Once in a small ancient Indian village there lived a blind mother and a blind father who had one and only son who was’t blind at all.The blind parents raised him with greatest difficulty and wanted to educate him very well. When the boy grew up he realized the difficulty the parents had gone through and had a great determination to enter the school called gurukul in ancient India.This school was located far away from where they lived.

The blind parents’ one and only son made it to enter the gurukul or the school because of his great determination. He learnt carpentry, drawing, archery, horse riding and farming with the help of his villagers who were very compassionate to see him doing well and representing the village.As there was an aptitude test to test one’s skills on these to enter the gurukul the villagers helped this one and only son of blind parents with all the skills needed. Day and night the villagers trained this boy with great love.

The day arrived for the aptitude test.The villagers all together collected gold coins to cover the traveling expenses for the blind parents to accompany their son to the gurukul or school located far away from their village by cart. The cart was controlled by the oldest person of the village who represented the village while accompanying this boy to the school.

The son performed very well at the aptitude test that day and the gurukul master was pleased to have him in his school. The blind parents who could not see their child performing very well at the test were in tears,just about to leave their son to study for a long period in the gurukul or school.

The determined son just before leaving his blind parents ran to the cart by which they all came from their village, ran to the cart controller and thanked him for the ride and told him to thank the entire village for training him. Then the boy went to the blind parents and touched their feet and worshiped and whispered to them ‘ my dear parents, I know the difficulties you two went through to bring me up.I shall somehow educate myself here in this gurukul and make both of you very proud.” Tears fell from the blind parents eyes however they embraced each other and parted away.

Lessons began in the gurukul and months passed by.One day the master was teaching his students and noticed that this student was feeling uncomfortable, not understanding what the teacher was teaching. He was almost feeling lost. So he went near the student and explained to him again what was taught.

But unfortunately he could not grasp it though the teacher explained and explained. The son was thinking ‘ I don’t know how my parents are keeping. They also might be feeling lonely as I feel. And I know they dont have gold coins to come and see me”. Therefore he could not grasp what the guru was teaching. The teacher asked “what is wrong with you. You still can’t understand what I am saying.

Are you daydreaming”? The blind parents’ son didn’t utter a word but kept quiet and was full of tears. The teacher got angry and asked him “ show your palm”?.So the boy, now the disciple of the guru, showed his palm. The teacher or the guru who was conversant with palmistry told this disciple “ get back home and not waste your time over this gurukul any more”.

The disciple asked the guru what’s the reason? ” Then he replied that “ see, you don’t have a line of study on your palm which indicates education”.To convince him he got another disciple to come and show his palm and explained to the disciple that “ see this is the line of study and you don’t have it but this one has”. Therefore he said to his disciple “you go home and do something else to live”.

Hearing this, this disciple recalled what he told both his blind parents. He said that he will be a well educated person and make the two blind parents very proud.This was reverberating in his mind and then he was determined to somehow win this hurdle of gaining wisdom through bookish knowledge.He further determined “ I shall not think of my blind parents while studying but think about them while going to bed only”.

He then went to the kitchen of the gurukul and asked for a knife. The cook gave him a knife. He quietly went to a corner and made a deep cut on his palm. The palm was bleeding yet he bared his pain with great intention of being educated and making his blind parents happy.

When the son went to hand over the knife to the cook in the gurukul he saw the bleeding hand and asked “ What’s wrong dear son. Wait wait I will get some herbs to stop bleeding”. The cook then went to the forest, brought some herbs kept it on a stone and ground the herbs and kept it on the bleeding palm and tore his sarong and dressed the bleeding palm.

The cook offered him a place to sit and told him “ you better rest now” and questioned him “ by the way what made you to get this cut” he asked the boy and he unveiled the whole story. The cook felt very sympathetic and said “bless you little one”.

After a few hours the wound stopped bleeding and he told the cook that he is going and he thanked for his assistance and went in search of the guru.This son saw the guru was resting in his house and went there and showed his palm which now had a scar to the guru.He said to the guru “here is my line of study which I made.Will you at least now please give me education at least now” he reiterated.He asked so, because he wanted to make his blind parents very proud of him.

Having seen this, the guru felt very compassionate and embraced this disciple and told him that “ son there are no boundaries when it comes to education.So no one can stop you from getting education. Therefore you can stay in this gurukul”. The boy was so happy to hear these words.

After many years of intense study this boy or this disciple grew to become famous as ‘Maha Rishi Panini’ who wrote the famous grammar book ‘Ashtadhyaya’. Such an excellent and complete work has not yet been created in any language so far in the world.

If this disciple had listened to the words of his guru on that day and believed in the lines of the palm, such a valuable person would not have been known in the world. His success was mainly based on his hard work and determination which made him bright and changed his destiny and made his blind parents and the villagers who supported him very proud of him.

The determination and hard work can change the lines in a palm and change one’s destiny. This one and only son of the blind poor parents had a strong determination to educate himself. This was his life goal. However, his hard work and determination pays in return for him  to make his blind parents and the entire village who helped him so proud of him.

This boy not only enriched with knowledge and became famous across the world by hitting his goal, but his life goes beyond achievements to show compassion, and gratitude as well to all who helped him.