Gaining and Losing ..

On one occasion Sadhu Sundar Singh and a companion were travelling through a pass high in the Himalayan mountains. At one point they came across a body lying in the snow. Sundar Singh wished to stop and help the unfortunate man, but his companion refused, saying, "We shall lose our lives if we burden ourselves with him." But Sundar Singh would not think of leaving the man to die in the ice and snow. As his companion bade him farewell, Sundar Singh lifted the poor traveller on to his back. With great exertion on his part, he bore the man onward, but gradually the heat from Sundar Singh's body began to warm up the poor frozen fellow, and he revived. Soon both were walking together side by side. Catching up with his former companion, they found him dead, frozen by the cold.

In the case of Sundar Singh, he was willing to lose his life on behalf of another, and in the process found it, in the case of his callous companion, he sought to save his life but lost it.