The Everest of the mind

By climbing the Everest, you are overwhelmed by a deep sense of joy. A joy that lasts a lifetime. The experience changes you completely. The man who has been to the mountains is never the same again. He gains immensely from the mountains. He becomes conscious of his own smallness and loneliness in this immeasurable universe.

Even when getting down from the summit, once the physical exhaustion disappeared, I began asking myself the question why I had climbed the Everest. Why did the act of reaching the summit have such a hold on my imagination? It was already a thing of the past, something done yesterday. With every passing day, it would become more remote. And then what would remain? Would my memories fade slowly away?

All these thoughts led me to question myself as to why we climb mountains. The simplest answer would be, as others have said, “Because it is there”. It presents great difficulties. Man takes delight in overcoming obstacles. The obstacles in climbing a mountain are physical. A climb to a summit means endurance, persistence and willpower. And that in itself is exhilarating.

I have a more personal answer to the question. From my childhood, I have been attracted to mountains. I had felt miserable when away from them. To my mind, mountains are nature at its best. The closest we can come to God.

Once having granted this, the question remains: Why the Everest? Because it is the highest, the mightiest and has defied many previous attempts. It takes the last ounce of one’s energy. It is a brutal struggle with rock and ice. Once embarked upon, it is as if one’s life is at stake. The passage back is as difficult as the passage onwards. Once at the summit, there is a sense of being connected with something beyond you. This curious sense of nearness to the infinite is what really sustained us in our final physical effort to conquer the peak. Amidst the snows and winds of that cold, unfriendly and wholly difficult region, we were able to hold our own. Our bodies were only casings to house that determination.

I find that I have not yet fully explained why I climbed the Everest. It is like answering the question: why you breathe? A final answer is impossible. As I look back at life after climbing the Everest I think about the other summit — the summit of the mind — no less formidable and no easier to climb. Truly, each person carries within themselves their own mountain.