isgraces of the world such as lust and greed. In order to achieve the Truth and become one with God, one must remove desire from his life. In the final stanza of the same poem, Rumi sheds some light on the Islamic mystic's view of the world as under a constant state of bondage due to worldly objects and desire for them. He directs his fellow truthseekers to "abandon life and the world, and find the life of the world" (54). "Life and the world" represent all of the problems and things that stand in the way of the devout soul. In order to clear the view of the Truth, all distractions and temptation must be removed. In another display of abstination from worldly desire, Margery Kempe discusses in her autobiography, The Book of Margery Kempe, the struggles she has with things regarding lust and sexual oriented matters. After a traumatic moment in her life, Kempe attempted to devote her life to Christ despite all odds and ridicule. Even after totally ignoring Kempe's desire to remain abstinent for the rest of her life, her husband still forces himself upon her. To this, she replies, "I may not deny you my body, but all the love and affection of my heart is withdrawn from all earthly creatures and set on God alone" (Kempe, 140). It is simply human to desire sex, yet Kempe's union with God and her yearning for the Truth is so strong that she will not allow herself to succumb to him. Heartbroken, she wept during sexual intercourse with her husband. However, he too later took a vow of chastity despite his previous actions. Kempe reveals her extreme devotion to God in her defiance of her husband's lusty feelings. Though she recognized her status as servile because of her marriage, she stood firm and retracted her lust. The Truth comes by way of extreme focus on it as a goal and a prize; therefore, all human desires are simply misleading paths to worldly pleasure and can never result in any possible eternal reward. However, with th...
