Georgetown University Gets Hindu Chaplain, First in Any US College
Brahmachari Sharan trained as a priest in ashrams in India, before going to Edinburgh to complete his PhD.
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Georgetown University in Washington, which was started as a Catholic institution has a diverse student base, with 300 Hindu students in attendance across undergraduate and graduate programs.
To help them continue with their religious studies, Brahmachari Vrajvihari Sharan joined them as the first Hindu chaplain in an American college, according to a Washington Post report.
Georgetown officials said that they want students to experience spiritual growth during their time there and they already have a rabbi and an imam as chaplains.
Sharan led the first weekly service on Sunday, where he interspersed the puja with religious information as explanation to the rituals.
Students have been conducting their own weekly religious gatherings but they exclaimed that they would not have been able to conduct one the way the chaplain did.
They also said that the members of the Hindu Students Association would struggle to put up sermons that would match with the expectations of the students.
Sharan trained as a priest in ashrams in India, then went on to complete his PhD in Sanskrit from the University of Edinburgh. He has taught at universities in Wales and London.
In a religion which is so vast and has hundreds of goddesses and gods, he was seen as a welcome addition to the theistic studies program and the spiritual nurturing of the students of the university.
Source: Washington Post