ical Sarasvati The Kumbh Mela at Prayag, in particular, attracts millions of pilgrims. In addition, a Great Kumbh Mela festival is held every 144 years at Prayag. The 2001 festival attracted some 60 million people. making it the largest religious meeting in the history of the world.

     For thousands of years, Jews have practiced tevilah, the washing of the body for the purpose of removing ritual impurity— immersion, pouring or washing. During the captivity of the Jews — from 598 BC to 538 BC, many Jews assimilated and adopted the local traditions. At this time Persia embraced much of the Middle East and India. It is clear that from Kumbh Mela the emphasis on immersion in tvelah was brought back to Jerusalem after they were released. They practiced baptism as the purifying rite intimately associated with the cleansing of the body from “uncleanliness”.

     Of great interest to some historians is the fact that the ancient Sumerians, at their temple in the city of Eridu, worshipped the water god Ea. Of even more interest is that in Greek Hellenistic religion, the god Ea was called Oannes, or Ioannes. In English, we would say “John.” As a result of this, some have taken this to mean that the accounts in the Gospels of John the Baptist were fabricated, or “borrowed” from the ancient Sumerian myths. John says that those who want to participate in this new age must show it by going through the waters of baptism, much as the followers of Ea would have done 3000 years earlier.

It is most likely that John the Baptist was using baptism to cleanse the individual from all allegiance to sin—i.e King Herod.

      While the Jews and the Christians believe that it is the rite of baptism that purifies the soul, the Hindus believe it is the water itself that cleanses the soul of impurities and sin.

     Whenever the act of baptism is described in the New Testament (which is rarely), the one who is baptized actually goes into the water.  The mode used by the early Church in the first few centuries was immersion, with affusion (pouring) reserved for occasions when immersion was impossible due to lack of sufficient water, and aspersion (sprinkling) used for individuals too sick or weak for either immersion of affusion. Thus, immersion was the norm and the other two modes were substitutes in exceptional circumstances.

     This situation, however, began to change fairly early and sprinkling with water was allowed in place of immersian. St. Cyprian, the noted bishop of Carthage, advocated sprinkling in stead of immersion in cases of physical weakness. We are told that the first instance of record is that of Novatus, a convert who requested baptism but who was to old and feeble to travel to a place of immersion.

By the 13th century was actually reversed, with aspersion the norm. Even after the Reformation, immersion as the norm became accepted only by a segment of Protestantism and only after a period of transition during which affusion was the norm.

     The baptising of infants appeared in European history around the second century, while Christianity was still developing. Some say its roots lie in the Pagan influences of Baal worship, but it came about as a result of the doctrine that baptism is essential to salvation. Consequently, it was natural for those holding to this doctrine to believe that everyone, should be baptized as soon as possible. Thus, baptism of infants came into vogue among many of the churches. Mormons and others teach that children have no need for baptism as they are not capable of sin.

     While the Jews and the Christians believe that it is the rite of baptism that purifies the soul, the Hindus believe it is the water itself that cleanses the soul of impurities and sin.

      Jews and Christians generally believe that baptism, in order to be effective, must be performed in a particular way under the guidance of a certain authority.

     Some New Agers who practice baptism do it by immersion in the waters of a flowing river or stream. They believe that while the magnetic properties of the water itself can have a healing effect on the body, the ritual, when done in the proper state mind, has the potential to wash away our “sins” - our feelings of guilt.

An interesting footnote to the history of baptism is the Mormon practice of being baptized by proxy for the dead. As do other Christians, Mormons believe that one must be baptized to be “saved”. Since many people have died without hearing of Christianity or being baptized, the Mormons baptize those who have died “unsaved” by proxy.

     The Mormons believe that those who have died will have a chance to convert to Christianity in the astral world where, according to some, there are Mormon missionaries preaching the “word of God”.