VEDANTA IN EVERYDAY LIFE
Swami Vivekananda
Vedanta
teaches men to have faith in themselves first.
As certain religions of the world say that a man who does not believe in
a personal God outside of himself is an atheist, so Vedanta says that a man who
does not believe in himself is an atheist.
Not believing in the glory of our own soul is what Vedanta calls
atheism. To many this is, no doubt, a
terrible idea; and most of us think that this ideal can never be reached. But Vedanta insists that it can be realized
by everyone. One may be either man or
woman or child; one may belong to any race – nothing will stand no bar to the
realization of this ideal, because, as Vedanta shows, it is realized already;
it is already there.
Vedanta recognizes no sin, it recognizes
only error. And the greater error, says
Vedanta, is to think that you are weak, that you are a sinner, a miserable
creature, and that you have no power and you cannot do this and that. Every time you think in that way, you rivet,
as it were, one more link in the chain that binds you down. You add one more layer of hypnotism on to
your own soul. Therefore, whosoever
thinks he is impure is wrong and throwing a bad thought into the world.
We must
always bear in mind that in Vedanta there is no attempt at reconciling the
present life-the hypnotized life, this false life which we have assumed – with
the ideal. But this false life must go,
and the real life, which is always existing, must manifest itself, must shine
out …. Everything is ours already – infinite purity, freedom, love, and power.