Each year the Hindu Spiritual Care Institute recognizes individuals whose service embodies karma yoga — action offered without attachment to its fruit. The Karma Yoga Honorees are named at the annual graduation ceremony, alongside a Guest of Honor and, in some years, alumni whose work has set an example for the cohorts that follow.
The recognition was introduced in 2020, when the HCI board voted to bestow a special certificate on two individuals it considered role models. This page is the complete record since, drawn from the ceremony recordings, the annual graduation souvenirs, and the Kutumba volumes.
2026
Abhijit Dam, MD, PhD
Karma Yoga Honoree
For his pioneering work in Hindu palliative/hospice care and related nursing training in rural eastern India. Dr. Dam is the author of The Quantum Connection in Kutumba Volume 6.
Payal Sawhney, LCSW
Community-Building Sevika · Karma Yoga Honoree
Executive Director, Saahas for Cause, Southern California. Honored for providing trauma-informed lifelines to South Asian immigrants.
Rita D. Sherma, PhD
Keynote Speaker · Karma Yoga Honoree, 2021
A pioneer whose determined, decades-long effort has established Sanātana Dharma studies with genuine academic rigor across the American higher-education landscape.
2025
Chinmay Pandya, MD
Karma Yoga Honoree
Pro Vice-Chancellor, Dev Sanskriti Vishwavidyalaya. Recognized for his inspired stewardship of Gayatri Parivar, DSVV, and guiding a selfless global community toward scientific spirituality.
Dilip Amin, PhD
Karma Yoga Honoree
Interfaith Marriage Guide. Recognized for pioneering interfaith marriage guidance and empowering future Hindu speakers with mentoring and training.
Uriah Kim, PhD
Guest of Honor & Keynote Speaker
President of the Graduate Theological Union, honored for providing visionary leadership for a prominent interfaith university and guiding it through major societal transitions.
2024
Mukund Acharya, PhD
Karma Yoga Honoree · Community Service & Author
In recognition of his pioneering initiatives to care for the elderly and people dealing with serious illness, by helping build Sukham, HSCI and Sandhya's Touch as novel community service organizations.
Mihir Meghani, MD
Karma Yoga Honoree · Physician & Community Leader
In recognition of his long-standing support of Hindu values and tradition by way of the founding and growth of the Hindu American Foundation (HAF).
▶ Watch the citation2023
Naras Bhat, MD
Karma Yoga Honoree · Physician and Distinguished Teacher
Highly respected in California, Dr. Bhat combines eastern wisdom with western medicine. He is a sought after educator, having touched many lives with his public speaking on managing heart disease, cancer, reversing stress, and burnout.
Sulochina (Jyoti) Lulla, MD
Karma Yoga Honoree · Physician and Interfaith Leader
A retired physician specializing in allergy, immunology, and pediatric lung diseases. She has clinical pastoral education, is a popular interfaith speaker, and has co-led the Gandhi Youth camp promoting Gandhian values of peace and nonviolence.
2022
Padma Shri M. R. Rajagopal, MD
Karma Yoga Honoree · Lifetime Achievement · Palliative Care Visionary
Widely known as the Father of Palliative Care in India, Dr. Rajagopal is an internationally known humanitarian, healer and thought-leader. He is Founder & Chairman of Pallium India. His pioneering work has earned him numerous awards, including a nomination for the Nobel Peace Prize.
Madan Arora
Karma Yoga Honoree · Hindu Samskara Guide & Leader
For over 25 years, Mr. Arora has served as a 24x7 resource for anyone in the SF Bay Area community seeking help with last rites guidance and support, as well as other Hindu samskaras.
2021
Prof. Rita D. Sherma, PhD
Karma Yoga Honoree
Graduate Theological Union, for pioneering Hindu academic studies.
▶ Watch the citationReverend Seifu Anil Singh-Molares
Karma Yoga Honoree
For promoting global spiritual care. He moved from global corporate leadership at Microsoft to work as a social entrepreneur, philanthropist, ordained Zen monk and global spiritual leader, defying the assumption that spirituality and entrepreneurship do not mix. Leading Spiritual Directors International, he enables the exchange of knowledge across faiths, traditions and cultures. Presented by Punit Mahendru.
▶ Watch the citation2020
Mahesh Bhavana
Karma Yoga Honoree
A software engineer whose working life has spanned networking, healthcare and food. For more than twenty years he has also kept a second, self-appointed vocation: visiting patients at Stanford as a volunteer attached to no organization, alongside service to several community organizations. Presented by Kailash Joshi.
▶ Watch the citation
Chaplain Bruce D. Feldstein, MD, BCC
Karma Yoga Honoree
Director of Jewish Chaplaincy Services at Jewish Family and Children's Services, and Adjunct Clinical Professor at the Stanford University School of Medicine. Named by vote of the HCI board as one of two role models who embody the spirit of karma yoga through selfless service to the community. Presented by Kailash Joshi. Chaplain Feldstein is co-author, with Gaurav Rastogi, of The Anatomy of a Spiritual Care Visit: An Architecture in Time.
▶ Watch the citationAlumni Who Inspire
Sharad Patel
CHT 2025 · Alumni Who Inspire, 2026
Author of What They Taught Me… in Kutumba Volume 6, and an advisor to the HSCI board.
Rajinder Gandhi, MD
CHT 2025 · Alumni Who Inspire, 2026
Author of The Joy of Serving in Kutumba Volume 6. After 50 years of medical practice, including 44 in Pediatric Surgery, he gave his retirement to spiritual care at the hospital where he had practiced.
In Their Words
What guests and honorees have said about the Institute from the graduation stage. Each is linked to the moment in the recording.
"I have seen HCI's growth and initiative since 2018. It's like a classic Silicon Valley startup — it's so impressive to see how much you've grown in just three years."
Congressman Ro Khanna
US House of Representatives, California's 17th district · CHT 2021 Graduation
▶ 3:00"To have a nine-month course on these sacred texts, to develop spirituality all for the purpose of serving the community, serving our country, serving the world — it is just such a remarkable initiative, and one that we desperately need in today's age."
Congressman Ro Khanna
CHT 2021 Graduation
▶ 4:08"I particularly am pleased with HCI's partnership with Berkeley's theological seminary. What an honor, what a validation, to have a partnership with such a great institution."
Congressman Ro Khanna
CHT 2021 Graduation
▶ 4:42"I believe that this Hindu Community Institute has created a viable model, not only for American society but also for India, and actually for all over the world."
Dr. David Frawley (Pandit Vamadeva Shastri)
Graduation Address, CHT 2021
▶ 6:00"I am overwhelmed by the scope of what you have thought and what you have already done, and I am happy to note the first Hindu chaplaincy course — I think probably in the world, or at least outside of India."
Dr. David Frawley (Pandit Vamadeva Shastri)
Graduation Address, CHT 2021
▶ 2:01"I think it's a wonderful initiative which is going to be increasingly important, not only in California and the rest of North America, but also should be taken to other parts of the world where Hindu communities exist, and especially in India."
Professor Subhash Kak
Professor of Computer Engineering; author on Hindu and Indian sciences
▶ 0:30"I am particularly pleased that this initiative wants the counselors to assist and help people irrespective of their ethnic or religious background — because the fundamental intuition that Hinduism provides is that all humans are equal."
Professor Subhash Kak
On the CHT Oath of Service
▶ 0:50"The work that HSCI is doing is incredible. The programs of HSCI fulfill major needs in our community."
Mihir Meghani, MD
Co-founder, Hindu American Foundation · Karma Yoga Honoree, 2024
▶ 0:54"I am so glad that HSCI has brought in diasporic Hindus from South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore and many other countries around the world."
Mihir Meghani, MD
Karma Yoga Honoree, 2024
▶ 2:19These passages are transcribed from the ceremony recordings and lightly punctuated for reading; the auto-generated captions they come from are not perfect. Each links to its moment in the recording, so the words as spoken are one click away. Institutional names appear as the speaker said them — HSCI was called the Hindu Community Institute, HCI, until 2023.
On the record. Every citation was read aloud at the graduation ceremony, and the recordings are the fullest source. Where a recording exists, this page links to it, and the summary here is drawn from what was said rather than quoted word for word — watch the ceremony for the citation as delivered. The remaining entries are reproduced from the graduation souvenirs, which carry fuller text than the Kutumba issue pages do.
One gap is worth naming rather than hiding: the printed honoree list in Kutumba Volume 6 begins at 2021, omitting 2020 entirely. The 2020 honorees are restored here from the Volume 5 archive and their citations recovered from that year’s ceremony recording.
Rev. Seifu Anil Singh-Molares appears in Kutumba Volumes 5 and 6 as “Seifu Anil Molares-Singh.” The form used here follows the 2021 graduation souvenir and the ceremony recording; the Kutumba spelling is in error.
Rev. Seifu Anil Singh-Molares appears in some Kutumba issues as "Seifu Anil Molares-Singh." The form used here follows the 2021 graduation souvenir.