In this book the author has laid down some practical steps for all sincere spiritual aspirants eager to make spiritual progress. He specially deals with the preliminary stages of practical religion. His valuable suggestions from his own experiences will be a useful guide to all religious aspirants whom modern life assails with various doubts and difficulties in the practice of religious precepts. A very informative book for all earnest beginners in spiritual life to help them form a clear picture of the spiritual ideal, the gulf between them and the goal, and the ways to fill up that gulf.
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