“I used to be a Hindu priest. Every day, I would do the worship at my home, or at the temple. It’s what I had to do … my father and grandfather did it … but I did it out of routine.”

“Every day, I would put the offering in front of the idol, and I would think about the idol. It was dead, so how could it help us? And it felt dark. I felt like I was a blind man, searching for truth.

“At the same time, I also wondered about castes. I was born a high caste Brahmin, so there were people in our village who weren’t allowed to come to our house, or to eat with us. The dog could eat with us, but not my friends, because they were lower castes. I didn’t like it at all. It gave me a pain inside.

“Then, one day, one of my friends received a booklet from a Bible correspondence course. I asked to borrow it and I read it and liked it. There was an address on the back, so I wrote away and I received the course myself. I remember reading John 14:6 – ‘Jesus answered, ‘I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.’

“At first, I didn’t understand it. But after a while, it started to make sense. Jesus was the truth! Later, I did some training and I was baptised. The first time I went to church, though, I saw people from all different castes, sitting together. They even passed the cup and the plate to each other, during the Lord’s Supper. Even people with leprosy were eating from the same plate!

“It made me so surprised and happy. It was a whole new thing!”

Ram’s story is part of Eternity’s Faith Stories series, compiled by Naomi Reed. Click here for more Faith Stories.