A wealthy man requested an old scholar to
wean his son away from his bad habits.
The scholar took the youth for a stroll through a garden. Stopping
suddenly he asked the boy to pull out a tiny plant growing there.
The youth held the plant between his
thumb and forefinger and pulled it out. The old man then asked him to pull out
a slightly bigger plant. The youth pulled hard and the plant came out, roots
and all. “Now pull out that one,” said the old man pointing to a bush. The boy
had to use all his strength to pull it out.
“Now take this one out,” said the old
man, indicating a guava tree. The youth grasped the trunk and tried to pull it
out. But it would not budge. “It’s impossible,” said the boy, panting with the
effort.
“So it is with bad habits,” said the
sage. “When they are young it is easy to pull them out but when they take hold
they cannot be uprooted.”
The session with the old man changed the
boy’s life.
Moral: Don’t wait
for Bad Habits to grow in you, drop them while you have control over it else
they will get control you.