Fasting is recommended by all nations and creeds. It helps the receptivity of the heart, the purity of the intellect, and the health of the body. Regulation of food is an important work. It is food that imparts strength and weakness, purity and foulness to all the organs of the body. It must be pure in quality and moderate in quantity.--_Letter 84._ ALIENATION FROM THE DESIRE-NATURE. Alienation from the personality is the first step to acquaintance with God. The one is a necessary condition for the other. All aspirants find fault with, and impose tasks on, the desire-nature, so that this wall of separation be pulled down, and a way be found to the Divine Sanctuary. So long as thou lookest down upon a single soul as inferior to thee, thou art self-conceited, and blind to the Divine Presence. "If thou hast knowledge, put that knowledge into practice; solve thy difficulties by knowledge and practice (combined)." ... The knowledge of all the Sages culminates in the realisation that they do not know. There has been a single Master of Woe in each cycle, protecting others under his charge. On the path of asceticism, a considerable amount of prolonged exercises is a necessary preliminary to initial success, which, too, is doubtful. On the other hand, he who is trained on the Path of Woe has for his first stage the Purity of Devotion.... Be of good cheer, in spite of thy lack of devotion and the heavy weight of thy sins. "Never despair of the Divine Grace"--it affords protection to all sinners. Poor as thou art at present, do not be dejected: "The Lord has created a beautiful form for thee," and "made Man after His image."--_Letter 85._ SELF-TOLERATION. He who is on good terms with the self is dead, though apparently living; he whose life is in God is really living, though apparently dead. Death is not of the body alone: the _inner_ man may die in the same way as the _outer_. Men are perishing in the sea of desires. Their Saviours are the Prophets who help them to cross the sea of desires and merge in the Divine Unity.... The ungodly live in the form only and are dead in the _spirit_, since true life consists in human nature responding to the Divine Life. On the other hand, "Those who have sacrificed themselves on the Path of God are not to be considered as dead, but as living with their Lord." ... "The Divine treasury is too full of prayers already. Put in a grain of humble devotion if you can."--_Letter 86._ HIDDEN DIFFERENCES OF STAGES. Men differ, in the gradations of their progress, as heaven from hell, though they are so similar in their outer forms. All men--whether in the past, the present or the future--are the centres of mysteries. Each body treasures a Divine Secret; each Heart feels impelled to the Path; each Soul radiates a glory unfathomable by human and angelic intelligences.... The best and holiest men had an obscure life. * * * * *