On reaching the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro at 10.30am on Thursday 7th October, group members let off a kirtan that resounded into the ether \u00e2\u20ac\u201c a chant for the welfare of the devotees in Africa. Having battled altitude sickness, meager provisions and bitter cold weather, the group members had had their personal limits tested to the maximum. The gruelling climb and descent took a total of six days \u00e2\u20ac\u201c and was no ordinary climb: it was a dedicated effort to raise funds for a nursery at Krishna Avanti School.<\/p>\n
Travelling through varying terrain along the route, the group climbed through tropical forest, open moorland and finally through alpine desert where intense weather conditions and temperature fluctuations are so dramatic that hardly and vegetation grows. From the third day onwards, the team were literally walking through clouds, and were becoming increasingly fatigued.<\/p>\n
Being both physically and mentally challenged, all members on the climb experienced varying levels of altitude sickness. With available oxygen at around 60% of normal levels at 3000m and decreasing higher up, no one in the group avoided the customary nausea, sleeplessness and shortness of breath. Each member of the team had the necessary courage to reach the top yet the physical toll on the body could not be ignored. After climbing for several days, five members of the team began to experience the tell-tale signs of dizziness and disorientation that were clear signals from the body of imminent danger to health. Wisely they took the decision to not proceed further and descended to lower altitude to recuperate.<\/p>\n
In total, 19 members of the party arrived at Gilman\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Point, which is generally the target for most climbers. Standing at an impressive 5681m above sea level this in itself is a tremendous achievement. The final trek, from Gilman\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Point to Uhuru Peak (5985m) was completed by nine intrepid travellers, Akhandadhi das, Srutidharma das, Saurav, Kamal, Dr Lalit, Nilesh, Mukhesh, Kaushik & Dilip. On arriving they offered a prayer on behalf of all of the devotees and raised a loud Hare Krishna kirtan \u00e2\u20ac\u201c which proved difficult due to lack of air and exhaustion.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll never do it again\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
Sleeping in tents in the freezing cold, without heat, water or toilets \u00e2\u20ac\u201c everyone put up with lack of dignity as well as physical austerity. The final 36 hour period of climbing and descent was an intense experience. During that period the group walked for a total of 28 hours. Walking up very steep slopes of scree \u00e2\u20ac\u201c slipping and sliding \u00e2\u20ac\u201c everyone\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s energy was sapped. Some fell asleep as they sat down for brief rest \u00e2\u20ac\u201c and the feeling of exhaustion was unlike any experience imaginable. However a special favour was bestowed on them as the thick clouds that normally shroud the peak dissipated during the final trek of the journey, providing a breaktaking view from the summit.<\/p>\n
A Lesson Learnt<\/p>\n
An experience of extreme endurance often brings out many realisations. For some it is the understanding that within God\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s amazing creation, we are actually very tiny. The sheer scale of the features of Mother Earth\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s surface are awe-inspiring \u00e2\u20ac\u201c yet they comprise a miniscule percentage of Lord Krishna\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s power and opulence.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153This trip required extensive planning, and demanded the best from all the participants at every moment \u00e2\u20ac\u201c yet reaching the summit was by Krishna\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s grace only. If such personal effort is required simply to climb a mountain \u00e2\u20ac\u201c what level of personal preparation and integrity is necessary to reach the spiritual world?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d \u00e2\u20ac\u201c Srutidharma das, Temple President.
\nmukham karoti vacalam
\npangumlanghayate girim
\nya krpas tamaham vande
\nsri gurum dinataranam<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153By the mercy of the guru even a lame man can climb mountains, and a dumb man can speak eloquent words or poetry.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
The group had a target of raising \u00c2\u00a3100,000 for the Krishna Avanti School. If you have not already sponsored one of the climbers you may wish to support this achievement by making a contribution \u00e2\u20ac\u201c click here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" On reaching the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro at 10.30am on Thursday 7th October, group members let off a kirtan that resounded into the ether \u00e2\u20ac\u201c a chant for the welfare of the devotees in Africa. Having battled altitude sickness, meager provisions and bitter cold weather, the group members had had their personal limits tested to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-406","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general-news"],"views":4656,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/iskconuk.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/406","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/iskconuk.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/iskconuk.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/iskconuk.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/iskconuk.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=406"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/iskconuk.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/406\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/iskconuk.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=406"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/iskconuk.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=406"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/iskconuk.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=406"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}