Swami Gnaneswarananda recalled:
One time we were weeding the Math garden. Swami Premananda was watching us and he noticed that one of the boys was not pulling the weeds out by the roots. He called out to him: “My boy, you must pull the weeds out by the roots, otherwise, you are simply fooling yourself and wasting time. If you do not realize the necessity of rooting out weeds in the garden, how can you weed out your old faults and tendencies? How can you understand the real meaning of spiritual life?” And he added, significantly, “Weed them out, boys! Weed them out, roots and all.” (Source: God Lived with Them)
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One day Premananda asked a brahmacharin to cut fodder for the cows and sent him to the cowshed. The brahmacharin began his duty with overconfidence, and shortly cut his finger. Premananda stopped by the cowshed on his usual rounds to see how different work was going on. The boy tried to conceal his bleeding finger, but could not evade Premananda’s vigilant eyes. He said sharply: “You are careless! I asked you to cut the fodder, not your finger. Didn’t I? You can see your finger bleed. But do you know how it makes another’s heart bleed? I thought you were a very clever boy, but you have proved yourself a fool and me a greater one. Shame on you! You considered the work very trivial!” Then he took the boy to the dispensary and had his finger bandaged. (Source: God Lived with Them)