth and I am life.” (John 14:6) Indirectly, Jesus was also executed for the very same reason. Halláj and Jesus both spoke of the truth but what is this truth to which they allude? How many of us know what the truth is to which these men referred?

Six hundred years ago Kabir was born in India in 1398 AD. He is said to have lived for 120 years and legend has it that he finally relinquished his body in 1518. The period of his life is also said to be the beginning of Bhakti Movement in India. Kabir, who was reputedly an illiterate weaver, ranks among the world’s greatest poets. He lived in the Indian city of Benares about a hundred years before William Shakespeare gained popularity in Europe. In India he is perhaps the most quoted of writers, but, at the same time, in his life he criticized all the religious sects of his country. He refused to allow anyone to classify him as Hindu, Muslim, Sufi or Bhakta. However, he is still mentioned with respect and honor by even those most tradition–bound. This paradox can be accounted for by the fact that Kabir spoke the Truth. He, simply, had wisdom. Kabir, whose present–day followers claim was born of a virgin, performed many miracles which included raising people from the dead, said; “Behold but One in all things; it is the second that leads you astray.” A famous poem by Kabir is:

what is seen is not the truth,
what is cannot be said.
trust comes not without seeing,
nor understanding without words.
the wise comprehends with knowledge,
to the ignorant it is but a wonder.
some worship a formless God,
others worship God’s various forms.
how is God unlike these mental attributes?
only the Knower knows,
a music that cannot be written.
what is the tune of your own song?
Kabir, with what awareness
will you overcome this severe illusion?
awareness alone is the key.

Sakyamuni Buddha sat under a bodhi tree for six years, and following his enlightenment, is reported to have said, “In all the universe I am the only One.” Following the now infamous encounter with a crowd of people intent on stoning an adulterous woman to her death, Jesus Christ was questioned by the Temple Priests about his family heritage and who exactly he was. Jesus simply said, “My Father and I are One.” Yet, how many of us know who or what is this One with which these men claimed union?

The various religions of the world recorded their teachings using the stories and metaphors that form their philosophies and theologies and are some times unique to a particular culture. However, if we look below the surface there is a common foundation that is based upon the experiences of the rare individuals (the Sage or the Saint) who actually transcended their ordinary world. Furthermore, our perception of the ordinary world is actually established and maintained by dependence upon our intellect and force of habit; conversely, it is by nurturing the more powerful functions of mind, such as direct perception, that we can eventually learn to transcend our own mental bondage. Depending upon our logical thought processes and by using our cognitive faculties we perceive imaginatively distinguished parts; however, if we can shift the focus to our before-thinking mind (direct perception) we get a chance to perceive the whole from which the parts are conceptually separated. Cognitive function therefore serves to separate us from the unified truth and from the kingdom of God that the Sages are all jabbering about.

The name “Pharisees” means “the separated ones” and, as Jesus Christ indicated repeatedly, the Pharisees were not only separated from other men, but also from God. Like so many of us, the Pharisees were separated from the truth by their insistence upon an exclusively conceptual understanding of the world.

It should not be surprising, therefore, that the words of sages from all religious traditions seem to defy logic and rationality, what we call common sense. After his enlightenment, Bankei, a famous seventeenth-century Japanese Zen Master, said, “When I woke up, I realized that I could never die because I had never been born.” Speaking about the same sort of realization, Jesus Christ said; “In very truth I tell you, Before Abraham was, I am.” (John 8:58)
Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi was probably the most famous Indian sage of the twentieth century. He was renowned for his saintly life, for the fullness of his self–realization, and for the feelings of deep peace that visitors experienced in his presence. So many people came to see him at the holy hill of Arunchala where he spent his adult life that an ashram had to be built around him. He answered questions for many hours every day, but never considered himself to be anyone's guru.

At the age of sixteen Ramana Maharshi left his home, his family, and all he knew. He felt drawn to Arunachula—a small mountain in Southern India. His only possessions were a piece of cloth to cover himself, and a walking stick. Little by little word of a sage living alone on Arunachula mountain became known. Many felt drawn to sit in his presence. Ramana Maharshi, was on his deathbed when his followers began crying and tearfully asked, “Master, are you leaving us?” Ramana laughed and asked, “Where could I possibly go?” He was not saying that nothingness awaited him, nor was he denying the physical death of the body. He was saying that who he is, in truth, couldn’t possibly die. Ramana Maharshi, like Al Halláj Mansur, Jesus Christ, Sant Kabir, Sakyamuni Buddha, and Bankei Roshi, had realized his unity with the One who never dies. He had discovered what Jesus Christ called “my Father.”

Each of us has the fundamental choice of whether to attend to the present moment or whether to get lost in our cognitive processes. Through directly perceiving this moment, we can discover the Infinite. From our viewpoint the choice is quite clear.

a finger pointing at the moon

the fourteenth century Kashmiri Poetess named Lala said about enlightenment and her direction;

in this state there is no Shiva,
nor any holy union.
only a somewhat something moving
dreamlike on a fading road.

I can't add one thing to this statement, it is already complete.

Bede Griffiths

Alan Richard "Bede" Griffiths (17 December 1906 – 13 May 1993), also known as Swami Dayananda (Bliss of Compassion), was a British-born Benedictine monk and missionary who lived in ashrams in South India. He was born at Walton-on-Thames, England and studied literature at Oxford University under professor and Christian apologist C. S. Lewis, who became a lifelong friend. Griffiths recounts the story of his conversion in 1931 to Catholicism while a student at Oxford in his autobiography The Golden String.

In December, 1932, Griffiths joined the Benedictine monastery of Prinknash Abbey near Gloucester, where he was ordained to the priesthood in 1940. Griffiths spent some time in the sister abbey in Scotland but, after two decades of community life, he moved to Kengeri, Bangalore, India in 1955 with the goal of building a monastery there. That project was unsuccessful, but in 1958 he helped Francis Acharya to establish Kristiya Sanyasa Samaj,Kurisumala Ashram (Mountain of the Cross), a Syriac rite monastery of Syro-Malankara Catholic Church in Kerala. In college Bede had originally studied the Classics, "Latin," "Greek," and "Hebrew." When he found himself in India awaiting orders from the hierachy, he decided that he could spend his time and learn Sanskrit. The local teachers only had texts from the Upanishads in Sanskrit, so this was Fr. Bede's first exposure to the ancient texts.

Once he read these texts in the original language, he started delivering the High Mass translated in Sanskrit instead of Latin as it was delivered at the time.

In 1968 he moved to the Shantivanam (Forest of Peace) Ashram in Tamil Nadu, the ashram had been founded by the French Benedictine monk Abhishiktananda in 1950.

Although he remained a Catholic monk he adopted the trappings of Hindu monastic life and entered into dialogue with Hinduism. Griffiths wrote twelve books on Hindu-Christian dialogue. Griffiths' form of Vedanta-inspired Christianity is called Wisdom Christianity.

Fr. Bede Griffiths was a proponent of integral thought, which attempts to harmonize scientific and spiritual world views. In a 1983 interview he stated,

"We're now being challenged to create a theology which would use the findings of modern science and eastern mysticism which, as you know, coincide so much, and to evolve from that a new theology which would be much more adequate."

Griffiths died at Shantivanam in 1993. The archives of the Bede Griffiths Trust are located at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, California.

Bhagawan Ramana Maharshi

Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi was probably the most famous Indian sage of the twentieth century. He was renowned for his saintly life, for the fullness of his self–realization, and for the feelings of deep peace that visitors experienced in his presence. So many people came to see him at the holy hill of Arunachula where he spent his adult life that an ashram had to be built around him. He answered questions for many hours every day, but never considered himself anyone’s guru.

At the age of sixteen, Ramana Maharshi left his home, his family, and all he knew. He felt drawn to Arunachula—a small mountain in Southern India. His only possessions were a piece of cloth to cover himself, and a walking stick. Little by little, word of a sage living alone on Arunachula Mountain became known. Many felt drawn to sit in his presence. Ramana Maharshi was on his deathbed when his followers began crying and tearfully asked, “Master, are you leaving us?” Ramana laughed and asked, “Where could I possibly go?” He was not saying that nothingness awaited him, nor was he denying the physical death of the body. He was saying that whom he is, in truth, could not possibly die. Ramana Maharshi, like Al Halláj Mansur, Jesus Christ, Saint Kabir, Sakyamuni Buddha, and Bankei Roshi, had realized his unity with the One who never dies. He had discovered what Jesus Christ called “my Father.”

Each of us has the fundamental choice of whether to attend to the present moment or whether to get lost in our cognitive processes. Through directly perceiving this moment, we can discover the Infinite. From our viewpoint, the choice is quite clear.

Ramana Maharshi practiced the huatou of "Who am I?" that was also expressed by Dahui Chan Master, who is the modern progenitor of Linji Zen practice. A simple seeker in India discovers the same truth as a fourteenth century Zen Master. It is a testament of the universal mind which flows through all of us.

Paramahamsa Nithyananda

Raj and I celebrate his 50th Birthday

I have a very close friend who is an excellent Italian, Asian and Indian Chef and has had several very successful restaurants in Mumbai, India as well as in Southern California. His name is Raj and he grew up in Mumbai and then traveled to Germany to recieve his cullinary eduction and his apprentiship under a few great masters of cusine in Europe. He eventually made his way to Southern California and set up shop, opening two great restaurants here.

Raj and I are the same age, give a month or so and both are very spiritual 'old men' who love to discuss our various philosophies. Raj studies yoga and I zen, and we often banter back and forth with one another till wee hours of the morning. About a year ago, I came across a youtube piece on Zen Koans by one of the Guru's that Raj respects. The piece is a bit long; however, it is worth watching a Master from the Vedic Tradition take on Zen Koans in a talk.

By the way, Paramahamsa Nithyananda has really good hair and really good teeth. Probably growing up in the Kerala region of india without too much sweets and some of the most healthy natural foods on earth have helped him and his disposition.

Atma Upanishad Three

The Upanishads are among a number of sacred works cherished by Hindus. According to Juan Mascaró in his translation of the Bhagavad Gita, the Upanishads that were written in prose may date from about 700 BCE, while those written in verse were probably composed much later. No one knows how far back the oral tradition goes but it is estimated to be perhaps 1500 BCE. Nothing at all is known about the authors of these brilliant texts.

"The supreme Self is neither born nor dies. It cannot be burned, moved, pierced, cut, nor dried. Beyond all attributes, the supreme Self is the eternal witness, ever pure, indivisible, and uncompounded, far beyond the senses and the ego... It is omnipresent, beyond all thought, without action in the external world, without action in the internal world. Detached from the outer and the inner, this supreme Self purifies the impure."

It is no wonder that Sakyamuni Buddha, who was immersed in such a rich heritage came to some of the insights that he shared with his followers for the forty seven years of this teaching career. These insights were not all just spontaneously arrived at, they are rather, the synthesis and the culmination of all the wisdom that preceded him. In fact, the Dhamapada says that Sakyamuni visited all the great Spiritual Teachers of his time. He, even for a time, studied with the Great Mahavira who was the 24th and the last Tirthankara (a human who attains 'Perfect Knowledge'.) Mahavira is known as the founder of Modern Jainism in India and was born about 40 years before Sakyamuni.

The traditions of Awakening are ancient, and go back farther than any of us can imagine. Today, we have the ability to take pictures of planets in the nether reaches of our solar system with unmanned probes of unimaginable complexity. We can take pictures of the background radiation and glimpse what perhaps started this cosmos a very long time ago. Yet, with all of these advances, we continue to kill one another. We continue to steal, and to lie, and to create havoc out of a pure and clear universe. It seems that the wise ones have been around for a very long time, it is my aspiration that perhaps we can all come together with a greater understanding of humanity, and perhaps a more loving view of what it means to be human.

Source: The Upanishads. Trans. Eknath Easwaran. Tomales, CA.: Nilgiri Press, 1987. ISBN 0915132397: Atma Upanishad 3, p. 242
Photo: Angkor Wat in Sepia by Paul Lynch, JDPSN