This lecture, delivered at Lahore by Swami Vivekananda, is one of his most comprehensive lectures on Advaita Vedanta. It is presented to the public in this booklet form to serve as a compendium of the Advaita doctrine.
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