An anecdote such as the one above is unthinkable among the believers of the Semitic religions – Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Those religions are organised around a few principles or dogmas consistent with each other and legitimised by an absolute prophetic or messianic revelation, transmitted in a relatively simple set of Holy Scriptures. Each tends to view itself as the only holder of the truth, creating a chasm between believers and non-believers, chosen ones and heathens. Tolerance, in this context – and when it exists – is based either on the principle of coexistence and separation, as in Islam: 'To you your own religion, and to me my own religion' (Koran, 109/6); or on the legal mediation of existing differences, as in 'Western' secular tolerance.
Nothing as such exists in Balinese tradition. Instead of being exclusive, tolerance is inclusive. It integrates differences within its own framework. This idea rests on a different conception of the truth. To the Balinese, the absolute truth, although it may exist, is not knowable. This is best formulated in a parable of the text Wrespati Tatwa: "There was a group of blind men," it says, "who wanted to know what an elephant was like. After insisting, they managed to get an opportunity to touch an elephant. What each man touched, though, was a different part of the elephant. The first one touched the head and mistook it for a jar; the second touched the ear, but thought it to be a fan; the third mistook the tusk for a piece of polished wood; the fourth one mistook the trunk for a snake, the fifth the belly for a mountain, the sixth the tail for an eel; and the last one mistook the elephant's foot for a drum. In other words, whatever they touched, they continued on their way not knowing anything of the body of the elephant as well as of its shape, its character nor its reaction, because they were blind." This classical parable, also found in Buddhism, teaches an open brand of scepticism. As human beings, we are blind. Whatever the truth is, and whatever the parts of the truth we experience, we cannot have access to the wholeness of it. We always mistake it for what it is not, hence the variability of the Holy books. Eka wakya, bhinna sruti – the word of God is one, but the scriptures are many.
BALINESE SYNCRETISM
This tolerance finds its primary expression in the structure of Balinese religion itself. This religion is a blending of indigenous and Indian-derived elements, the first providing most of the ritual aspects and the second the philosophical interpretation. Balinese names of gods thus coexist with Indian ones. The Balinese name for deity, hyang, is used in the title of every god: Sang Hyang. As for the All-Encompassing God, the temple priests may call Him by the indigenous name of Sang Hyang Embang (the Void) or Sang Hyang Tuduh (Fate) while the brahmana priest will prefer the Indian-connoted Sang Hyang Parama Siwa or Sang Hyang Wisesa. The Indian side of the tradition is itself the result of the historical blending of Buddhist and Shivaite elements. One of the names given to God is Siwa-Buda. It blends the complementary opposites: Siwa is 'violence and action' while Buddha is 'compassion and inaction'. There is a system of correspondence between the gods of Hindu Shivaism and the Dyana Buddhas of Mahayana Buddhism. The emphasis is on their similarity: 'the essence of Siwa and Buddha is the same; they are different while being one, as the truth cannot be two' (Jinatma kalawan Siwatma tunggal, bhinneka tunggal ika tan ana dharma mangrwa). It is this quotation from the Old-Javanese Sutasoma poem which has given a motto to the Indonesian nation: Bhinneka Tunggal Ika or 'Different But One'.
Such openness finds its paramount expression in the concept of God. Beside the names given above, God may be called by names as varied as Sang Hyang ParamaKawi (the Ultimate Creator), Sang Hyang ParamaSiwa (the Ultimate Siwa), Sang Hyang Widhi Wasa (the Controlling Destiny) etc. The gods are conceived as emanating from the Unknowable Atintya, or from the Sun, Siwa Raditya, of which the individual gods are but the rays, or literally dewas. According to Balinese men of letters, to each shrine, or each element of the world indeed, may thus correspond a new 'god' or a new appellation for the Ultimate One. God in this context is One because He is multiple: wyapi-wyapaka, 'he pervades the pervading', as put in the classical poem Arjuna Wiwaha. He is the Ultimate Void or Sunya, expanding into infinite murti or manifestations from which people, in the classical tradition, would select one as istadewata, or personal god of choice. Such a 'diffusion' of God and the godly is the apparent opposite of the Mediterranean concept where God is the contraction of everything into an Absolute Oneness.
This relativism applies to sociological aspects of religion as well. For all practical purposes, religion in Bali is expected to vary according to three principles: desa (place), kala (time) and patra (circumstances). There are therefore no attempts at religious uniformity. All villages have their own specific traditions which they are particularly proud of. It is the difference between villages – and traditions – which is the condition of their ultimate unity.
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