<strong><span class="subhead">The divine is everywhere</span></strong></p><p><em><strong>Arvind Khetia, engineer and a Hindu:</strong></em> The strength of every religion rests on its core spiritual truths. The eternal and universal nature of Hinduism originates from the eternal and universal truths of Vedanta given in the Upanishads and the Bhagavad Gita. </p><p>The sages of ancient India meditated on the nature of reality and determined that beyond the relative truths of apparent diversity perceived by the senses, at a deeper spiritual level of consciousness, there is an underlying absolute reality (Brahman). They saw this as the divine presence at the core of all existence and concluded that the Supreme Being (Brahman) has manifested itself as the universe and is also present in the universe as an all-pervading consciousness. </p><p>Thus, they proclaimed the highest spiritual truth, that there is nothing that is not divine, and the God we are searching for is the inner self (Atman) of all beings. Swami Vivekananda described this philosophy of nondualistic Vedanta as &ldquo;the fairest flower of philosophy and religion &hellip; where human thought attains its highest expression.&rdquo; One&rsquo;s inner divinity is realized when the mind is purified by the spiritual disciplines of meditation and yoga. </p><p>The root cause of all misery is our delusion of separateness, which results in selfishness, greed, hatred and violence. Therefore, the fulfillment of the ideals of universal brotherhood and universal ethics lies in our recognition of the spiritual oneness of human life.</p><p><strong><span class="subhead">God is the highest power</span></strong></p><p><em><strong>Rushdy El-Ghussein, former president of the Islamic Society of Greater Kansas City:</strong></em> The highest truth in Islam is that God is one and unique. This is expressed in the Islamic declaration of faith that &ldquo;There is no god but the God.&rdquo; God is the creator, the sustainer and the cherisher of the universe; there is nothing that should be worshipped besides him.</p><p>To God we belong and to him we return. He provided mankind with guidance through his messengers and the revelations given to them. All of God&rsquo;s messengers came with the same message and same teaching. The essence of all revelation is the same: to believe in God, obey him and do right.</p><p> Muslims believe that the only revelation that was recorded almost immediately at the time of its revelation, collected together shortly thereafter and maintained intact until the present is the Qur&rsquo;an. Millions of people around the world and down through the years have memorized the Qur&rsquo;an in its original Arabic and kept it pure.</p><p>Through his mercy and kindness, God made mankind his deputy on earth. The Qur&rsquo;an encourages mankind to observe and explore God&rsquo;s creation to recognize his signs. It exhorts them to practice and follow truth, justice and moral conduct. All acts of worship in Islam serve as reminders to keep us close to God and mindful of his commands and instructions to submit and humble ourselves to the one creator God.</p><p><hr class="infobox-hr-separator" /> <div class="infobox"> <strong><span class="infobox-head"></span></strong><br /> Send your questions for one of our panels of religion columnists to Helen Gray at The Star, 1729 Grand Blvd., Kansas City, MO 64108. Send e-mail to <a href="mailto:hgray@kcstar.com">hgray@kcstar.com</a>.</p><p></div>