[kullukid]

During my visit to Rishi in early Jan this year I decided to look for the Bhutnath cave of Tat Wale Baba Ji, who i've read lot's about over the last few yrs. I walked down to Ramjhula & crossed the bridge to the Ashram side of the river & took a left in the opposite direction to the rest of the crowd, after about 15mins the road doubled back on itself & i realised that i could have taken a quicker route, not that I was in any kind of hurry. The road began to get much steeper now & i proceeded deeper into the forests above Rishi. The road was deserted, an occasional Tourist jeep would pass by every 10mins or so. I rounded a corner & saw a troupe of about 100 monkeys marching down the middle of the road towards me, I was very tempted to get my camera out an take some photo's of them, but than thought better of it (I've had experiences of snatching monkeys before!!) They didn't seem worried by my Presence on their territory & kept on advancing straight towards me, once they got close up to me they sort of split to either side of the road making a pathway for me to walk through the middle Phew! There were a few real big buggers giving me the weary eye as they passed by. I kept on walking up hill for about 4km & the views back down to the Ganga & Ashram areas were wonderful. Eventually I got to a part in the road where i could see a verreee steep overgrown trail leading into the forest & thought this must be it. I looked high up into the hillside & could just see a small manmade structure that was almost invisible due to the dense forest, i could also see it was inhabited & it looked like there were a couple of Sadhu's up there.
I didn't want to intrude uninvited & the path up looked verreee steep & a bit of a climb, so I hung around at the bottom making it obvious, that I was looking up to the cave, hoping that the Sadhu's would notice me & wave for me to go up.....but to no avail. So i thought i'd carry on walking up the road & see if it could be accessed from above. After 5mins I saw an old woodcutter gathering up some wood, so I approached him & said is that Bhutnath Cave the Ashram of Tat Wale Baba? "Yes longhair,no go!" he said. I'm looking for Swami Shankardasji (disciple of Tat Wale Baba ji) i replied. "He no here, He hotel SwargAshram side.
It was Swami Shankardas Ji who I was really hoping to meet, he had been a disciple of TWB Ji & He had looked after the cave Ashram since the MahaSamadhi of TWB Ji. So i turned around & started to head back down the hill,wondering why the woodcutter had said "no go", after 5mins I was level with the path to the cave again, once again I could see there were a couple of people wandering about up there & thought i'll hang about again & see if they wave me up, but then i had a bad feeling & thought i shouldn't approach any nearer without an invitation & something had stopped me going up,usually i would have just gone up the path without hesitation, but something didn't feel right.
I retraced my steps down the road, took the short cut i had noticed on the way up, which brought me out directly in front of the Ramjhula bridge, from there i followed the road (no cars allowed) along the side of the Ganga for a couple of KM's until i reached SwargAshram area. Eventually with a bit of asking around i managed to find the Guesthouse where Swami Shankardasji was staying. The guy on the reception went to tell Swamiji I was asking for him & we sat & had a drink & a talk. I told Him that I had walked up to the cave that day & straight away He said "You didn't go right up to the cave did you?" No i Replied  "Oh good it would not be safe for you" but He didn't explain why. He told me that the Forestry Commission had evicted Him from the cave a few yrs ago & that He was currently fighting the case through the courts to be allowed back to His Masters Ashram & Shrine. This was just my experience but you can read the full story of Tat Wale Baba & Bhutnath Gufa here;

http://www.amazingab...om/twbamze.html

http://www.indiadivi...ayas/Page1.html

Here's lots of photo's;
http://www.tatwale.c...ils.php?album=1

http://www.tatwale.com/

[priya]

Quote

No i Replied "Oh good it would not be safe for you" but He didn't explain why.

You still have no idea who you saw at the ashram/cave?  How fortunate that you followed your instinct(?) and didn't venture any further.