Advaita Vedanta is the pinnacle of Indian thought, and Sanskrit texts dealing with Advaita Vedanta are the crest-jewel of Sanskrit literature. This work is intended to help scholars easy access to the basic ideas of Advaita Vedanta.
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