The beautiful Ani, who rented the room next to Kadek, was a beautiful Madurese woman, but more urgently, she was also the victim of Kadek’s frequent peeping

A reputed scoundrel in Bali, but now a migrant in Jakarta, Kadek had few friends and fewer options of a suitor, but beautiful Ani had captured his imagination

In his mind it was settled, he would find a way to make Ani his – Ah! But he would surely have to convert

Would it matter? He was so far from home, he could not care for his ancestors, gods and the spirits of his home in Gianyar, Bali, yes he believed in karma-pala, fruit of good deeds, but oh how he loved Ani

So, he pursued her, and began to learn her ways: the splashings of water, the ablutions, to the bowing prayers

Little did he know that his call for love became his call of faith, so with an adult circumcision and the reading of Arabic script, it was done

He consoled himself by recounting an old saying a Hindu Brahmin once told him: all religions are the same, the ways to God are many

To Kadek, this way was desire and beauty

Oh God! So, in a swift adaptation, one powered by love, I Kadek Nuratin became Ahmad Nur-I-Din, a responsible Muslim man

Twenty years later, he would have raised two of his own daughters, dressed in the white woman’s garb for prayers – teaching them to better resist the calls of wily Balinese boys like he once was! He was truly devout

Alas, Kadek-turned-Ahmad died at fifty years of age, his body was wrapped in a white caftan, taken to the nearby Priok cemetery and, after a few prayers to the One God, his body was made to face the holy city of Mecca forever

His soul would rest in peace forever

At least, this was what his Jakarta family thought

Because to the Balinese, Balinese souls, even if they have turned “Muslim,” do not follow the prophet’s rules

But nobody knew it yet

Back in Gianyar, very few had noticed Kadek’s departure to Jakarta

He was the second son of a lost father, and even as a child he was a nuisance and scoundrel

His older brother, I Wayan Dobler, thought it was perhaps better Kadek was gone, hearing rumours that he had married in Jakarta

He never returned to claim inheritance

Now, the news had spread that he was dead and buried

Life in the village was hard, but tourism had improved prospects

Pan Dobler’s daughter, Putu Niniek, had been able to buy a motorbike from her work at one of Ubud’s river restaurants

One day, she fell and broke her leg near Tengkulak crossroads on the way from Pejeng – but she still had money for her treatments too

All was well again, until she came under the spell of this skunk of a man, Kemprot

She would mumble funny things in her sleep too

Pan Dobler was concerned

It was only when his wife, Men Dobler, had been bitten by a dog, and taken to Denpasar for anti-rabies shots, did he become alarmed

There was something amiss in the family, there were too many accidents and misfortunes! He had to find out what was wrong, and so a visit to the balian tetakson (shaman priest) was due – a good one could be found in Tembuku, his neighbour had advised him

The famous mangku received them two days later

They entered the dark house, discreetly gave a pejati offering to THE helper – the customary 100,000 rupiah slipped underneath the flowers – and sat in the lotus position next to the powerful balian

The latter did not utter a word: he smiled at them, lit a stick of incense, and started uttering a mantra, the smoke wafting up past his nose toward the higher world

Suddenly, “it” was there, shivering

A roaring voice came from the bottom of the priest’s throat: “My children, I have been waiting for your visit for a long time

Why is it only now that you pay attention to your kinsman, who is lost and wandering in the void?” The family was petrified: it was a lost and erring soul

The voice roared again, threatening and imploring at the same time

“Help me, help me

If you don’t, I shall wreak havoc in your world of humans.” They were transfixed

But Dobler did not have to wait long to understand what it was all about: it was his “Jakartan” brother Kadek’s voice asking for help

Kadek was dead, and his soul could not find its way to the ancestral abode of the Balinese souls because it had not received the proper rites

It was stuck somewhere between the human world and the entrance to the purgatory guarded by Sang Suratma

Everything was clear now: Putu Niniek’s accident, the black magic advances of Kemprot, Men Dobler’s dog bite… The cause of all this was Kadek’s lost soul

He had to be taken out of there

His soul had to be liberated

After consultation with family members, it was decided, out of fear, to take Kadek’s soul out of its conundrum

Kadek’s soul was called up, released and, using the right symbols, made to undergo a cremation with all the post-cremation steps until it too could find its way to the ancestral abode above the mountain—this time unimpeded

So, Kadek’s soul is now among the ancestors revered in Bali by Dobler’s family

This raises an important question: is it the first time a dead soul can at once enjoy both an Islamic paradise and be tortured through a Balinese purgatory? As that Hindu Brahmin had said: the ways to God are many!

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🔗 Sumber: https://www.nowbali.co.id/a-soul-in-limbo-the-curious-case-of-a-converted-balinese