Late Mr C L Sah Thulgharia
with Tenzing Norgay Sherpa

Late Mr C L Sah Thulgharia
with Sir Edmund Hillary

I go on to think – what if there were no trees and all were hewn down in selfishness and short sightedness? What if the joy and ecstasy expressed by the plants was no more. What if, with the loss of forest shelter, there were no birds to sing, dance and chirp for us, enchant us and remind us of the great Creator above us all, who is the Source of all joy and happiness. Man would grow dull and base, life would become unhappy and charm to live and continue would be lost.

So let there be trees, let them grow. Plant more, protect them and nurture them. Plant one after each new born. Plant one after each departed. Commemorate all occasions by planting trees. Let there be birds. Let there be the joyous swinging and dancing of trees. Let there be the ‘stillness’ of the forests to put us in tune with the Infinite.

It is the beauty and ’stillness’ of the wilderness that has enchanted the trekker. And it is the yet deeper ‘stillness’ of the snow clad mountains that has attracted the mountaineer.

Through his constant dwelling amongst the mountains, he gets converted into a yogi. All ancient Sages were mountaineers – they had perforce to be deft in climbing to be able to go to remote and inaccessible regions, the atmosphere and ‘stillness’ of which would place them in harmony with the ‘Stream’ that was flowing before all things began, and will go on after nothing remains.

A climber who goes to the mountains just for adventure and thrill gets unwittingly attuned to the same ‘stream’ the quest for which forced the Sage to become a mountaineer, and which in time transforms the mountaineer into a yogi. To be able to reach a summit or not has not mattered much as true mountaineering is just an excuse for them to dwell in the Divine atmosphere of the mountains.

Mountaineers are great. We bow our heads to them. To look at them, to think of them inspires enthusiasm, hope, happiness, joy and reverence.

May there therefore be more trekkers and mountaineers in the country. May more facilities exist to draw more to the wilderness and the mountains so that more may get united with the ‘Cosmic Stillness’ and enjoy the beauty – inner as well as outer – in this world, the most wonderful Creation of the Divine.