March 2002

The Wonder of the Himalayas

The Himalayas are the playground of Gods. If Gods did not exist, people gazing at the Himalayas would have been bound to invent them Ð such is the majesty, grandeur and power emanating from these peaks. What we become is brought out from within us through the interaction with the multitude of aspects of the external world. If we were eternally gazing at the landscape of the moon, our being would have become in the image of the monotonous lifeless scenery of the moon.

The Himalayas, in contrast, present all the drama the human being can experience. The Himalayas themselves are the drama. From their explosive volcanic origins, through the storms and monsoons of the annual cycles, via the rolling hills with their exquisite flowers, rising to a tremendous crescendo of peaks reverberating with an everlasting energy Ð the Himalayas offer every aspect of the drama known in human experience. Except that in the Himalayas it is all on the Himalayan scale.

There is something haunting and irresistible about the Himalayas. Like great spiritual ideals, they seem to be easily available - before you start reaching them. Like great spiritual ideals, they are always there, permanent, solid and shinning Ð no matter what.

Like no other mountains on this earth, like no other place on this earth, the Himalayas belong to all humanity. Each of us has been personally tied to the Himalayas. For who of us has not dreamt about going there, and being there - if only for a while? Who of us has not been inspired and humbled by the Himalayan ethos Ð so overwhelming, so much beyond us, and so much calling us to measure ourselves against it?

Hence those celestial mountains serve as the ultimate point of reference of the greatness of our visions. We define ourselves and our projects in terms of their magnitude and grandeur. Our spiritual vision is helped and sustained by our awareness that they are there Ð pulling us upward, beyond our reach, but eternally calling us to their adobe. The spiritual journey is one in which one's grasp exceeds one's reach. And the Himalayas are the symbol of this reality which is continually beyond our reach but which continually we try to embrace.

What do the people do if they live in the shadows of the Himalayas, and do not want to be overwhelmed by them? They create philosophies of the Himalayan dimensions. Such is the story of the Vedic and Upanishadic traditions in ancient India. Living at the gates of the spectacular temple called the Himalayas, the ancient Hindus created the hymns and liturgies of the splendour and magnitude of their enormous temple. Thus were created the most sublime and enduring texts that were ever conceived by the human mind.

Keep your graze fixed on the Himalayas and all your little worries will melt away. Keep your gaze fixed on the Himalayas and you will bathe in beauty. Keep your gaze fixed on the Himalayas and you will be closer to Gods. Keep your gaze fixed on the Himalayas and you will be closer to your inner self. The Himalayas are a symbol of our potential greatness and godliness. They are also a very potent symbol for our times. So many past religious symbols have crumbled, as they are unable to sustain us any more. The Himalayas stand up undiminished. They unite people of ~all religious denominations. They are one stupendous altar at which the earth sings the glory of creation. When you are close to the Himalayas you can hear their peaks singing amidst the total silence.

To experience the wonder of the Himalayas is to experience the wonder of your own being, is to experience the beauty resonating in your heart along with the grandeur resonating from the Himalayas. Great beauty is born of great experiences. The Himalayan miracle is a nurturer of our sense of beauty, of sublimity, of divinity.

Henryk Skolimowski