Melukat ceremony is a ceremony for purifying mind and soul inside human body spiritually.
The ceremony is carried out on a good day and it is a tradition, which have been done by Hindus in Bali generation to generation until now.
Purifying spiritually means a process to remove bad influences or “klesa” in human.
Klesa means dirty. There are five klesa, they are “Awidya”, soul darkness because they perceive themselves as smart, rich, young, strong, noble, beautiful, or handsome. “Asmita” is egoist and the body only stress on releasing desire. “Dwesa” is hatred and revenge. “Abhiniwesa” is fear.
If those five bad thinkings dominate human life, thus they go through dirty life.
The meaning of Melukat ceremony is inside every human there are bad and dirty things, so they have to be purified and cleansed.
Melukat is derived from Sulukat. “Su” means good, and “lukat” means purification, so Melukat means to purify oneself to get advantage and happiness.
There are many stories about why people carry out melukat ceremony, one of them is the story of Dewi Uma who is cursed and became a horrifying creature placed at gandamayu cemetery and named Ra Nini. Next, Batara Guru appeared by entering Sadewa’s body to purify Ra Nini so that she returned to her former body as Dewi Uma.Then, Dewi Uma taught people how to cleanse any sins and harm.
There is also the story of Bima when Drona sent him to get the holy water, but it was only Duryodana’s trick to trap Bima. But Bima met Mahadewa in the manifestation of a kid who told Bima the secret of holy water or tirta amerta.
In melukat ceremony some offerings are served, such as prascita and bayuan. Meanwhile the process of “pelukatan” can be done in griya, beach, and family shrines at home.