TO MANY THIS IS, NO DOUDT, A TERRIBLE IDEA; AND MOST OF US THINK THAT THIS IDEAL CAN NEVER BE REACHED; BUT THE VEDANTA INSISTS THAT IT CAN BE REALISED BY EVERY ONE

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 the Vedanta says, a man who does not believe in himself is an atheist. Not believing in the glory of our own s...oul is what the 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 the Vedanta insists that it can be realised by every one. There is neither man nor woman or child, nor difference of race or sex, nor anything that stands as a bar to the realisation of the ideal, because Vedanta shows that it is realised already, it is already there.

- Swami Vivekananda
The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda/Volume 2/Practical Vedanta and other lectures/Practical Vedanta: Part I (Delivered in London, 10th November 1896)