Bali Details

Hello again!

I e-mailed Giri, my friends' and my guide while we were in Bali, with a few questions about some things I was unsure about regarding what we saw in Bali and its significance to Balinese culture/spirituality- I wanted clarification from him as opposed to just going along with what Wikipedia had to say. I thought you might be interested in his responses, so I've attached them to this post. I've taken some liberties with his English so it's more easily readable, but have left the meat of his responses as is.

Balinese roofs on the pagodas in temples are tiered in numbers of either three, five, seven, nine, or eleven. Why is that? And does it have any correlation with the use of the pentatonic scale in Balinese music, or are these two things totally unrelated?

The reason roofs are tiered in odd numbers from three to eleven is related to the Balinese concept of God, which is pantheistic. God is one but many, many but one. He is inside every object and outside of them, like cotton soaked in water; water is inside the cotton as well as outside. In odd numbers there is always one in the center with one on each side, becoming three, five, seven, nine, and eleven. Eleven is the highest number of roofs there can be because it is the maximum number of directions in our cosmology: eight directions outside and one in the center; one up, and one down. From this perspective- our Balinese spiritual orientation- the cosmos is round.

I think it might also be related to pentatonic music but am unsure.

What is the relationship between energy, fire, etc., and the different layers of the body?

Five elements of the cosmos, Panca Maha Bhuta (panca= five, maha =great, bhuta =nature): 

1. Apah (liquid, water)

2. Pertiwi (solid, soil)

3. Teja (heat, fire)

4. Bayu (air, wind)

5. Akasa (ether, space)

Five layers of our body, Panca Maya Kosha  (panca= 5, maya= illusion, kosha= layer):

1. Ana Maya Kosha: physical body

2. Prana Maya Kosha: energy layer, nerve system

3. Mano Maya Kosha: mind layer

4. Wijnana Maya Kosha: memory layer, (knowledge and character are saved here)

5. Ananda Maya Kosha: layer of sublime happiness, (here is the home of our soul (Atman) which is a spark of The Divine (Brahman))

* These five elements of the cosmos (big world) are also the main elements of our body (small world).