恆河朝聖太艱辛 瓶裝聖水快遞到你家

Every summer, hundreds of thousands of Indians, barefoot and draped in orange clothing, make a 100-mile pilgrimage on foot to fetch water from the sacred Ganges River that they then offer at their local temples to Shiva, the Hindu god of destruction.

每年夏天都有數十萬印度人光着腳、披着橘色的衣服，徒步跋涉100英里前往神聖的恆河取水，將它供奉給自己當地寺廟裏的溼婆，也就是印度教中的毀滅之神。

This year, they have a less arduous option: The postal service is using its 155,000 offices across India to deliver holy water from the Ganges — for far less than $1 a bottle. As one postal official put it, “If Muhammad cannot go to the mountain, the mountain comes to him.”

今年，他們有了一個不那麼艱苦的選擇：郵政部門利用自己遍佈印度各地的15.5萬個郵政點，以每瓶不超過1美元的價格，爲民衆運送恆河的聖水。就像一位郵政官員所說，“如果穆罕默德不能去聖山，聖山會來到他面前。”

Ravi Shankar Prasad, India’s union minister of Communication and information technology, led the initiative. “If the postman can deliver mobile phones, saris, jewelry and apparel, then why not Ganga water?” he asked in announcing it last month, using the Hindu name for the river.

印度通信和信息技術部(Ministry of Communications and Information Technology)部長拉維•尚卡爾•普拉薩德(Ravi Shankar Prasad)領導了這一創舉。“如果郵遞員可以送手機、莎麗、珠寶和服裝，爲什麼不能送恆河聖水呢？”他在上個月宣佈這一消息時問道。

The water is drawn from two sources: Gangotri, a small town in the Greater Himalayan Range and the origin of the Ganges River; and Rishikesh, one of the holiest cities for Hindus.

運送的聖水有兩個來源：喜馬拉雅山脈裏的小鎮甘戈德里，也就是恆河源頭所在地；印度最神聖的城市之一里希蓋什。

The postal service has the water bottled — at an undisclosed location — with minimal labeling, holding 7 or 17 ounces.

郵局將聖水裝瓶——具體裝瓶地點沒有公開，瓶上沒有什標籤，每瓶裝7或17盎司（約合500毫升）水。

The smaller bottles from Rishikesh, which is easier to access, sell for 15 rupees, or 22 cents; those from Gangotri, where access roads have been blocked by monsoon rains, cost 25 rupees, or 37 cents. Postal officials said the revenue covered only the costs.

小瓶子來自更容易到達的裏希蓋什，每瓶售價15盧比（約合1.5人民幣）；來自甘戈德里的聖水的售價則爲每瓶25盧比（約合2.5人民幣），通往那裏的路因雨季而阻塞。郵政官員表示，送水的收入只夠抵銷開支。

Though it is heavily polluted by sewage and industrial waste, the Ganges provides water to 500 million people for everyday use, and for all those offerings to Shiva.

儘管已經受到污水和工業廢水的嚴重污染，恆河依然在爲5億人提供日常用水，也是所有供奉給溼婆聖水的來源。

Priests in Gangotri have protested the government initiative, fearing a decrease in pilgrims, though it is too early to tell whether the road is less crowded. In any case, the postal service reported that it had delivered 70,000 bottles of the holy water in the program’s first few weeks.

甘戈德里的神職人員對政府的這項舉措表示了抗議，擔心朝聖者數量會減少，儘管現在判斷這條路是否會不那麼擁擠還爲時過早。不管怎樣，郵局表示，這一項目開啓後的幾周裏，他們已經送出7萬瓶聖水。