By Fr Francis Gonsalves, SJ –
Dasharath Manjhi—nicknamed ‘Mountain Man’— lost his wife on the way to hospital since circumventing a mountain took six hours and they couldn’t reach there on time. Dasharath’s love for his wife made him slog singlehandedly with hammer and chisel for 22 years to chisel a mountain passage 360-feet-long, 30-feet-wide and 25-feet-high that has reduced the distance between Atri and Wazirganj of Gaya district from 50 kms to 10 kms!
While we make mountains out of molehills, determined folks like Dasharath do the opposite; they transform mighty mountains into molehills by demonstrating that no mountain is too high to surmount. Today being ‘International Mountain Day’ with the theme ‘Mountains Matter’, let’s reflect on mountain-matters from various perspectives.
Mountains make up one-quarter of the world’s landscape and are the source of eighty per cent of the world’s fresh water supply. Some two billion people worldwide depend on the food, minerals, timber and hydro-electricity from mountain resources. Since mountains provide a wide range of ecological niches that are often inaccessible, they shelter half the earth’s richest centres of biodiversity. Sadly, those who dwell on mountains are blamed for deforestation, but the bigger exploiters of mountainous resources live elsewhere.
Mountains signify many things in religious traditions. The Bible has over five hundred references to mountains. First, mountains are symbols of silence, solitude and solidity. Second, they are personified and seen as rejoicing, leaping, praising and pointing out to God. Third, they are sacred sites where we encounter God. Abraham, Moses, Elijah and Jesus are associated with events that occurred on mountains. Sacred among these are Mount Sinai, Mount of Olives and Mount Calvary. The Himalayas have always been favourite abode of Indian sadhus and seers for their sadhanas.
I love mountains and have spent hours on them in silence, writing poetry or praying. Mountains give me a sense of distance, open up new horizons and expand the regions of my heart. Everything and everyone that I cling on to seems so small and insignificant when viewed from mountain peaks. However, apart from the geographical aspects of mountains, a mountain can be anything that challenges me to climb up or to go down.
Your school exams, an imminent job-transfer, an addiction, a dreaded disease, a nagging doubt, the birth of your firstborn or the death of your spouse—all these can seem like mountains, looming large before you: intimidating, yet intriguing; perilous, yet pregnant with promise. After you climb and conquer each of these mountains, you will realize that there’s still another one to climb.
World famous mountaineer, Edmund Hillary said, “It’s not the mountain we conquer, but ourselves.” May we realize that mountains matter. Care for them, climb them, let them challenge you.
Fr. Francis Gonsalves is a Gujarat Jesuit, former Principal of Vidyajyoti College, Delhi, and currently Dean of Theology at Jnana-Deepa Vidyapeeth, Pune. He is also the Executive Secretary of the CCBI Commission for Theology and Doctrine. He has authored many books and articles and is a columnist with The Asian Age and The Deccan Chronicle national dailies.