This booklet comprises the text of the speeches delivered by Jawaharlal Nehru, the first Prime Minister of India, on Sri Ramakrishna and Swami Vivekananda, on two different occasions. Since the dawn of these two spiritual luminaries on the horizon of modern India, they have evoked a deep interest in the subject of religion and spirituality among a wide circle of people so as to include intellectuals, philosophers, scientists, politicians, statesmen and others, to mention just a few. In this light, it would be extremely interesting for all the admirers and devotees of Sri Ramakrishna and Swami Vivekananda to know what the well-known statesman of India had to say on them.
Those who have succeeded in attaching or detaching their minds at will have succeeded in Pratyahara, which means gathering towards, checking the outgoing powers of the mind, freeing it from the thralldom of the senses. When we can do this, we shall really possess character; then alone we shall have taken a long step towards freedom. Before that, we are mere machines.
-Swami Vivekananda