Shankaracharya and an Untouchable - An Exposition of Manisha Panchakam

This book is compiled from a lecture Swami Ranganatananda Mj gave at the Ramakrishna Math Hyderabad in Nov 1992. A lecture given by the Swami on Shankaracharyas greatness has been appended to this book. Societies discriminate. They discriminate on the basis of color language religion caste nationality and for countless other reasons. While preaching lofty principles human beings have forgotten to value them in their own daily life. The present text presents much insight into this problem of discrimination. The Manisha Panchakam a set of five verses by Shankaracharya has been read and interpreted by generations as the essence of Advaita Vedanta. An encounter between the saint and an untouchable provides the background to the text and in his characteristic way Swami Ranganathanandaji extracts a radical social message from this encounter.