Nationalistic and Religious Lectures of Swami Vivekananda
Swami Vivekananda
In India, a large number of people are drawn to Swamiji because of his great love for his country. He is called a 'patriot saint'. To them he was more an awakener of India than an awakener of souls. But many devotees and followers of Swamiji the world over are drawn to him because of his spiritual message of strength, hope, and courage which opens up new vistas to them. This book satisfies the needs of both the patriots and the devotees. These great orations of the Swami should form a subject of serious study for all Indians to recapture the spiritual values that we are fast forgetting on account of the rising tide of materialism.
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