A Thousand years without a miracle-part 1

A Thousand years without a miracle-part 1

fiction
edward w pritchard

A thousand years without a miracle leads to a high percentage of skeptical citizens. Many the people around Benares, India had lost faith in the sacred river Ganges miraculous powers. To a Hindu to die in the river Ganges leads to instant release from the cycle of rebirth. To a devout Hindu a mere drop of water from sacred Ganges would cause God Shiva to utter a prayer of crossing that would give relief from endless wheel of rebirths for three lives. Without rebirth human suffering is mitigated.

Among cities along the Ganges, few are more sacred and holy than Benares and paradoxically few stretches of the Ganges River are more polluted or defiled by human use than the water around Benares. The waters in the River for thousands of years have been used for ritualized bathing, the ghats along the river serve as a gathering place for humans, and death rites and rivers burials are performed in the waters of the Ganges. Human society likewise in Benares has become corrupted as ambitious young street kids sell hashish and opium. The back alleys of Benares are as terrifying as any in India.