real object of retirement is lost, and the sacrifice again becomes in the
nature of a "bargain."

In the Bhagavad-Gita, we find these words:

"Renunciation and yoga by action both lead to the highest bliss; of the
two, yoga by action is verily better than renunciation of action. He who is
harmonized by yoga, the self-purified, self-ruled, the senses subdued,
whose self is the self of all beings, although _acting_, yet is such an one
not _affected_.

"He who acteth, placing all action in the _eternal_, abandoning attachment,
is unaffected by sin as a lotus leaf by the waters."

This is interpreted according to the viewpoint of the translator, even as,
among an audience of ten thousand persons, we may find almost as many
interpretations, and shades of meaning of a musical composition.

True, the Oriental meaning _seems_ to be the one that we shall cease to
love friends, relatives, and lovers, abandoning them as one would abandon
the furniture of one's household when outworn, and no longer of service.

We do not accept this interpretation.

To abandon one's friends, one's loved ones, yea, even one's would-be
enemies is equivalent to leaving one's companions on a sinking raft and,
without sentiment or remorse, save one's physical self from destruction.

No higher sentiment is known to struggling humanity than love of each
other. "Greater love hath no man than this, that he lay down his life for a
friend."

Oriental or Occidental philosophy, whichever may be presented to the mind,
as an unfailing guide, should be distrusted, if that philosophy prescribes
the abandonment of lover, friend, relative, neighbor, brother, companion.
That is, if we accept the dictionary meaning of the word "abandoned" as
translated into English.

A western avatar has said:

"I will not have what my brother can not," and in this we heartily concur,
not hesitating to say that until all human life shall accept and realize
the fullness of this message, we shall not, as a race, have attained to the
inheritance that is ours.

But shall we then believe, that the Oriental doctrine is erroneous? Not
necessarily.

Errors of interpretation are not only natural but inevitable, and this
interpretation of abandonment is in line with the idea of sacrifice (using
the word in its old sense of paying a debt), which prevailed throughout all
the centuries just passed--centuries in which the idea of God was estimated
by the conduct of the kings and monar