The Religion and Philosophy of the Veda and Upanishads v2.c31.s5.30

v2.c31.s5.30

The motive² for the doctrine of initiation is not alluded to in the Indian rite: beyond the obvious possibility of it being a mere expulsion of dangerous influences, and an effort by the fiction of a new birth to deceive the demons, there is no suggestion of much cogency. In the view of Sir J. Frazer the whole of these rites and the origin of totemism may be due to the wish to deposit permanently at a dangerous time of life the external soul in some safe object, but the suggestion lacks both external proof and internal cogency.³