A tourist from England asked his guide about the meaning of Galungan day in Bali. The guide innocently replied: “The day of when light wins against darkness”.
For the general public, this answer is sufficient. But for Light seekers, this answer needs to be deeper. Let’s reflect on history more deeply.
In all of human history – again, history is always written by the winners. The losing party is not allowed to write a single ink on the pages of history.
The same thing happened with the history of Galungan. As far as can be seen with the spiritual eye, Mayadenawa who was the one who lost at that time was a Mahayana Buddhist.
The essence of his teaching is emptiness. It is this truth that is dangerously distorted to become an atheist and anti-God. And then used as an excuse to kill others.
Understandably, politics and power have never been clear. If you want to be clear, God is both empty and also full. If you want to put tea in a cup, the cup must be empty first.
If one wants God to be present within, one must be free from pride, arrogance, desire and excessive competition.
And once a person experiences unity (read: content or enlightened), he is usually empty of things like ego and arrogance.
At this level of attainment, darkness and light have no win-win terms. The two exist complementary to each other.
Without night, day would not be beautiful. Without mud, there would be no beautiful lotus. Without darkness, any Light will not shine beautifully.
Balinese elders are very wise when scheduling the Galungan to Kuningan time loop. Everything was prepared very neatly. Today is Monday, people are asked to prepare cakes (penajaan).
Tomorrow is the day of delivery. Cuts out avidya’s ignorance. After Avidya is cut, then we can call ourselves winning on Wednesday Galungan.
Winning from our own anger, revenge, envy, heartache and other darkness within. Passing through the soma of the great soma, a seeker is tested for the quality of his balance.
If successful, you can only enter the all-yellow day (read: Kuningan) on 18/6 2022. In the language of the Shiva-Buddhist people, yellow is a symbol of Buddhahood. aka perfect enlightenment.
That’s why the leaves that were hung by Balinese elders when Kuningan was shaped like a Mandala (a perfect circle). All revolve in the same circle of perfection.
In order not to repeat Mayadenawa’s sad story, keep this message deep: “Just as Tirtha cannot be separated by wetness, true silence cannot be separated by compassion”.
It is no coincidence that on Kuningan Day there is a piodalan at Sakenan Temple. An old holy book writes, Sakenan comes from the word Sakyamuni. One who has experienced perfect silence.
Guruji entrusted this task to all close friends of Compassion to do a neat service under the guidance of the Balinese coordinator, Mr. Adi Wiryawan, at Sakenan Temple on Monday 20th June 2022 at 2 PM Bali Time.
While contemplating this message through a true action. May all sentient beings be happy. May all sentient beings be happy. May all sentient beings be happy.
Photo courtesy: Unsplash
