Denpasar, In the City

Pura Agung Jagatnatha
Denpasar New & Full Moons

If you happen to visit Denpasar today (Friday, 17 January) from around three in the afternoon onwards, don’t be surprised to see the main roads in the city chock-a-block with people wearing traditional dress. It’s not unusual to see amongst them motorcyclists riding without helmets, for they are sporting a traditional headdress, which is de rigueur at the temple.
Dressed predominantly in white, this is the formal attire worn by Hindu worshippers in Denpasar as they throng towards Jagatnatha temple. Today there is a full moon, and as usual on the day of a full moon, worshippers flock to Jagatnatha temple to pray, as well as saying prayers at their own family shrines.
On this occasion the temple, which is situated in the middle of the city, is always full with worshippers. Thousands of Denpasar men and women, both young and old, come to the temple. They pray together without thought of social status or descent, occupation, origin, or even gender. They simply join in the prayers together.

The Padmasana
Pura Agung Jagatnatha in Denpasar was built in 1963 with a view to uniting the Hindu people who had moved to the city from villages all over the island. Not only that, the temple is also used by Hindu people who come from outside Bali; from Java, Kalimantan for example, or even foreign tourists who are Hindu.
If we look at the layout of the temple, which is situated to the right of the Bali Museum, we first of all note the tall ‘Padmasana’ shrine surrounded by a lotus pond. According to the Wrehaspatti Tattwa Holy Scripture, the ‘Padmasana’ is a holy construction that acts as a medium through which prayer is directed to God in his form as Sang Hyang Sada Siwa, the ruler of humanity and everything connected with it.
The word Padmasana comes from padma and asana. Padma means lotus flower, a symbol of the living environment, and asana means posture. So, ‘Padmasana’ is the poise of the living world, set amongst the eight cardinal directions of Hindu teaching. The lotus flower is used because it has roots extending into the earth, a stem, which resides underwater, and leaves and flowers, which breathe the air above the surface. Symbolically the lotus flower therefore lives in three worlds - the underworld, the netherworld, and the higher world.
In the Yayur Weda XXX scripture it is stated that the living world is the true resting place of God, and there is no part of this living world where God as supreme ruler is not present. The Ayur Weda mentions that the living world is the body of God, and the padmasana is therefore a symbol or replica of the living world as the true resting-place, or ‘Stana’ of God.
The lower part of the ‘Padmasana’ is constructed in the form of a ‘Bedawang Nala’, often called ‘Kurma Agni’ - a kind of fiery turtle. Kurma Agni is symbolic of the belly of the world, which is generally portrayed as volcanic magma. Meanwhile, above this mythical turtle there sit symbols of the living world - flora, fauna and mankind. This middle region correlates to a kind of taxonomy of species, and depicts the status of beasts and man relative to each other in the order of things. Here we see carvings of Angsa and Garuda protruding from the back of the shrine.
Angsa symbolizes the way that human beings must search for knowledge during their mortal phase, so as to be able to tell right from wrong, good from evil, as in the tale of Angsa who could separate rice from mud. If rice is thrown to a muddy place, Angsa the swan skillfully thrusts his beak into the mud, and all that enters his mouth is clean rice.
Garuda meanwhile is a symbol of spiritual freedom, as seen in the story of Adi Parwa, in which Garuda succeeds in freeing his mother from her mortal fate as shepherdess of a thousand dragons, the dragon being itself a symbol of profane feelings of attachment to things. Hindus believe that one of the tasks set for mortals on earth, is detachment from the slavery of earthly desires. God who grants blessings in this and future reincarnations rewards those who are able to achieve this detachment.
Our purpose in praising God is to receive the spiritual energy necessary to develop moral stature and mental strength; to achieve good fortune in the cycle of rebirth. The upper part of the padmasana is in the shape of a chair, symbolizing the way human beings sit amidst holiness and submission to God as the highest, most important aspect of their lives. This highest part of the padmasana is the medium through which prayer and devotion take place.

Praying at Full and New Moons
Prior to the nineteen sixties, Hindu people in Bali generally only prayed at temples on certain auspicious days, or every odalan (every six Balinese months). On a daily basis they would present offerings such as canangs, and smaller offerings after cooking in the morning.
At that time it was only certain people, such as priests and religious teachers, or people with a fervent spiritual belief, who would pray three times a day, and at the time of a full or new moon. They would pray at home three times a day - in the morning, at midday, and in the early evening - a litany known as ‘Tri Sandya’. Meanwhile for a full or new moon (purnama, tilem respectively) they would meet and pray at communal places of worship.
A more general awareness of the importance of prayer by Hindus in general though, began to emerge with the construction of Pura Agung Jagatnatha in Denpasar, and worshippers began to pray together at the temple every full and new moon.
The full moon symbolizes the bright midday, and the new moon, the middle of the night, or darkness. The habit of communal prayer at full and new moon therefore reminds us to worship God at all times of day, noon and night.

Temple Classification
It is a different matter though in the thousands of other temples in Bali, which are generally governed by a system of classification. For example a Swagina temple may only be patronized by people of the same profession, such as the tradesmen who worship at a Melanting temple, situated in the midst of a market, or farmers at a Subak temple, which is to be found in the middle of the rice fields. There are also Kawitan temples, where only members of the same line of descent may worship.
At the same time, every traditional village in Bali has at least three temples classed as ‘Kahyangan’. These include the Pura Desa, Pura Puseh, and Pura Dalem, and the people who frequent these places of worship are all indigenous inhabitants of the village. Even if somebody moves away to another village, city, or even country, it’s a safe bet that whenever they go home to visit, they will make a point of saying prayers at one or another of these three temples.
But as well as these temples whose followers belong to certain social groups, there are also places of worship whose doors are open to all. Such places were designed and built precisely for this purpose. They are called Kahyangan Jagat temples and include Besakih temple and Batur temple, to cite just two examples.