An encounter between a saint and an untouchable provides the background to the Manisha Panchakam, a set of five verses by Shankaracharya. Swami Ranganathananda extracts a radical social message from this encounter. This book thus not only educates the reader about the true import of Vedanta, but can also help mitigate our social problems.
The important thing is how much less you think of the body, of yourself as matter -- as dead, dull, insentient matter; how much more you think of yourself as shining immortal being. The more you think of yourself as spirit, the more eager you will be to be absolutely free from matter, body and senses. This is the intense desire to be free.
-Swami Vivekananda