Talks Excerpt 478. Swamiji: Swami Vivekananda changed the definition of atheism.
From Mother Radha’s recordings of Swamiji.
Swami Vivekananda said, ‘The old religion says that he who does not believe in God is an atheist.’ This was because the old people knew that they were the children of God, a divine part of God. Nowadays not only do people not believe in God they even forget that they are the children of God. Swami Vivekananda went on to say, ‘The new religion is that he who does not believe in himself is an atheist.’
How many of you think you are the body? Know that to that extent, you are an atheist.
May Swami Vivekananda bless you, and bless the whole world to know that they are not the material body. When you think you are material you will suffer from lust, greed and anger. These, Sri Krishna says in the Bhagavad Gita Chapter 16 verse 21, are the gateways to hell. If you believe you are divine then you will become ‘de-hypnotised’, you will become selfless, you will see divinity in all.
You must study the Bhagavad Gita, the scripture of Sri Krishna who was a full manifestation [Avatar] of God. You can read the Upanishads and the Brahma Sutras but please start with the Bhagavad Gita straight away. There are only seven hundred verses in this scripture.
The free-to-read or download, 396-page Flipbook version of Swamiji’s biography is available by clicking HERE. If you’d prefer the PDF version, please click HERE.
These recordings or the excerpts from them, were made from the early 1970s onward, by Mother Radha, a close devotee of Swamiji’s and edited for uploading here by our gurubhai and her son, Brother Tim. Please be mindful that what Swamiji was saying may have been specific to an individual or a group of people with him, at the time.