Reach

Every weekend is a good one for me.
This one turned out to be better and one of its kind.

Kanifnath cave is a place situated near Pune, India.
It's about 20/25 kms from Kothrud, a suburb in Pune.

Kanifnath was a great Saint and belonged to the Navnath clan. The locals told us that Kanifnath visited this place and discovered this cave.

The cave has now turned itself into a temple. It's situated atop a mountain. It took me and my friend around 45 mins of climb to reach to the temple.

The bizarre thing about the cave is, you need to crawl inside the cave through a 9-inch by 9-inch square!

Initially we were apprehensive on getting stuck. It is just hard to digest that you can crawl yourself through such a small frame. Then we saw a middle-aged man do it skillfully without any problem.

Ah, forgot to tell one more thing. Before you crawl in, you have to take off your shirt/t-shirt. Bare it all on top, pants must stay :).

Women are not allowed to get into the cave. Some temple's in India have that restriction. Here it is not possible due to the aforementioned clause.

So people crawl in with their heads going in first. Once you are in, there is room for about 10 people to stand comfortably. The cave does not have any other opening apart from the 9'' hole. So people with claustrophobia should refrain from going inside. There is a Samadhi like structure inside and a lantern burning.

Coming out of the cave is a difficult task too...
The legs must come out first...
That's the established protocol.

This way you never end up turning your legs towards to holy Samadhi structure within the cave, either while going in or while coming out.

Having done this once, we felt a sense of achievement.
It's a great feeling that you go inside and come out from there.

The climate was amazing too, windy and cloudy which made the trek even more heartening.

How to get there:
Take Pune-Hadapsar-Saswad road.
From Hadapsar GadiTal go further 10kms.
On Saswad road, you would see some snack outlets.
Turn right, Kanifnath temple is visible right on the top
of the mountain.

You would have to climb your way up...

In case you want to reach up using your vehicle, go further to
Saswad and there is a road directly from Saswad to Kanifnath cave at the top.

Cheers,
Manish.