A Peek into Ethereal Beauty

Friends, it is an essay on the indescribable beauty of the Himalayas. Thanks.

“If there is paradise on this earth, it is this, it is this, it is this …” Thus spoke the great poet Amir Khusrau (1253 – 1325) in awe upon witnessing the ethereal beauty of the Himalayas in the Kashmir valley. Indeed, ‘paradise’ is the only word that can do some semblance of justice to the majestic grandeur of this mighty mountain range.

Assume that you are standing on the coast of an ocean, and long trains of waves are continuously rolling in. Some of these waves are big. Some of them are small. Some of them are blue in colour: light blue - dark blue - turquoise blue. Some are green in colour: light green - bottle green - transparent green. Many are grey in colour: light grey – dark grey – blackish grey. Others sport a mix of all these colours. Still others, at the far back, sparkle in the sun. Wherever your eyes fall on the ocean’s surface, you witness endless waves of various sizes rising and falling - rising and falling - rising and falling.

Mesmerising, isn’t it?

Now close your eyes, and in your imagination, multiply the height of these waves by a factor of 10,000. Solidify them into hard rocks. Make them still. Freeze them into one place. Maybe it will then give some inkling of the exquisite feeling I am trying to portray here. You will witness the same scene: endless waves rising and falling - rising and falling - rising and falling in front of you. The only difference is that these waves consist of hills: green hills - blue hills - grey hills – hills sparkling with snow. They stretch as far as your eyes can see on the horizon. And they are covered in a misty veil.

As you marvel at the sheer magnificence, the shackles of petty thinking that chain your mind in day-to-day life seem to magically break. You automatically feel your heart expand. You feel like standing there in silence for hours and hours and hours to soak in the indescribable beauty of it all.

It is a feeling beyond the power of words!
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