Srila Gurudeva: There was a boy and he used to take so much sweets. Due to that, he had so much itching here and there in his body. His father and mother told him, “You should not take so many sweets. You should stop, otherwise so many disease will come. So you should stop eating so many sweets.” But the boy was not listening. As usual he was eating so many sweets and thus his disease was increasing. The father of that boy went to his Gurudeva, his holy master, and told him, “My son is eating so many sweets. You should tell him that he should not eat so much. Otherwise I think that his disease will increase.”
His Gurudeva told him, “Bring your son here after two days, then I will tell him. Otherwise, I will not tell him this.” After two days, the father took his son and went to the Gurudeva. Then Gurudeva took that boy in his lap and caressing his hairs, he told that boy, “Boy, you should not take so much sweet. From today, you should stop. Otherwise, more serious diseases will come and it will be very painful for you. So please, you should stop taking sweets.”
The boy told that Gurudeva, “Yes, I will do this. I will follow your order.” When the father returned home with his son, he was in wonder that, “The boy is not taking sweets at all! He stopped completely.” After some days he saw that, “Oh, his disease, all his itching is totally gone.” That father again came to his holy master, his Gurudeva, and asked him, “When I took my boy to you the first day and I told you about this, why could you not tell him to stop taking sweets on that day? But after two days you told me to bring him and then you told him, ‘Don’t take sweets.’ Why? I want to know. I see that now my boy is already cured and there is no disease.”
Hearing this, that Gurudeva began to smile and then he told him, “On that first day when you came and told me, up till that time I was myself still eating sweets. So, if I am taking sweets and I will tell that boy to stop, he would not be able to follow. I must stop myself first, practice myself and then mature myself and then tell anything to anyone. Then he can follow, otherwise he can’t.”
[Spoken by Srila Gurudeva on December 19th, 1998, Bali, published as part of the Bhakta Bandhav Anthology, Volume 24]