"Begawan, please accept my subservience. Forgive all my mistakes. I want you to immediately purify me in the seventh month of my unborn child so that on the day of his birth, my child will be safe," says Dewi Sokawati as she knelt down to offer her gesture of obedience in front of Begawan Swandagni.
"Sokawati, do you really long for your child? Or do you really miss your future more? Like it or not, your future will come to an end. That is why you long for children who can lengthen your future. Children cannot be born without love. Meanwhile, love needs a future because love can never end. Your love and mine is only limited to the present; it is our children who will allow that love to have a future so that it will never end. Because of the child in your womb, we have hope. What is the meaning of our life and love, if we have no hope? Just as love must be holy, so hope must be holy, too. So let yourself be flushed with water so that you are pure, until you are worthy of containing that holy hope, Sokawati," says Begawan Swandagni.
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Dewi Sokawati listens solemnly to her husband's advice. Then he walks out to the bamboo reed shower. She really likes this place. Every morning she lingers in the bath there, allowing herself to be peeked at by the birds who are lively chirping along with the sound of fresh water splashing over her body. Now, in the bamboo reed shower she must also purify herself. Near the bamboo reed shower, there is a pengaron (earthenware pot for cooking rice) filled with water from seven sources that is sprinkled with flowers of seven colors. Dewi Sokawati bows when Begawan Swandagni pours water with the seven colored flowers all over her body.
“You will give birth to a child who has not recognized all the taints and faults of the world. Therefore, birth is sacred. Therefore, you who will give birth to the holiness must also be holy. This seven-colored flower water will purify you, Sokawati,” says Begawan Swandagni.
Even this time she cannot hold back her desire to bathe in the bamboo reed shower.
Dewi Sokawati deeply feels the splash of the seven-colored flower water. The flowers fall on her chest. She wants to smell their scent, but she cannot smell them. She wants to feel the freshness of the water from the seven springs that is pouring down on her, but she does not feel the freshness either. She wonders why this ceremonial water does not feel fresh. Her eyes turn to the bamboo reed shower beside her. It seems the water from the bamboo reed shower that baths her every day is much fresher than the seven-colored flower water that has just washed over her body. Even this time she cannot hold back her desire to bathe in the bamboo reed shower.
"Go ahead Sokawati. Just don't, as usual, linger in the water for a long time,” replies Begawan Swandagni, who at that moment feels that it is impossible he can prevent his wife's desires.
"Let her do it, if it pleases her," says Begawan Swandagni in his heart as he walks to his small house, waiting for his wife to finish the ceremony to save her unborn child.
Dewi Sokawati immediately takes off her clothes, letting herself be hit by the fresh water of her favorite bamboo reed shower. The flowers, the remnants of the ceremonial siraman water, still cling to her head and chest. The water splashes, the flowers fall, along with the sound of splashing water falling on the rocks.
"Why does this bamboo reed shower feel more cleansing for me than the water for my seven-month pregnancy ceremony," asks Dewi Sokawati. "Can it be because the bamboo reed shower water is natural water that is original and pure, while the seven-colored flower water is ceremonial water that has been mixed with human intentions and thoughts?"
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Dewi Sokawati continues to ask while her palms scoop up water and splashes it on her face, begging that her beloved water will purify her. She realizes that the ceremonial water is not necessarily pure, because it can be that the water is mixed with human desires that are not necessarily pure and holy. On the other hand, the bamboo reed shower water is untouched by any human desire, it is pure water from the original nature, flowing and flowing without stopping.
Quickly she dries herself, puts on her clothes and goes to the place where Begawan Swandagni has been waiting for her.
Dewi Sokawati then gives her whole body to nature and lets the water cleanse her. Here and there the water splashes, her body moves and the branches of the trees are swayed by the screams of weak wind along with the sound of prenjak birds. Dewi Sokawati is startled, she has to end her bath immediately. Quickly she dries herself, puts on her clothes and goes to the place where Begawan Swandagni has been waiting for her.
"Sokawati, you have been lingering with your beloved water for a long time. Don't you still have to continue your purification ceremony?" asks Begawan Swandagni.
The words are already on the tip of her tongue. But she dares not to express it out and she prepares herself for the next ceremony.
Begawan Swandagni approaches the offerings of the ceremony, then takes an egg that has been provided. He strokes the egg and presses it to his wife's stomach.
"Sokawati, hopefully later your hope, which you have held for a long time, becomes a life that will complete the universe," says Begawan Swandagni. He then throws down the egg, begging that his wife's delivery will take place without any obstacles.
(This article was translated by Hyginus Hardoyo)
