The fifth Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Sholom Dovber of Lubavitch, once explained the difference between two forms of tzadikim.
There is one category of a tzadik who is completely removed from this world. He perceives and senses the world not as it exists in its physical form, but within its G-dly source—as a spiritual emanation of G-d. His reality is the supernal world of Emanation (Atzilut), and therefore he is completely detached from anything worldly.
There is a second type of tzadik who does associate with the world. However, he sees that physicality too is actually G-dliness. When he eats food, he does not feel a corporeal pleasure, but a G-dly one.
The founder of the Chassidic movement, Rabbi Yisroel Ba-al Shem Tov, was associated with the second set of tzadikim. Rather than being aloof from the world, he was within it. It was in the worldliness that he felt G-dliness.
Accordingly, it is understood regarding a statement that the Ba-al Shem Tov said about himself. He remarked that like the prophet Eliyahu, he too, is able to go to Heaven in his body without dying, but that he wishes to fulfill the statement of the verse (Bereishis 3:19), “for dust you are, and to dust you will return.[1]”
As followers of the Ba-al Shem Tov, we too must follow the second path. Our mandate is not to be ascetics who escape the realities of this world, but to infuse this world with G-dliness. Ultimately, it is this second path that will bring Moshiach, which is described as a time where G-dliness is perceived in every facet of this world.
[1] Sefer HaSichos, Toras Shalom, Pg. 51
