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weeks more will be needed.' The child said, 'What is the matter?' The old man said, 'You know, I know, but this woman won't understand -- she is mad! I have been trying hard but I love sweets.'
The child said, 'You are right. I have also tried hard. Not that I don't want... I understand all these people are good people and they are all advising me for my good, but I cannot stop.'
The old man said, 'Wait three weeks more.' And after three weeks when they came back the old man said to the child, 'It can be done, my boy. I have done it! And look: I am a very old man, still I have been able to do it. Give it a try.' And the child said, 'Okay, master. I will try!'
The woman was puzzled. She said, 'This is the first time that the child has taken any interest in any adviser. In fact he insists every day, "When are we going to the old man?" He reminds me, "Now three weeks are over and we should go." You are the first man with whom he has agreed willingly.'
The old man said, 'The reason is he can understand that I have tried on my own first, I have practised it. He can see my sincerity; it is not mere advice. He knows it has cost me much. I love sweets, I have always loved sweets. Sugar may be white poison -- so what? One is going to die sooner or later. And I am an old man; whether I live two years or three years or seven years or ten, what does it matter? -- one day one has to die. For his sake I practised it, and I give my word that I will never eat sweets, I will never again use sugar in my life. If this can help the child, then it is okay, otherwise what else can I do?' This sincerity worked; the child dropped sweets that very day.
Missionaries have been doing much work all over the world -- missionaries of all religions -- trying to help people with things they have not practised themselves...
One can be a helper only if one has first helped himself. It begins from your very innermost core. You have to be the basic experiment of transformation.
This is my approach. So I don't say to my sannyasins: go and help humanity. Enough of that kind of help has been done and enough harm has been done through that kind of help.
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