This book is comprised of lectures and talks of Swami Prabhavananda on spiritual life. The Swami had an extraordinary ability to make even the most subtle of enigmatic ideas exciting and comprehensible. He contributed a great deal to the understanding of Vedanta in the West and also facilitated a better understanding of all the religions of the world.
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