Social Needs in the Wilderness - Babas at Shivapuri Hill – Todke Baba

Baba: a human being
Humans are everywhere the same…even in the wilderness they behave according to their social training…even the solitary babas living inside tree holes (todka) feel pressed to behave socially…on the way upward from Baghdwar to the Shivapuri Top met a Baba inside a tree trunk…after i did him namaste he asked me in a typical hilly tone, ‘katabat aaunu bho koni, kata jan lagnu bho?’ (where you come from man, & where you going?) After my answer a social being spoke through the Baba, ‘have some tea first man?’ since it was getting darker due to the clouds, i told him that i’d meet him again after i return from the Top.

While walking down, I thought of chatting with the Baba a bit…asked him if he was the Todke Baba…’no, he live downhill these days, i’m living here for some six months…i was at Sundarijal before’…i told him that I really enjoyed the hill forest…’who wouldn’t enjoy Lord Shiva’s Durbar after all’ he commented, ‘we’re in bliss here….so much peace’ he was making some green leaves on a pan over firewood which he called wild veggies.. he again asked me to have some tea, but I felt like he was only being social…so said that I was getting late. He asked me to stay at his place…which was a big hole on a tree trunk…

Noise in the wilderness
At the downhill Kuti were three Babas with two other men around the Dhuni (Baba’s Bonfire) …it’d begun raining so I thought of getting over my shyness and chat with the Babas there…the Baba whom i recognized from a picture posted on the net as Kopche Baba was there…But when I asked him if he was the Kopche Baba… he answered with some uneasiness that Babas do not have any names…it’s the people who give them a name…& Kopche Baba was named so because of his old age & stooping figure…Another Mongolian looking man said that this was the Todke Baba…Todke Baba said that Kopche Baba had already passed away…the the Cemetery above and the cave below the cliff was Kopche Baba’s.

Todke Baba
Todke Baba began talking on the nature of the divine and malpractices in religions Another Bramhin looking man of about my age was more talkative…in fact I did not find anything holy in their talk…all they were talking about the malpractices…the two youths seemed to have come there for enjoying the Hashish smoke, which all of them began taking from the Chilim…Todke Baba was smoking from the Cigarette…After sometime Baba asked time with another fellow Baba…it was quarter to five…then he asked me if I’d stay there…I’d have certainly enjoyed staying there…but i’d to come back…sometimes family becomes more of a liability than need…moreover, I did not enjoy talking and making arguments even when you’re in the jungle…as it was still raining, Baba asked me to take his Umbrella or raincoat…but I did not want to take anything from Baba…

Todke Baba looked happy & friendly, but he did not seem to enjoy company…in fact I did not find anything special about him…but although i’d taken him for a person of Nepal Hills…he sounded like an Indian from his manner of speaking…