US university gets its first ‘director for Hindu life’

WASHINGTON: Georgetown University in the US has appointed a first full-time director for “Hindu Life” in recognition of the growing number of Hindu students at the varsity.

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“I am pleased to announce the appointment of Brahmachari Vrajvihari Sharan as Georgetown’s first full-time director for Hindu Life and the first Hindu priest chaplain in the United States,” said Rev Howard Gray, interim vice-president for mission and ministry.

Sharan joins the Georgetown University from the University of Edinburgh, where he served as honorary Hindu chaplain since 2010. He will also serve as chaplain-in-residence to first-year students in New South Hall.

“Sharan was drawn to Georgetown by its commitment to interreligious student formation, and by the vibrancy of the university’s Hindu community,” Gray said in a blog post.

The university has some 400 Hindu university and faculty members. From its foundation in 1789, Georgetown, the nation’s oldest Catholic and Jesuit university, has been open to students of every religious tradition, he wrote.

Sharan is a senior monk at Shri Golok Dham Ashram (Vrindavan and New Delhi) where he was initiated in 2003.

He completed ritual training at the Vishwanath Sannyas Ashram in Varanasi and Delhi.

Since completing his PhD in Sanskrit at Edinburgh in 2015, Sharan has served as lecturer of Asian religions at Cardiff University.