Ganesha in Bali - The Goa Gajah cave and more
Last night I had a dream - I dreamt that I was in Bali, journeying under water , looking for an ancient cave. The dream was very vivid - from the clothes I wore, to the colours of the sea, the forests , the waters and the wonderful old cave itself. I woke up , thinking I was in a world of fantasy and realised that the dream was triggered by the many memories of my Bali trip.. I had just then downloaded 400 pics and had uploaded a few of them in Facebook.
The memories brought back the rush of my first scuba diving experience , especially for a non swimmer like me . And the first ever monument I set foot in was the mystical Goa Gajah cave temple, built in the 11th century , but excavated only recently. I guess the dream was incepted by these two memories and the many emotions that resulted in seeing the pictures.
" Indian ? Are you a Hindu ? Im a Hindu too ?"This is a line that frequently opened all conversations and also ended in negotiations. We were at the Goa Gajah temple , near Ubud where my driver mentioned that its a 11th century cave shrine dedicated to the Ganesha and the trinity - Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva , all represented in the form of lingas.
I always thought " Goa " was pronounced like the state, Goa. Later my driver said it meant cave and its pronounced as " Guha" and " Gajah " is elephant. I told him that in many Indian languages - Guha means cave and gajah - elephant and ganesha was indeed the Elephant God of the Indian Hindus as well.
The excavated site has many interesting monuments - tanks, shrines, statues..and suddenly one old Indonesian walks up to me and says " See Buddha..see " ..Im not sure if he is referring to the diety Buddha as this was a Hindu site, but later I understand that he is actually pointing out to the faces carved on the rocks , which is believed to be a diety - Buddha or not, Im not sure though.
I saw quite a few depictions of Ganesha in Bali - the one I remember is a warrior like deity, like this statue that was atop a house. As we walked in and out of several temples in Bali, I was struck by the similarity and yet the difference..We hear a version of the gayatri mantra , while a local vendor tries hard to sell us the Om Nama Shivaya.
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