Indonesia has such a fascinating religious history, something I wanted to explore whist I was out there. Bali, The Island of the Gods, has been inhabited since 2000 BC. It is the only predominantly Hindu island in Indonesia, the others being primarily Muslim. Hindu symbolism is evident throughout the island, and is very much at the centre of every day life.
Canang sari is one of the daily offerings made by Balinese Hindus to thank the Sang Hyang Widhi Wasa in praise and prayer. Every home, every business, every place of worship puts of sari multiple times a day. They are little woven grass baskets, filled with flowers, petals and incense.
Balinese practice of Hinduism revolves around water, and revere for its potential, its ability to make things grow, and as a force for spiritual regeneration. It has a mysterious, potent power.
We visited the Pura Tirta Empul on New Year’s Eve and took part in a cleansing ceremony, to ready ourselves for the New Year. Tirta Empul was founded around a large water spring in 962 A.D. Legend has it that the sacred spring was created by the god Indra. His forces had been poisoned by Mayadanawa, so he pierced the earth to create a fountain of immortality to revive them. The temple is dedicated to Vishnu, the supreme consciousness Narayana.
Dressed in our sarong, we lit the incense on our sari offerings, and took time at the side of the pool to meditate, pray, and reflect. This had been quite a tumultuous year for many of us, and when do we really take time to reflect on ourselves, on others, on our lives, on the gratitude of where we are in our lives.
When the time was right, we got into the first pool. The pool is fed from the spring via ten intricately carved fountains, so it was freezing! And, to our surprise, full of fish. Placing our offerings behind the fountains, we were ready to start the purification ceremony. At each fountain we drank the water and put our head in the stream of water, to cleanse inside and out.
When reading about the Tirta Empul, the guidebooks say there are two pools, each with a line of fountains, however there are two smaller pools each with just one or two fountains, in between the two larger ones. The first pool is to clean you of your broken promises, and the second is to remove any curses upon you! Being in the process of going through a separation, I found being cleansed of my broken promises to be deeply freeing, and was quite swept away by the process.
In the final pool, there are eight fountains, one to cleanse each of your chakras, and a final fountain to open you up to new opportunities. How wonderful!
The guidebooks also talk of the ceremony being only for the local population, with tourists only looking on from the edge, taking pictures. And this was indeed the case when we arrived. However, we were fortunate enough to be invited to take part in this wonderfully freeing purification ceremony.
Take time to think, meditate, pray. Consider how far you’ve come. Consider where you may go. But most of all. Forgive yourself. Cleanse yourself of past misdeeds. And finally, open yourself up to new opportunities.
Mission: Playtime 