Religion in Bali by C. Hooykaas

In the past a candidate for padanda ship may have served his teacher and his wife in their
compound in the Indian way as described in the ADI PARWA. But nowadays he has to make
himself accepted first by a padanda who teaches him the subject (which he has to memorise in
his own home) and finally by another who gives him the consecration. This ceremony is very
impressive; the candidate at a certain stage is considered and dealt with as if he were a corpse
and then is resuscitated to new life; he is reborn—the same thought as with the consecration of a
new Roman Catholic priest. He gets his initiator's foot on his head and is allowed to kiss its great
toe. At the same time the new padanda's wife of equal birth undergoes the ceremony; she is his
help, his deputy and perhaps his successor [2]. Even unmarried and divorced brahman priestesses
are known.
During his ritual the padanda squats in one place, even if it lasts for hours at a stretch. This is
part of his yoga, exertion, and he is very well aware of dhyana/samadhi, concentration of
thinking, and of pranayama, breath control. Frequently he must be assisted for practical things;
as his wife is not always able or willing to do so, he is served by an ulaka (from walaka, balaka,
child, junior). To this assistant number of activities and even rituals are confided. There are no
written rules how far this may go and much will depend on the age and the health of the padanda
who has been invited to muput karya, i.e. to finish or complete a ritual. This choice of words
illustrates that the deputising by a not yet ordained priest is felt as being: by a junior priest. A
newly ordained padanda may be invited for the pacifying of bhuta and kala, followed by their
chasing them home, but a few years must have elapsed before the most important task is
confided to him; the care of the dead. And even so he may fail in the difficult task of 'shipping
over to the right side' the soul of the deceased, so that it haunts the sleep of the bereaved ones.
Then it may err along the waters and frequent the crossroads, so that there sometimes one can see
a priest at work, trying to conduct it yet to its destination.
Surya means sun; as the padanda Siwa during his worship purifies and empties himself to offer
an abode for Siwa the God of the Sun, it is only natural when the layman, speaking about the
padanda, whose wife he asks for toya, calls the reverend man 'my Surya'. Likewise when the
padanda happens to follow the Buddha ritual, he remains 'my Surya', for the sisya, the layman, is