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.
Learning and wisdom are superfluities, the surface glitter merely, but it is the heart that is the seat of all power. It is not in the brain but in the heart that the Atman, possessed of knowledge, power, and activity, has its seat.
-Swami Vivekananda