Sponsors of the 51st annual Nuuanu Valley Interfaith Thanksgiving this year found in U.S. Rep.-elect Tulsi Gabbard a keynote speaker whose core values of diversity, unity and service to others are shared by many religions.

As the first Hindu-American to be elected to Congress, Gabbard said Tuesday she was raised "in a multiracial, multicultural and multifaith family."

"The true meaning of religion to me is not about labels," she told an audience of 200 at the Honpa Hongwanji Mission of Hawaii. "It’s about spirituality, about living a personal relationship with God through prayer and meditation, bhakti yoga and using my time and energy on a daily basis, trying to be of service to others, which is also called karma yoga."

The crowd — which included members of Jewish, Christian, Muslim, Baha’i, Unitarian and Buddhist faiths — laughed and cheered most loudly when she said, "In the Demo­cratic caucus we have the most diverse Congress ever, and for the first time we have minorities and women outnumbering Caucasian men."

Gabbard will represent Hawaii’s 2nd Congressional District, replacing U.S. Rep. Mazie Hirono.

"As I look out among you tonight, I am reminded of the desperate need for unity and celebration of our diversity, that all of you are a living example of it, and the rest of the country and the world … could learn many lessons just by standing here and celebrating it with you tonight," she said.

By holding interfaith services every year, "you underscore the reality of our community being united and working towards the common good," she said. "You are the perfect example of the unity that we celebrate through the aloha spirit."

Gabbard said she and her siblings were brought up by a mother who was raised a Methodist but is a practicing Hindu and a Catholic father (Hawaii Sen. Mike Gabbard) who also engages in mantra meditation.

"I spent time during my youth studying the Bhagavad-Gita as well as the teachings of Jesus Christ in the New Testament. … Growing up, I never felt I had to choose one faith over the other, and because of that I had to go deeper than a superficial religious label. I spent time searching for the essence of each of these great scriptures in order to understand the real meaning of religion and spiritual life. I grappled with the questions, asking: Who am I? What is my purpose in life, and where can I find true happiness?"

She added, "We (as children) were all raised with a strong set of values centered around service, and understanding that we would be successful if we put others first before ourselves."

She quoted Mahatma Gandhi, "the world’s most famous Hindu, who said, ‘The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others,’" adding that many different faiths advocate the same belief, citing Taoism’s Lao Tsu and the Catholic Church’s St. Francis of Assisi.

These teachings came alive in a personal way about 15 years ago when Gabbard became disturbed with those who polluted the environment, and felt she had to do something about it. She co-founded the nonprofit Healthy Hawaii Coalition in 1996 with her father to teach children about the importance of being caretakers of the earth.

"As we took the program to elementary schools across the state, I’ll never forget that first day and the happiness I felt in my heart when I saw that light bulb go off in those squirmy kids’ eyes, and the excitement that they showed once they understood that the small things they did in their lives would affect the ocean that they enjoyed playing in, the water they knew they had to drink," she said. "Their eagerness to understand how their everyday lives affected our home made me happy, and it was the happiness beyond anything else I experienced in my life. I had finally felt full of purpose."

She said she realized that as children of God, everyone is part of one big family, and "that if I live my life just for myself, no matter how hard I tried to find happiness, no matter where I looked, something would always be missing unless I lived up to this deeper ideal and value of service."

The recipient of donations from this year’s service is Aloha Harvest, a nonprofit organization that collects donated food and delivers it to social service agencies that feed the hungry on Oahu.