Sankaracharya and an Untouchable: An exposition of Manisha Panchakam
Swami Ranganathananda
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.
This world is nothing. It is at best only a hideous caricature, a shadow of the Real. We must go to the Real. Renunciation will take us to It. Renunciation is the very basis of our true life; every moment of goodness and real life that we enjoy is when we do not think of ourselves.
-Swami Vivekananda