Common Ground for Religions

Net Neti

Does seeing depend upon our own efforts or does it depend upon something outside? It depends upon ourselves; our efforts take off the dust, the mirror does not change. There is neither knower, knowing, nor known. 
"He who knows that he does not know, knows It." He who has a theory knows nothing.

The idea that we are bound is only an illusion.

Religion is not of this world; it is "heart-cleansing", and its effect on this world is secondary. Freedom is inseparable from the nature of the Atman. This is ever pure, ever perfect, ever unchangeable. This Atman you can never know. 
We can say nothing about the Atman but "not this, not this".

"Brahman is that which we can never drive out by any power of mind or imagination." (Shankara).

       - Swami Vivekananda

From Lower Truth to Higher Truth

We are Azad!

Fearlessness is not possible as long as we have even God over us; we must be God. 
What is disjoined will be for ever disjoined; if you are separate from God, then you can never be one with Him, and vice versa. If by virtue you are joined to God, when that ceases, disjunction will come. 
The junction is eternal, and virtue only helps to remove the veil. 

We are âzâd (free), we must realise it. 

"Whom the Self chooses" means we are the Self and choose ourselves.

               - Swami Vivekananda

Desires are Poisonous

With all powers comes further misery, so kill desire. 
Getting any desire is like putting a stick into a nest of hornets. 
Vairâgya is finding out that desires are but gilded balls of poison.

          - Swami Vivekananda

Go beyond Gunas

In order to be free we have to pass through vice to virtue, 
and then get rid of both. 

Tamas is to be conquered by Rajas, both are to be submerged in Sattva; then go beyond the three qualities. 

Reach a state where your very breathing is a prayer.

              - Swami Vivekananda

You are That already!

The  Vedas cannot show you Brahman, you are That already; they can only help to take away the veil that hides the truth from our eyes. 
The first veil to vanish is ignorance; and when that is gone, sin goes; next desire ceases, selfishness ends, and all misery disappears. 

This cessation of ignorance can only come when I know that God and I are one; in other words, identify yourself with Atman, not with human limitations. Dis-identify yourself with the body, and all pain will cease. 
This is the secret of healing. 

The universe is a case of hypnotisation; de-hypnotise yourself and cease to suffer.

                    - Swami Vivekananda

Seek Highest

No  amount of ignorance or wrong ideas can put a barrier between the soul and God. 
Even if there be no God, still hold fast to love. 
It is better to die seeking a God than as a dog seeking only carrion. 

Choose the highest ideal, and give your life up to that. 
"Death being so certain, it is the highest thing to give up life for a great purpose."

                    - Swami Vivekananda