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"At the end of the final book of the Bible, the book of Revelation, is another imaginative vision. At the center of this vision is a holy city where it is forever daytime. The gates of the city stand open in every direction and are never shut. Through them come people from throughout the world, bringing into the city the "glory and the honor of the nations" (Rev. 21-22). Saint John's vision draws upon the earlier imaginative vision of the prophet Ezekiel, who also saw the city and the temple. In Ezekiel's vision, from underneath the main door of the sanctum of the temple, facing East, a stream is flowing. At first it is ankle deep, then knee deep. Gradually it becomes a great river. Its waters are the waters of life, pouring forth from the temple and bringing life, abundance, and healing wherever they flow. Saint John, too, saw that river, flowing with living waters, though in the city John saw there was no temple at all, but God alone. "Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb through the middle of the street of the city. On either side of the river is the tree of life . . . and the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations." And the water of life is free. "Let anyone who wishes take the water of life as a gift."

It is a beautiful image. There is no temple, only the river of the water of life and healing flowing from the very presence of God. Having journeyed from Bozeman to Banaras, I know that this image of the river of life is not our image alone. I cannot read the final chapters of Saint John's imaginative vision without seeing the Ganges in my mind's eye. For Hindus it is the River of Heaven, flowing from the foot of Vishnu, falling to the head of Shiva, touching the earth on top of its highest mountain, Mount Meru, and then generously splitting into four channels to flow in four directions, watering the whole of the earth with streams of blessing. The stream of the River of Heaven I know best flows south into India and even today skirts the sacred city of Banaras where pilgrims come to bathe at dawn. But surely the Jordan is one of those streams of the River of Heaven—and the Gallatin as well".

Diana Eck, 2007, 'The Imagined Community'; In Light from the East, Ed. Harry Oldmeadow, World Wisdom

Water of Life