I cannot be his friend :(

Hi. I am an 18 year old girl and I was in a relationship with this wonderful guy for the last 3 years.We loved each other a lot and we still love each other but we recently broke up. The problem is his mother. She is a depression patient and is in the last stage and she confessed few days back that she wants her son to get married to the girl of her choice.If he goes against her wish, to be honest, she'll die. Obviously he would never want his mother to die because of him as he is very close to her. She wants him to marry someone from their own caste and religion and he can't marry me as I belong to some other caste and religion and don't fit the bill. I told him to have patience as we both are just 18 years old and we have a long life ahead and have to fulfill our professional dreams before getting married and that we both have plenty of time to convince her and change her mind regarding marriage and our relationship. Basically my ex-boyfriend's mother has no idea about me and our relationship and he is scared to discuss it with her as he already knows the consequences.He is adamant about his decision and wants me to be his best friend because he can't let me go and wants my presence in his life. Even I don't want to leave him but at the same time I don't want to remain his friend as it is killing me. I can't see him flirting with other girls and getting into another relationship while I am still a part of his life. He told me that he cannot imagine of getting in a relationship with someone else after me because he will not be able to love anyone truly after me. Moreover it will be very stupid of him to fall in love again as his fate is decided by his mom already and he knows it. But still I am hoping for some sort of miracle to happen as we both still love each other a lot and cannot live without each other. He wants me to move on and has told me to start socializing and interacting with other boys and in this process he is also hurting me by behaving rudely. I know he is doing all this deliberately so that I move on but very honestly I can't stop loving him as I know nobody else in this whole world can love me more than him. He was and will always remain perfect for me :') I don't want both of us to move on because our relationship was special and passionate but his problem is genuine. Please help me guys what should I do ? :( How should i convince him to get back with me and make him think positive regarding our future? Help.

There is nothing you can do if this guy lets his mother make his marriage decisions for him. If you cannot face just being his friend, then you need to move on from him and never see him again because it will be too painful for you when he obeys his mother and marries someone else. You cannot fight this if the guy is too weak and not willing to fight his mother too.

Ignore the other person. Fight for the person you love and convice him to live his own life. I don't know where you live and really don't care because if you love someone religion and caste don't mean anything. So go out there and have your guy grow a pair and then go talk to his mom. The parents don't control their kids life the kids do,, it's as simple as that^^

KNIGHT, you are an idealist, not a realist. Life isn;t as simple as you think. Religion and caste DO mean something in some parts of the world. And so does obeying your parents. You can't just ignore that. And you can't make someone 'grow a pair' if he can't or won't do it - you don't give any advice on how to accomplish that feat. Maybe when he's older, he will stand up for what he wants but he doesn't seem to be doing that now.