Balinese Ngaben Ceremony or Cremation Ceremony, is the ritual performed

in Bali to send the deceased to the next life. The body of the deceased will be placed
as if sleeping, and the family will continue to treat the deceased as sleeping. No tears are
shed, because the deceased is only temporarily not present and will reincarnate or find his
final rest in Moksha (freeing from the reincarnation and death cycle).

The proper day of the Ngaben ceremony is always a matter of consulting a specialist on
ceremony days. On the day of the ceremony, the body of the deceased is placed inside
a coffin. This coffin is placed inside a sarcophagus resembling a buffalo (Lembu) or in a
temple structure (Wadah) made of paper and wood. The buffalo or temple structure will be
carried to the cremation site in a procession. The procession of Ngaben is not walking in a
straight line. This is to confuse bad spirits and keep them away from the deceased.
Ngaben is on of the most important ceremony in Bali. Because human body consist of 10
basic elements. One 5 elements we call as Panca Maha Butha or five macro cosmos
element: Pertiwi (soil), Apah (water), Teja (fire), Bayu (air) and Akasa (ether or space).
And the other 5 memories elements we call as Panca Tan Matra which is the five element
that influence us from our sense which is consist of: Ganda (from the nose or smell), Rasa
(from the tongue), Rupa (from the eyes), Sparsa (from the skin sense), Sabda (from the
ears).
After all been burning and cremating there is still another step because the atman or spirit
are still have other part of element that need to be eliminated that we call Panca
Karmendria or five major sin that we are doing. The Panca Karmendria is consist of:
Padendria (sin that coming from our path of life), Payundria (sin that coming from our food
in life), Panendria (sin from our hand created), Upastenindia (sin from our sexual behavior),
and Wakindriya (sin from our speech or our mouth). The ceremony to “erase” those sin is
we call as “Nyekah” It doesn’t mean that we will be free from those sin after the Nyekah
ceremony, but it is actually the recap of our sin. And the result will becoming the report
that “atman” or spirit has that will result whether he or she to be reincarnated or not. This
report it self we call it as Karma Wasana. So “Ngaben” is basically helping the atman to
reach his/ her status as quick as possible to “Brahman” or God to the next level and there
are several layer of “wrapper” that need to be remove by doing Ngaben and Nyekah
ceremony.

And for the people who still alive, Ngaben and Nyekah are the good filosophy the remind us
to always create good karma in life. So our report or Karma Wasana can lead us to
Moksatham Jagadhita Ya Ca Ithi Dharma or free from reincarnation. This also showing us
that Hinduism is not about getting heaven but how to be one with Brahman or God.