ONE GOD · MANY FACES
The highest shrine
is left empty.
Balinese Hindus worship one God, Sang Hyang Widhi Wasa, from whom every god of the island arises. In the old name, God is Acintya: the one who cannot be imagined.
That is why the padmasana, the highest shrine in a Balinese temple, often holds an empty throne. The seat is offered. Often no figure is shown in it at all.
TATTWA · SUSILA · ACARA
What you believe,
how you live, what you offer.
Balinese Hinduism rests on three parts that cannot be pulled apart: tattwa, its philosophy; susila, its ethics; and acara, its ritual.
A canang on a step is acara. The sincerity that folds it is susila. The reason it faces the mountain is tattwa. Remove one, and the other two no longer hold.
Panca Sradha · five convictions
The five beliefs at the heart of Hindu Dharma in Indonesia.
Widhi Tattwa
There is one God, Sang Hyang Widhi.
Atma
There is a soul in every living being.
Karmaphala
Every act bears its fruit.
Punarbhawa
The soul is born again.
Moksa
The soul can return to the One.
Panca Yadnya · five kinds of offering
Yadnya means a sacred offering made sincerely. Balinese teaching names five, by whom they are for. The one made every day is called yadnya sesa, in Balinese mesaiban.
Dewa Yadnya
To the divine
To Sang Hyang Widhi and the gods in whom the One appears.
Pitra Yadnya
To the ancestors
To those who came before, and to parents while they live.
Rsi Yadnya
To the teachers
To the sages and priests who guide the community.
Manusa Yadnya
To one another
To fellow human beings, through the rites that mark a life.
Bhuta Yadnya
To the unseen forces
To the bhuta kala, so that the forces of nature stay in harmony.
BHAGAVAD GITA 9.26
“A leaf, a flower, a fruit or water,
offered to me with devotion, I accept.”
The verse is often quoted in Bali to explain why the island offers every day. It asks for very little, and for one thing above all.
Balinese teaching names the conditions of a true yadnya. It is given tulus ikhlas, sincerely and with a clean heart. It comes from love: for God, for others, for animals and for the land. And it is given according to one's means, so that it never becomes a burden.
WHAT WE KEEP
We do not make offerings.
We keep the teaching.
Offerings belong to the families, banjar and temples who make them. We do not make them on anyone's behalf, and we do not sell them.
What we keep is the teaching behind them: that what is given sincerely is never too small, and that it is given again tomorrow. Our makers are paid for their work, and 5% of every order goes back to them. A piece of jewelry is not a yadnya. It can be a reminder of one.
TRI KAYA PARISUDHA · THE THREE PURITIES
Pure thought.
Pure word. Pure deed.
Manacika, thinking well. Wacika, speaking well. Kayika, doing well. Balinese ethics begins with these three.
If something on your wrist brings one of them back to mind in the middle of an ordinary day, it has done all we ask of it.
SOURCES
Balinese practice varies from village to village, and a pemangku will always know more than this page. If something here is wrong, please tell us.
bali.com: why the Balinese make offerings (quoting Gita 9.26)
Wikipedia (Indonesian): Yadnya, Panca Yadnya and the conditions of yadnya
Wikipedia (Indonesian): Sradha, the five convictions
Wikipedia: Sang Hyang Widhi Wasa
Wikipedia: Acintya and the empty throne of the padmasana
Wikipedia: Balinese Hinduism (tattwa, susila, acara; Tri Kaya Parisudha; Tri Hita Karana)
Wikipedia (Indonesian): Canang sari, the parts and their meanings
