Pain and agony - Kinda Zen story

A family was going through a bad phase in their life. They were unhappy with the circumstances. They were not able to come out with a solution. They tried to take help from their friends and relatives, but to no avail. They prayed to god, went to various religious places. But their pain and agony was increasing day by day.

They started feeling that there is not solution to their pain and agony. They thought that god is not helping them. (Normally people go to god when they go through pain and agony and bad phase).

They decide to go to a religious place located on top of a mountain. To reach this religious place people had to walk for 4 hours.

On their way to this religious place they stopped to take rest.

A hermit / zen master / yogi was sitting besides them.

The family started talking to hermit / zen master / yogi.

The family told the hermit about their pain and agony.

Hermit was listening to the family.

Hermit asked the family to come along with him for 5 minutes.

They walked towards the bushes.

While walking through the bushes, hermit saw a caterpiller.

The caterpiller had difficulty surviving in the bushes as there were many insect eating birds in the bushes.

Hermit said to family "If you can take care of this caterpiller your pain and agony would go away."

Family was puzzled, but they thought lets try it. So they took the plant along with the caterpiller with them.

They moved forward.

Hermit saw a cactus in the bush. It was not the perfect place for a cactus to survive.

Hermit said to family " If you take care of this cactus your bad phase will end, you will always be happy."

Again the family was puzzled. They thought to give it a try. They took the cactus long with its root and soil to take its proper care.

Hermit asked the family to go back and continue their journey and Hermit went in the different way which led to the jungle.

The family was confused but they were taking proper care of the cactus and the caterpiller.

The child in the family questioned " There are so many beautiful flowers and butterfly, why did the hermit give us cactus and caterpiller."

Parents had no answer to the question. They completed their journey taking care of cactus and caterpiller.

The family reached home after few days. They were very tired. They went to sleep. They saw hermit in their dream. Hermit did not say anything in their dream.

The family woke up in the morning.

The family child went to see how the cactus and caterpillar were.

On seeing the caterpillar and cactus, family child called the family to come and have a look.

The family came, and their face brightened.

They saw a beautiful butterfly and a beautiful flower on cactus.

Pain and agony leads to more brightness and happiness.