(_a_) Vices. Their commission in the mind or with the body does not serve His Cause. (_b_) Too much of lawful enjoyments. This is the root of all failures and sins. (2) The second group is purely divine, but may be turned to selfish use by an impure motive, _e. g._, meditation, prayer and asceticism, if practised with the object of gaining the respect of the people. (3) The third group is apparently worldly but really divine, _e. g._, eating for the sake of the Divine Service; marriage with the object of begetting a child who shall repeat "There is no God save =Allâh="; making a small fortune with the object of peacefully serving God. In short, the world is that which gratifies the cravings of desire in the present, and is of no use after death; that which may help on the other side of death is not worldly.... He who appropriates the world to the limit of _bare_ necessity (food, garment and a dwelling-house) breaks his bonds; whereas he who seeks luxurious living exposes himself to endless troubles.... The Great Ones have remarked that the lowest stage of purity shows itself as an inner craving for well-being after death and a diminution of worldly desires, ending in a gradual estrangement from this world, and the realisation of other worlds.... The work is harder than you imagine. All worldly pleasures are sorrows and sufferings.--_Letter 74._ RENUNCIATION OF THE WORLD. Service of the Lord is impossible without renunciation of the world. When thy body works for the world and thy heart longs for it, how canst thou serve Him? The heart is one; it cannot attend to two things at the same time. The world and the Lord are wide apart as east and west. The more you approach the one, the farther you recede from the other.... Renunciation is twofold:-- (1) Human renunciation, _i. e._ the renunciation which can be achieved by a man. It consists of three stages: (_a_) Ceasing to seek for the worldly objects one has not. (_b_) Casting off the worldly objects one has. (_c_) Ceasing to entertain worldly desires in the mind. (2) Superhuman renunciation, which consists in complete indifference to the world. It can be accomplished, with the help of the Divine Grace, by one who has achieved success in all the three stages of Human renunciation. The second is the true renunciation with many Sages. The expulsion of worldly desires from the mind is a most difficult task. You will find many cases of _apparent_ renunciation, with an _inner_ longing for the world. But when you cease to seek for what you have not, and cast off what you have, the Divine Grace will enable you to drive out worldly desires from your mind. Relinquishment of the world will not give _real_ renunciation, so long as the heart still craves for the world. The Prophets were master-ascetics. One of Them was Solomon, who possessed the sovereignty of all the worlds, and was certainly an ascetic.