All the World is a Bath

If All the World is a Bath, How Often Should We Immerse Ourselves?

By John Taylor; 2006 July 11

"An ostentatious man will rather relate a blunder or an absurdity he has committed, than be debarred from talking of his own dear person." - Joseph Addison

In the spirit of Addison's ostentatious man, let me relate an absurdity I committed when I married. I admit it; I made that inevitable but deadly comparison between mother and wife. My mother was a professional homemaker, she cleaned hotels and rich peoples' homes for a living, and she assiduously kept our home up to that standard too. Sheets on the beds were changed every morning, dishes were cleared away and washed immediately, vacuuming was frequent, and we were expected to bathe or shower daily. Marie never clears away the dishes, much less washing them (she discovered a spot on a dish I washed once and now is furious whenever I lift a hand to do the dishes); weeks go by and dishes pile high as your eye. There is vacuuming only when we are about to have guests, usually, and months go by between changes of bed sheets.

My absurdity was that I held my mother on a pedestal and esteemed Marie a slovenly housewife. My folly was pointed out in a study reported in the media lately. Researchers found that when a home is too spick and span, children's immune systems tend to go awry. We have lived for millions of years up to our elbows in creepy crawlies and it is not natural to get rid of them. Not having dirt and germs to fight, the immune system starts picking fights with the body it is supposed to defend. As the saying goes, the devil finds work for idle hands.

Looking back on my childhood, this was absolutely the case. All of my mother's children had severe allergies. My sister was wracked by asthma and had to carry a little squirter around for when her breathing clogged up; I suffered miserably from hay fever, grass and other allergies every fall. Now I notice that our children -- raised in these comparatively unsanitary conditions -- have not had even a hint of an allergy from birth until today. Even my allergies have abated and I no longer dread the falling of the leaves in Autumn. Not a scientific sampling, I admit, but it is enough for me to bless lazy homemakers in my prayers of gratitude.

This raises our question for the day, how clean should we be? How often does the body need to be washed? How often should I take a bath? I ask these questions more often now that my headaches have abated and I really do have a choice. When I was racked by frequent migraines I was forced to have hot bath whenever they occurred or threatened to hit me, which was almost everyday. The heat of the immersion seemed to alleviate the agony, though now I realize that this benefit must have been counteracted by the massive dehydration, which is a major precondition for a migraine. A hot bath probably sweats off a pint of water from the body, and that was not a good thing if I forgot to drink afterwards.

This question of how often to wash probably will be moot in a few years from now, judging by how quickly scientific discovery is advancing. Soon we will hang an RFID sensor around our neck and it will beep if the immune system downshifts into idle or upshifts into overdrive. But meantime, how do we know how much is enough? That is what I want to know.

Cleaning has long been understood as more a religious duty than a hygienic need. The world's oldest known scripture, the Hindu Book of Manu says,

"Every day, having bathed, and being purified, he must offer libations of water..." (Laws of Manu, 176)

The saying goes that cleanliness is a part of godliness, but in Islam cleanless is a prerequisite rather than a part of godliness. Thus Muslims must wash hands and feet before they say their obligatory prayers, and furthermore take a full bath if they are dirtied worse than usual,

"O ye who believe! Draw not near unto prayer when ye are drunken, till ye know that which ye utter, nor when ye are polluted, save when journeying upon the road, till ye have bathed." (Qur'an 4:43, Pickthall)

It is remarkable that this stipulation should have come out of the Sahara desert, one of the driest places on earth. This is surely the last place you would expect bathing to be made obligatory. In part the Qu'ran may have been footnoting the following teaching of Jesus, which seems to imply that taking a full bath is unnecessary to ritual cleanliness, washing the feet is enough.

Jesus began washing the feet of his disciples, which shocked them. Only slaves washed other peoples' feet. Peter, at last understanding, thought he was getting into the spirit of things when he said, "Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head!" But Jesus replied,

"`Someone who has bathed only needs to have their feet washed, but is completely clean. You are clean, but not all of you.' For he knew him who would betray him, therefore he said, `You are not all clean.'" (John 13:11, WEB)

The lesson John learned was clear. Judas Iscariot, the betrayer, was unclean inside, and that is what cleanliness really is about. Ritual washing is clearing away all traces of ill will, of infidelity, or lack of faith. This is why ablutions and baths must take place before prayer, rather than during or after prayer. For a heart dark like Judas's is only defiling more if he bends down to pray. He can offer only the "kiss of Judas."

The law of Baha'u'llah takes a middle ground between Christian foot washing and Muslim baths. The Kitab-i-Aqdas stipulates washing of hands and face before obligatory prayer, like Muslims, but also washing of the feet on a regular basis. "Wash your feet once every day in summer, and once every three days during winter." (Aqdas, 74) But a weekly bath remains in His law.

"It hath been enjoined upon you to pare your nails, to bathe yourselves each week in water that covereth your bodies, and to clean yourselves with whatsoever ye have formerly employed. Take heed lest through negligence ye fail to observe that which hath been prescribed unto you by Him Who is the Incomparable, the Gracious."

Furthermore, Baha'u'llah counteracts a ploy that Muslims had come up with to get around the spirit of the Qu'ran's bathing law. The Qu'ran did not say how clean the bathwater had to be, or how often it could be re-used. The communal Turkish bath was based upon the ancient Roman baths, only filthier; in Rome baths were regarded as a luxury for the elite, and they did it more as curative therapy than a religious duty. Every Muslim was required by religious law to bathe, so demand and usage in public baths were much higher. Turkish baths, as might be expected, economized by using the same water over and over. That sort of corner cutting is outlawed by Baha'u'llah.

"Immerse yourselves in clean water; it is not permissible to bathe yourselves in water that hath already been used. See that ye approach not the public pools of Persian baths; whoso maketh his way toward such baths will smell their fetid odour ere he entereth therein. Shun them, O people, and be not of those who ignominiously accept such vileness. In truth, they are as sinks of foulness and contamination, if ye be of them that apprehend. Avoid ye likewise the malodorous pools in the courtyards of Persian homes, and be ye of the pure and sanctified. Truly, We desire to behold you as manifestations of paradise on earth, that there may be diffused from you such fragrance as shall rejoice the hearts of the favoured of God."

Toward the end of the 19th century researchers began making controlled experiments using American soldiers as test subjects. They measured and compared amounts of water used by baths and showers, and somehow calibrated how clean the soldiers were afterwards. They found that they were just as clean after a shower and that water usage was far less. Baha'u'llah anticipates this in His Book of Laws by allowing for alternatives, such as showers.

"If the bather, instead of entering the water, wash himself by pouring it upon his body, it shall be better for him and shall absolve him of the need for bodily immersion. The Lord, verily, hath willed, as a bounty from His presence, to make life easier for you that ye may be of those who are truly thankful." (Aqdas, 57-58)

Before, in effect the Qu'ran had stipulated the Turkish bath by offering no alternative to that means of washing. Now we do have options, as long as the body is washed thoroughly, at least once a week. In fact, a shower is "better for him," and why? Basically because God desires to "make life easier for you..."

I find this very interesting, having just taken a little crash course on baths throughout history. As I mentioned, thinking has been divided outside the hard core religious traditions between bathing as an effete luxury -- Romans would have been shocked to see slaves and the Hoi Polloi partaking of public baths -- and as a cure. In Germany it was common as soon as you got sick to jump in the bath and stay there "virtually from sunup to sundown." Other doctors forbade baths during illness and even believed that they caused illness -- in view of the habit of re-using bathwater, this was probably not without justification. The recent fad of hot tubs meant a rediscovery of this danger, since warm water is a perfect incubating chamber for bacteria. Hippocrates, rashly in retrospect, mocked those physicians who believed that baths cause illness. He held that this just shows how ignorant they were of the real causes of illness. That was true, but it did not mean that he knew any better!

A bath a week will seem like very little to most people reading this essay. Like me when I had migraines, inhabitants of over-developed countries probably have too many rather than too few baths. Who knows what kind of harm this excess of cleanliness is doing us? Is it a contributor to cancer or heart disease? In a related area, it has already been found (judging by a poster prominently displayed in my dentist's office) that the optimum amount of tooth brushing is twice a day for two minutes (2 for 2). More than that kills more friendly bacteria than unfriendly ones. What is the sweet point for the optimum number of baths?

It is natural to turn for the answer to the habits of our Exemplar. The period of His life when the Master's habits were most under scrutiny was during His Western journeys. Just after He boarded the Cedric bound for New York, He ate at a beautiful table and remembered the difficult life they had lived until then as outcasts of the nations, adding that "one must be grateful." Mahmoud then recorded the following in his diary entry for 26 March, 1912,

"One of the servants asked why man is not thankful when in comfort. 'Abdu'l-Baha replied, 'It is due to negligence. Otherwise one must be aware and thankful when immersed in the sea of bounties.' Then He said, 'I have not had a good bath for several months.' The ship's attendant was then asked to prepare a warm fresh water bath for Him. Afterwards, He said, 'I am much better now. For a long time I have not had leisure to take a real bath.'" (Mahmud, 15)

How closely attuned He was to His Father's Law! For note how He thinks of a taking a bath just after talking about gratitude. Recall what the Aqdas says above just after allowing for showers (or possibly sponge baths) instead of baths. It says that God desires to make life easier in order "that ye may be of those who are truly thankful." Here is a new attitude to luxury, not as an insult or denial of God, but as a way of acquiescing to His will that we be comforted, so we can express our gratitude.

The next mention of a bath shipboard takes place ten days later, on the 5th of April. So although the Master does not deny himself this comfort, He indeed partakes of the luxury while traveling -- a time when there must have been little else to do -- nonetheless  they may have been as much as ten days apart. But there is some indication in the text that He took this bath as a health restorative from fatigue, perhaps after a poor night's sleep.

"Very early in the morning the Master called some of us to His cabin and said that He was tired. After taking a bath and drinking some tea He felt better and came out of His cabin." (Mahmud, 29)

Later on on a hot July 12th day, this conversation is reported:

"As the heat was excessive and because He had been revealing Tablets and visiting with the friends, 'Abdu'l-Baha was tired. We said that there was a bath in the house and that the Master could have His bath every day. He said: 'We are like soldiers; we must not form any habits or have a care for anything.'" (Mahmud, 166)

The fact that God wants to comfort us does not necessarily mean that we must accept the luxuries available to us, especially if we wish to be soldiers in His army. Which brings us back full circle, to the practice Jesus initiated of abbreviating the washing of the whole body by washing only the feet. As we noted, the Aqdas confirms and perpetuates this law, requiring that a Baha'i's feet be washed at least daily in summer. Through the years I have often pondered this law as I washed my feet at the end of my daily bath. Perhaps someone will invent a machine that will conveniently wash only peoples' feet. Or perhaps, in remembrance of Jesus's washing of his disciples' feet, in some families a tradition will be built up where the paterfamilias or materfamilias will wash the feet of subordinate family members. Or even instead of kissing babies and shaking hands, politicians will indulge in foot washing of their constituents. This possibility seems also to be anticipated in the Aqdas, which emphasizes that the approval of any ritual act, be it washing or praying or whatever, is only good if it pleases God, God and none else.

"By the righteousness of the one true God! Were anyone to wash the feet of all mankind, and were he to worship God in the forests, valleys, and mountains, upon high hills and lofty peaks, to leave no rock or tree, no clod of earth, but was a witness to his worship -- yet, should the fragrance of My good pleasure not be inhaled from him, his works would never be acceptable unto God." (Baha'u'llah, Kitab-i-Aqdas, 31)

I will end with an apposite story told by Jalalu'd-Din Rumi that could be entitled the "Parable of the Bath." One day a man became so filthy, so defiled that his heart became filled with shame. He felt so guilty that he entered the Turkish bath but refused to get into the water. "I am not worthy," he said, "I am too dirty to take a bath." He was like the patient who refused to enter a hospital because he was too sick. Which is why, Rumi points out, the Arabic saying goes, "Shame hinders religion." (Mathnavi, Volume 2, E.H. Whinfield tr.) Echoing Shakespeare (not to mention environmentalists decrying global warming), Rumi points out that all the world is a bath stove, and piety is the hot bath,

"The lust of the world is like a bath stove,
Whereby the bath of piety is heated;
But the lot of the pious is purity from the stove's filth,
Because they dwell in the bath and in cleanliness.
The rich are as those that carry dung
To heat the furnace of the bath withal.
God has instilled into them cupidity,
That the bath may be warmed and pleasant.
Quit this stove and push on into the bath;
Know quitting the stove to be the bath itself.
Whoso is in the stove-room is as a servant
To him who is temperate and prudent."

--
John Taylor

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