Bali Sojourn Part I

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Uluwatu Temple (Pura Luhur Uluwatu)

Personally, I think that the island of Bali is a microcosm of all that is good in Hinduism. Its Hinduism is different and much more charming. Its temples do look different from the Hindu temples of India. A lot of effort is spent on the “split” gates, making them as lofty, as grand, as decorative as possible. Inside the gates, it is mostly enclosed open space with a number of courtyards which have altars and shrines devoted to different gods. At the center of this whole complex is open “sacred space”, which corresponds to the ‘Inner Shrine’ or “Sanctum Sanctorum” of Indian temples. However, unlike Indian temples, this ‘sacred space’ does not have any idol of the God. In the Balinese temples, I did not come across any stone idols and that is what appeals to me.

Information about Balinese temple architecture can be found at:
http://www.indo.com/culture/temples.html

Indian temples put me off. I feel uncomfortable as I approach the Inner Sanctum through dark, closed passages without a window. I must be claustrophobic.



You might have gathered that I do NOT believe in idolatry. (But, I am not an iconoclast either) However, I can openly flaunt my disbelief in idolatry and still remain a Hindu. Our religion gives us total personal freedom in the method and mode of worship

In Bali, I did not find Hindus ‘worshiping’ their idols the way Indian Hindus do. In Indian homes, idols of gods are kept in a separate room/corner and daily they are washed, ‘fed’, chanted to, ‘joss-sticked’, ‘flowered’, in general, pampered a lot.

In Bali, every house has a small temple called ‘spirit house’ in the courtyard. . It is cleaned daily and flowers, fruits, food are offered to the ‘good spirits’. It is also scented by joss-sticks. (Yes, those beautiful people still live in beautiful open houses with beautiful large courtyards full of coconut, mangosteen, jackfruit and papaya trees. They do not have to worry about the next installment on their 500 Sq Feet “super-built-up” flat bought at the rate of 8000 Rs/sq ft in a building without car-parking, without any compound, without children’s playground, with a lift that is ‘out of service’ most of the time and with a approach road winding through lush slums with the song of cricket (commentary) in their years.)

The ‘spirit house’ is treated as ‘abode of God’ but this God is not in the idol form but in an ethereal form.

I personally feel that the practice of Idolatry has done immense harm to Hinduism and led to the fragmentation of the Indian society.

So, here at Uluwatu, we were breathing in the free spirit of the Hinduism and admiring the view. The temple is situated on a 70 meter high (or deep, as we were seeing it from above) cliff being pounded by the surf at the base. In fact, it is one of the best surf-spots in the world and many tourists come here for surfing, not for sightseeing.

http://www.indo.com/geo/uluwatu.html

http://wikitravel.org/en/Uluwatu

http://baliwww.com/bali-plus/dragon.htm The ‘dragon’ here might be a Komodo dragon.

http://www.indo-holidays.com/bali_guide/gianyar/mas_indo.htm

As is my practice, I had ‘read up’ on Bali and knew that at the temple of Uluwatu, there are many monkeys up to their monkey tricks. So, when we reached the temple, I removed my goggles, (It was hot) my eardrops and even my ‘mangalsutra’, (This practically amounts to sacrilege in Indian context) put them in my bag and left the bag in the care of the driver of the car. I told Avi to remove his goggles and leave them in the car and to hang his camera crosswise on his chest (I mean the strap of the camera-case). I also deftly removed his wallet from the open pocket of his shirt (Here he says wryly, “from long practice”) and kept it in my purse, which I held tightly under my arm—the way Arnold Schwarznegger’s gun is held under his arm in many movies. I had always wanted to do that)

Avi was peeved with all these precautions of mine. (and, I suspect by the loss of his wallet)

“You behave as if you have never seen any monkeys in India” he said.

“Give me your spectacles” I said, ignoring his sarcasm.

“You are unnecessarily getting hyper. Nothing will happen” he said, but all the same, he hung his camera crosswise.

“Give me your spectacles” I said again.

“No, I won’t” he said. He has been wearing spectacles since the age of 10, and removing them was to him almost like removing the ‘mangalsutra’ to me.

“Give me your spectacles, otherwise the monkeys will take those” I said.

“Yes, indeed! And what will they do with them? Read your favorite Shakespeare’s sonnets?” He asked sarcastically, not believing me.

I suspect, somewhere deep in his psyche, there is this image of himself as a macho man, Lord of all he surveys, and he was not going to be dictated to by his woman especially in front of the Apes. (monkeys) A regular Tarzan!

As many a woman has done before me, I shrugged my shoulders and said “OK, let’s go.

We got out of the car, entered the gates of Uluwatu and started up the path which is bordered on both sides, by.the trees, with low-hanging branches. The monkeys were in those branches. We were keeping a close watch on those monkeys, but what we did not realize was that our backs were unprotected.

We had hardly walked 10-12 steps before a monkey came from the back, scrambled up Avi, climbed on his shoulders, removed his spectacles and jumped into the low branches of the tree. We were speechless by the audacity and quicksilver dexterity of the monkey.

After 10-20 seconds the speech returned. What Avi said about the monkey is not worth repeating.

The following link will give you the portrayal of Cassius by Shakespeare and you will see that I am as unlike Cassius as possible.

http://www.online-literature.com/shakespeare/julius_caesar/3/

I do not meddle in politics, do not have a ‘lean and hungry look’ because all my efforts at slimming down have failed, I am nobody’s underling, I do not think too much and I AM a “common laugher” so, I laughed aloud and said,

“I TOLD you!”

Avi just glared at me. As though it was MY fault!!

However, we still had to get those spectacles back from the monkey, especially since we were not considerate enough to give to the monkey a book of Shakespeare’s sonnets also to read. Shouting at the monkey, shaking his fists at it and threatening it with dire consequences, was not having any effect. The monkey calmly sat on the tree carelessly holding the spectacles and blinking at us.

Help, in the form of 2-3 urchins arrived. We negotiated with them and for a trifle sum, they chased the monkey and got the spectacles back from the monkey. This whole show was stage-managed, because they had OWNED and trained the monkey.

Fortunately, the lenses were intact but the frame was damaged. Avi had to wear his second set of spectacles during the tour.

He was a bit sullen throughout our tour of Uluwatu, but I was gleeful and kept breaking into mirthful laughter whenever I remembered Avi’s face when the monkey had snatched away his spectacles and vanished into the shrubbery. That did not improve his temper.

Most of the tourists cannot enter the inner courtyard of the Uluwatu, but we being Hindus, were allowed to do so. From the back of the temple, the view of the limitless Indian Ocean, pounding the base of the cliff, is absolutely fabulous. As is usual in Balinese temples, there is no stone idol to worship. There is a sacred platform over which Saint Nirartha was probably cremated, and a sort of box set on four pillars NOT touching the platform, which might be containing his ashes.

I believe the three words which all married men hate are,

“I TOLD you!”

According to Shakespeare, poor Calpurnia too had warned Julius about her bad dream and portents, and asked him not to go to the games. All my sympathies are with Calpurnia, because she never got the chance to tell her husband “I TOLD you”.

Julius Caesar!!! I thought he was old enough and a man of the world enough to know about birds and bees. Yet, he tells Antonius:

Forget not, in your speed, Antonius,
To touch Calpurnia; for our elders say,
The barren, touched in this holy chase,
Shake off their sterile curse

I believe, had he spent more time with Calpurnia instead of his mistresses and boy-lovers, perhaps she would not have been ‘barren’.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julius_Caesar

You should really read Shakespeare ‘Julius Caesar’ to know how the Coronation of Julius Caesar was stage-managed. Just like our Ideal Society’s AGM. I rather like this guy Casca.

When I was explaining to an American about Julius Caesar and Calpurnia, he said,

“But, California is not barren. What you are thinking of are states like Utah and Nevada”

Oh, well!!!

P.S.: You will notice that there are no photos in this blog, because we did not have a digital camera that time. Our photos need to be digitized in order to upload them. That is a job for Avi, but he will do it when he comes out of his sulking. He is sulking because I laughed when the monkey snatched his spectacles and said “I TOLD you!”

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