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This is lifelong work, and to be honest with yourself, every step will be counted in life. In yoga, we call it Vairāgya—the tendency to renounce. Vairāgya is something like love. When one falls in love with someone, it does not matter what parents or friends will say; you go to your beloved. Perhaps your parents do not like him or her, but you do not care because you are in love with that person. That is Vairāgya. It does not matter what people say; you are in love with God, and for that, you are practicing. If someone you like very much is living far away and there is no apparent way to reach them, you will find and try many things to get there. Yesterday, we had one person here in our lecture. He wanted to come so much; he came from 30 or 40 kilometers away. The bus left, the second bus did not come, he waited for an hour, and it began to rain. He had never hitchhiked in his life, but he went onto the road and hitchhiked. Someone brought him here, and he came. You see, that was his feeling, his longing. Another person will say, "Well, there is no bus, and okay, it doesn't matter, I won't go." It means that one was not serious about this. And so it is with God or our spiritual achievement. If you lose your Vairāgya, if you lose your interest, you lose that love, you lose the bhakti. When you lose the bhakti, you lose everything. Consider a bird without wings, like the kiwi bird which has no wings. Now it is in a room and a big, hungry cat is coming. The bird would like to fly away, but it has no wings. So the cat of death will enter our room very soon. If you have the wings of Vairāgya and bhakti—devotion—you will take off. You will fly, and the cat will be so angry with herself. The cat will say, "I could catch so many creatures; this one, not one flew away." This means we need renunciation, meaning that we shall find the essential, and that is the main thing. Other things we shall renounce, and we should have love for that essence. Therefore, inner renunciation is the most important renunciation. If you have not inwardly renounced, your efforts for external renunciation will be unsuccessful. Externally, you are renouncing, but it is not true renunciation; you are giving, but not from the heart. You are giving because you must give it. Recording location: New Zealand, Wellington, Swamiji's World Tour