Waving Shiv Baba’s flag at the Southernmost Point of Earth.
Hello and greetings!
I am BK Dalip Shekhawat; on 16th Dec 2022, I proudly waved Shiv Baba’s flag at the Geographical South Pole. It was the culmination of years of meditation, planning, and intense physical training. The expedition began from Union glacier, Antarctica, from 7th Dec until 18th Dec 2022. The ski to the last degree expedition is a ski and sled hauling trek across 111 km of Antarctica plateau to the southernmost point on earth, i.e., the geographical South Pole.
The trek started at 89 degrees South and ended at 90 degrees South. We were an international team of seven members. It took us 8 strenuous days to cover the distance, our average daily distance was 14 km. The average temperature with windchill ranged from -40 degrees C –60 degrees C. Our sleds weighed between 45 kgs – 75 kgs depending on the sharing of group gear and rations.
The trek was extremely strenuous; it was physically and mentally draining. Each day during the trek we were exposed to a severely cold temperature for about 8-13 hours. We had to cross endless snow fields, and thousands of sastrugi (wind-swept mounds of snow which are steep on the windward side and sloping on the leeward side). The altitude of the Antarctica plateau was between 3000 mts – 3400 mts.
Antarctica is the coldest, windiest, and driest continent, undoubtedly a lifetime opportunity to bring us face-to-face with all that is away from the ordinary; one must be well prepared before attempting a task as immense as this. We faced lots of challenges during the trek, such as dealing with wildly cold temperatures, hauling the heavy sled over the rough terrain, altitude sickness, and worst of all, the exposure to the 24 hours daylight, which messed up our biological clocks. We lost sense of time, body, and brain, both got confused, we had trouble sleeping, we felt more fatigued and struggled to keep our mood and moral high.
The overall journey was spectacular and transformative. I felt enlightened, and I got time to self-reflect and size up my problems. All the members were full of joy and excited to experience the once-in-a-lifetime chance to stand at the Bottom of the World and become exclusive to date the last-degree ski to 60 Nautical miles in the coldest part of the world.
During the trek I meditated every day and connected with Shiv Baba, I requested Baba to secure my route and visualized my success at the Pole. In the past, I waved Shiv Baba’s flag at the summit of Mt Everest, the Sahara Desert, and the Amazon rainforest. I have experienced Baba’s presence in all my adventures, Baba has always helped me during times of crisis. For the South Pole trip, I received the flags from Diamond Hall Madhuban, and got the blessing from the BK family, I undertook the responsibility to wave the flag at the South and the North Pole.
In April 2023 I am heading to the North Pole, once again I will have the honour to wave Shiv Baba’s flag at the North Pole.
Wrap –
Metaphorically, I still haven’t come back down to Earth. I am very thankful to my family and my father BK Nathu Singh Shekhawat who inspired me throughout my planning, training, and climbing. I am also thankful to the Madhuban family, Asha didi and Swati didi at Brahma Kumari’s Center Pilani for showering me with their blessing to succeed on my missions.
I will continue my journey to break barriers through meditation and support our BK family. I will also humbly attempt to continue to build on life lessons that will inspire us all to leave the next generation of leaders with a competitive edge for the global village that we have become.
Om Shanti.
