OCTOBER 2

Conquering Oneself

Edmund Hillary, born on July 2, 1919, in Auckland, New Zealand, showed an early interest in mountaineering. He started by climbing mountains in his own country and later, in 1951, attempted along with a team to scale the heights of Mount Everest, a 29,028 foot high peak in Nepal. This attempt was not successful. Then, for the second time in 1953 he again set out to climb it with a British team. His guide in this venture was a Nepali, Tenzing Norgay. Reaching the summit of Mount Everest on May 29, 1953, he became the first person to set foot on the highest point of the globe. He immediately became famous all over the world, and received a knighthood on July 16 of the same year.

He subsequently wrote a book on this mountaineering exploit, published in 1955 under the title of High Adventure. One of the lessons of this book is that, “it is not the mountain we conquer but ourselves.”

This sounds very simple, but it is a remark of great profundity. It would be true to say that every victory in this world is the result of conquering one’s own self. Each conquest necessarily entails a hard struggle. But, first and foremost, the aspirant to success must prove himself equal to that initial struggle, then he must show his unflagging determination to reach his ultimate goal. Only then will the world acclaim him as a conqueror.

Be it mountaineering or any other exploit, man has first to pass the test of a hard struggle. He must then prove that he is capable of exercising patience and restraint. The day a man furnishes proof of this ability, is the day that he will stand victorious for all the world to see, on the highest pinnacle of success.