Chapter 5: The Summit Within
Chapter Summary
This chapter is a personal account by Major H.P.S. Ahluwalia, a member of the first successful Indian expedition to Mount Everest in 1965. In it, he reflects on the profound emotional and spiritual changes he experienced after climbing the world's highest peak.
Ahluwalia describes the mix of joy and sadness he felt upon reaching the summit. While there was exhilaration at having achieved a lifelong dream, there was also a hint of melancholy because there were no higher peaks to conquer. He explains that climbing a mountain is not just a physical achievement; it's an emotional and spiritual one too. The experience changes a person completely.
He introduces the idea of another, more difficult summit: the "summit within." This refers to the challenge of understanding oneself, conquering personal fears, and achieving self-mastery. He believes that climbing the summit of Everest gave him the inspiration to face the challenges within his own mind.
The author details the immense difficulties of climbing Everest—the sheer physical struggle, the exhaustion, and the need for persistence. He emphasizes that climbing is a team effort; climbers depend on each other for safety and morale. At the summit, climbers feel a deep sense of humility and closeness to God. Ahluwalia left a picture of Guru Nanak on Everest, while his companions left symbols of their own faiths, signifying their reverence.
In conclusion, Ahluwalia asserts that the experience of climbing Everest has provided him with a new perspective on life. The memory of the climb helps him face life's challenges. He concludes that both climbing the mountain and conquering the "summit within" are truly worthwhile endeavors that teach valuable lessons about perseverance, companionship, and self-awareness.
Questions and Answers
Comprehension Check (Page 80)
1. What are the three qualities that played a major role in the author’s climb?
Answer: The three qualities are endurance, persistence, and willpower.
2. Why is adventure, which is risky, also pleasurable?
Answer: Adventure is pleasurable because it presents great obstacles. According to the author, humans take delight in overcoming these obstacles. The struggle and the eventual achievement bring a deep sense of joy and fulfillment.
3. What was it about Mount Everest that the author found irresistible?
Answer: The author found its height and mightiness irresistible, along with the fact that it is the highest peak in the world. He also felt that it was a challenge that was difficult to resist, having already climbed other peaks.
4. One does not do it (climb a high peak) for fame alone. What does one do it for, really?
Answer: One does it for the sense of fulfillment and the satisfaction of a deep urge to rise above one's surroundings. It is a way to connect with the eternal and experience a profound spiritual journey.
5. “He becomes conscious in a special manner of his own smallness in this large universe.” This awareness defines an emotion mentioned in the first paragraph. Which is the emotion?
Answer: The emotion is "humility."
6. What were the “symbols of reverence” left by members of the team on Everest?
Answer: The author left a picture of Guru Nanak. Rawat left a picture of Goddess Durga. Phu Dorji left a relic of the Buddha. Edmund Hillary had buried a cross under a cairn of rocks.
7. What, according to the writer, did his experience as an Everester teach him?
Answer: His experience as an Everester taught him to face life's ordeals resolutely. More importantly, it taught him about the other summit, the "summit within," which is perhaps more formidable to climb than Everest itself.
Working with the Text
1. What is the significance of the title ‘The Summit Within’?
Answer: The title is highly significant as it refers to two different summits. The first is the physical summit of Mount Everest, which is a great achievement of endurance and persistence. The second, and more important one, is the "summit within" a person's own mind. It represents self-awareness, self-control, and conquering one's own fears and limitations. The author suggests that climbing the physical mountain helps one to conquer the spiritual mountain within.
2. What is the writer’s opinion about mountains?
Answer: The writer believes mountains are a means of communion with God. They are majestic and beautiful, posing great challenges that help individuals grow. He feels a personal connection to mountains, seeing them as a source of strength and spiritual inspiration.
3. How does the writer describe his feelings at the summit?
Answer: The writer describes a mix of feelings. The dominant feeling was humility. He felt a sense of joy and thankfulness, but also a touch of sadness because he had reached the ultimate peak and there was nothing higher to climb. Looking at the vast panorama below, he felt a deep connection with God.
4. Why did the writer leave a picture of Guru Nanak on Everest?
Answer: Climbing to the summit was a spiritual experience for the writer, filling him with a sense of humility and closeness to a higher power. As a follower of Guru Nanak, leaving his picture on Everest was a "symbol of reverence" and a gesture of gratitude and faith.
5. Why does the writer say that the climb to the summit within is harder than the climb to the summit of Everest?
Answer: The writer says this because the "summit within" represents self-mastery and understanding one's own mind. This is a lifelong challenge that cannot be measured or physically scaled. While Everest can be climbed with physical strength and equipment, climbing the inner summit requires honesty, self-awareness, and constant effort to overcome personal fears and weaknesses, which is a far more difficult and complex task.
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