s "holding his body, head, and neck even and unmoved, remaining
steady, looking at the tip of his own nose," etc. These ridiculous
posturings and idiotic attitudes cannot, as has been well said by
Barth, but lead to idiocy or to a loss of all mental aptitude.

The ultimate aim of Yoga is to reduce the soul to tranquillity and
quiescence, by abstracting the mind from all things earthly, and thus
leading to cessation from action; for action is said to lead to new
fruit, which must be eaten by the soul; and for this purpose new
births are necessary, which delay final absorption in the deity.

The spirit of Hinduism is thus evident in its exaltation of this
method of life. It has made the path of abstraction and the
elimination of every thought, emotion, and ambition, its ideal. In
other words, man, by self-repression and the effacement of every
faculty of mind and body, is to attain unto final beatification or
emancipation. This is an end in itself, according to the Hindu plan of
life.

In Christianity, on the other hand, self-realization and not
self-effacement must be the consummation of life. The way of the
Cross, that is, the path of self-denial, is indeed most rigidly
enjoined; but it is the denial of the lower self, the meanest passions
of the soul, in order that the highest faculties may find complete
realization. Thus, in Christianity, also, asceticism has a place of
value; but it is as a means to a higher end, and that is, perfect
growth and development of the man unto the "measure of the stature of
the fulness of Christ."

(3) It also possesses the distinction of emphasizing works or action
as necessary to salvation. Indeed, the Bhagavad Gita is unique among
the books of India in teaching that action is superior to
renunciation.

Sri Krishna says: "Renunciation and pursuit of action are both
instruments of happiness. But of the two, pursuit of action is
superior to renunciation of action."

This is, indeed, strange teaching in the realm of Hindu literature,
where action is universally taught to be both in itself an evil and to
be the cause of sin. Krishna, by some magic of his own power, here
reverses the ordinary Hindu teaching. "He who has controlled his
senses and who identifies his self with every being, is not tainted,
though he performs actions." "He who, casting off all attachment,
performs actions, dedicating them to Brahm, is not tainted by sin, as
the lotus leaf is not tainted by water." Indeed,