Even After Repeated Failure Life Does Not Stop — Pradip's Story

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Even After Repeated Failure Life Does Not Stop — Pradip's Story

✍️ Dr Prodyut Acharya  |  📅 25 September 2026  |  ⏱️ 9 min

"Not the blow of misfortune, but rather the outlook itself determines a person's mental happiness or sorrow."

Have you ever seen someone — who has a family, a business, children — yet there is an invisible emptiness in his eyes? From outside it seems what could this person lack, but coming close you understand that somewhere inside a wound has not dried. Pradip is exactly such a person. Reading his story, perhaps you will find some chapter of your own life — because this suffering is not his alone, this suffering is of our generation.

Not getting a job, losing a loved one, considering oneself unworthy — these feelings are familiar to millions of Bengali youth. But why does someone remain calm even in sorrow, and someone else remain restless even in happiness? The answer to this question is hidden in the stories of two lives of two young men — Pradip and Ananta.

Pradip — Who Has Everything, Yet Nothing

A village boy Pradip, now thirty years old. He has his own steel furniture factory, where twenty-two to twenty-five workers work every day. As there is not much competition around, the business is growing day by day. He married two years ago, and now he is also the father of a son. At the time of marriage, many offers came from his in-laws' house — Pradip did not take them. Self-respect is part of his nature.

Pradip's father was a government officer in the Forest Department. Having grown up in a well-off family and completed graduation, Pradip had entered the attempt for a job many times. He failed repeatedly. In that difficult time, my acquaintance with him began, then friendship. Since then he respects me a great deal.

Today he is established. Economically secure. But while talking with me I have seen many times — he could not hide the tears in his eyes.

The Words of That Evening

One evening Pradip suddenly came and sat. He had come after finishing the work at the factory, there were still oil stains on his hands. After remaining silent for a while he said —

"Dada, do you ever feel that even after getting something, it was not received?"

I was surprised. I said — "Meaning?"

Looking out of the window he said — "When I did not get a job, I thought perhaps if I did business my mind would be all right. The business is going quite well now. But the mind..."

He did not say the rest.

In his college life he had a deep relationship with a girl. That love of four years broke only because Pradip did not get a job. The girl's family did not accept him, and married her off to a government officer. The pain of not getting a job and the sorrow of losing a loved one — the two had merged into one.

Since then, the more he has received, the more the wound of that non-receiving has perhaps become fresher. Because every gain reminds him — "This I got, but that I did not."

From a distance everything seems normal, perfect, yet deep inside Pradip's mind a kind of restlessness has condensed — just as beneath calm water a current keeps flowing.

Ananta — Who Has Nothing, Yet Has Peace

Then I remember Ananta.

That twelve-year-old boy — has lost his father, his studies have stopped, he has to work in a tea shop. What Ananta has lost in life, its weight is much more than Pradip's. Yet I have never seen that weight in Ananta's eyes. There is no complaint against life, no lament. He goes along with whatever he has received — indifferently, naturally.

And Pradip — who has a family in the house, a business, a child — he wakes up every day embracing a non-receiving in the middle of his chest.

The difference between the two is not in the circumstances. The difference is in the eyes of seeing.

Ananta has built life with what he has. Pradip has measured life with what he does not have.

Philosophical Explanation — What Is the Reason for This Difference?

Its answer lies in a person's inner philosophy — in the outlook towards life.

Ananta had chosen the path of acceptance and reception. Without lamenting for what he has lost or not received, he has tried to be content by accepting the reality of his own existence. This acceptance has given him a kind of natural peace.

On the other hand, Pradip has chosen the path of comparison and craving. His eyes are always fixed on that non-receiving — not getting a job, losing a loved one. So the gains and successes of life become meaningless to him.

In Buddhist philosophy there is a name for this mental state — "Trishna" (craving). It does not let the mind taste what is there, but keeps the mind drawn towards what is not there.

In astrology we call this the influence of Rahu — Rahu is never satisfied, always wants more, does not remember what he has received. In Pradip's life Rahu is working exactly in this way. By understanding the position of Rahu in the Kundali, it is possible to find the roots of this dissatisfaction — and remedies accordingly.

Marcus Aurelius wrote in his diary, for himself —

"What troubles us in life is not actually the events, but our notions about those events."

Pradip has not failed in life — he has failed in his own notion. Not getting a job was merely an event. But he has turned that event into a lifelong story — "I am unworthy."

What I Could Not Say

That evening after Pradip left, I sat for a long time.

I thought — what shall I say to him? Shall I say that what you have lost was your destiny, and what you have received is also a part of your destiny? Shall I say that the girl who moved away because you had no job, was actually not for you?

I did not say. Because these things are understood by the intellect, it takes time to hold them in the heart.

Only one task remains for Pradip — to change the story that he keeps telling about himself. Because astrology says — the planets create circumstances, but we ourselves construct the meaning of those circumstances. The power to change that meaning is also ours.

The soil on which he builds furniture, on that very soil he has built his future. This much recognition itself can be the first step of his liberation.

"Acceptance brings tranquillity, and comparison gives birth to sorrow."