OLD GOD, NEW GOD

Once in the kingdom of Avadh, when people would go to the temple for the cure of illness and priests alone were the doctors. There lived a woman named Yamini near the shrine of an Old God in front of the temple of The New God. The priest of the shrine offered mercy, atonement, and absolution from any crime committed in exchange of services for the temple. The woman believed in Old God alone and thought that the New God is naught but a hoax created for the purpose of extortion in the name of false faith. She lived alone with her two boys Ganvendra the elder, and Karmay in her home, when one day illness took upon her and her son, Karmay. The elder son believed in New God and so he took Karmay to the temple not heeding to the words of her mother as she spoke. The woman died two days later while Karmay survived. The boys were in shock, the eldest blamed The Old God for not letting her survive the illness. Ganvendra was of a high status and so with the money he had, he built many temples for The New God.

The king of Avadh had seen the spread of the disease and how all who came at the temple of The New God survived the illness while those who went to the shrine of The Old One died. The king himself believed in The Old and so he decided to go see what wrong were they doing that the Old One was being so unkind to them. One night, in disguise, the king left the castle and hid near a wall in front of the temple. He saw a man crying, running to the shrine of The Old, the man spoke:

Our God, the meaning of whose name the folk hath forgotten
I pray to thee for the wellness of my son. Let him survive.

The man himself had the diseases and the king could see that. Later the same night another woman, diseased with the same illness, came to the temple of The New, where she spoke:

Our Real God, the meaning of whose name hast been redefined
I pray to thee for my wellness. Let me survive.

Three days later both the son of the man who prayed at the shrine of The Old and the woman who prayed at the temple of the New survived and the king kept his faith in The Old as he got the news that the father of the surviving son had died.