Most importantly, God dwells within our own hearts as the divine Self or Atman. The Atman is never born nor will it ever die. Neither stained by our feelings nor affected by the fluctuations of the body or mind, the Atman is not subject to our grief or despair or disease or ignorance.

Pure, perfect, free from limitations, the Atman, Vedanta declares, is one with Brahman. The greatest temple of God lies within the human heart. Vedanta further asserts that the goal of human life is to realise and manifest our divinity.

It is not only possible, it is inevitable. Our real nature is divine; God-realisation is the goal of human existence. Sooner or later, we will all manifest our divinity — either in this or in future lives — for the greatest truth of our existence is our own divine nature.

Finally, Vedanta affirms that all religions teach the same basic truths about God, the world, and our relationship to one another. Thousands of years ago the Rig Veda declared: “Truth is one, sages call it by various names.”

The world’s religions offer varying approaches to God, each one true and valid, each religion offering the world a unique and irreplaceable path to God-realisation.

The conflicting messages we find among religions practiced across the world are due more to doctrine and dogma than to the reality of spiritual experience. While dissimilarities exist in the external observances of the world religions, the internals bear remarkable similarities on the way to spirituality. — Vedanta.org (Concluded)