Pain Is Not the End, It Is the Beginning

A boy named Ramu lived with his single mother after his father died in a road accident when Ramu was just five years old. His mother was not highly skilled, so she worked as a maid in the neighbours' houses. Ramu was a good boy who never gave his mother any reason to worry. When he was in the tenth grade, his mother also died, from a strange illness. Now he was completely alone in the village. Every morning he went to school, and afterward he worked at a tea stall. This was his routine until he turned twenty and graduated from a good college.

Around this time, he fell in love with Shilpa, the village head's daughter, who was very beautiful. The two of them were deeply in love with each other, but when her father found out, he arranged her marriage to the son of the head of a neighbouring village. Ramu was devastated, but there was nothing he could do — as an orphan in the village, he had no one to support him against the village head.

On the day of the wedding, Ramu tried to meet Shilpa one last time, but her father's bodyguards spotted him, beat him badly, and threw him out of her house. Shilpa was married and left for the neighbouring village. Heartbroken, Ramu decided to end his life. He climbed to the top of the village hill, intending to jump. Just then, a saint passing by saw him standing at the edge. The saint climbed up, approached him, and asked what was wrong.

Ramu told the saint that nothing good had ever happened in his life — his father had died when he was five, his mother when he was ten, and now the woman he loved had been married off to someone else, all because he was poor, powerless, and had no family to stand behind him.

The saint listened to his whole story, then asked how he planned to end his life. Ramu said he would jump from the hill. The saint asked, "And if you survive the fall, what then?" Ramu said he would drink poison. "And if you survive that too?" Ramu said he would hang himself. "And if you survive even that?" Ramu said he would cut his throat or slit his wrists.

The saint was quiet for a few moments, then said, "If you can find this many ways to end your life, imagine how many ways there must be in this world to survive — and to achieve power, fame, and wealth." He added that those who have no one in this world still have their body, their soul, and their own will — and that God is always with them. "If God has given you this much pain," the saint said, "it is because you are meant for something great in this life." Ramu was stunned by the saint's words and decided not to end his life. He thanked the saint and went back down to his home.

The next day, Ramu woke up early and went to the city to start a business. He began with a small tuition class, which grew into a full tuition academy, and many of his students went on to achieve great success because of his guidance. After earning fame, recognition, and money, he decided to return to his village, leaving a trusted friend to manage the business in the city.

Back in the village, he started a small school that taught up to the fifth grade, and later sponsored promising students to continue their studies in the city and receive tuition from his academy there. In time, many of these students secured good positions in private and government jobs, and some returned to help Ramu run his school. Every family in the village came to feel deep gratitude toward Ramu and regarded him as one of their own. When the village head saw all this, he felt great remorse — for it was he who had broken Ramu's heart and driven him to the edge of ending his own life.

Moral of the Story

No matter how much life takes from you, it can never take away your ability to begin again. The very pain that feels like an ending is often the proof that you are being prepared for something greater — so choose to live, to rebuild, and to turn your struggle into strength for yourself and for others.