For anyone curious about the title of my publication, this one’s for you!
Hail The Goer is the translation of the final line in a mantra I found in the book Remember Be Here Now by Baba Ram Dass. The mantra in the ancient Indian language of Sanskrit goes, Gatẽ Gatẽ Pāragatẽ Pārasaṃgatẽ Bodhi Svāhā (गते गते पार गते पार संगते बोधि स्वाहा).
I discovered Remember Be Here Now at around 19 years old, when I was skimming through Steve Jobs’ autobiography. It was a book he mentioned was very influential to him around the same age, late teens - early 20s. He had listed a number of books, but the title of this one stood out to me.
This time in my life was incredibly pivotal, as it may have been for most. Leaving the family home to go away for college, I began to explore the world outside my small hometown and desperately desired a deeper understanding of life and what we call reality. I began exposing myself to different ways of being and thinking. This book was my first real introduction to eastern philosophy and belief systems.
Without going to deep, the book is about the author, Ram Dass (born Richard Alpert), who was a university professor who traveled to India in 1967 and began his spiritual path under various teachers. The book covers his life and transformation in India from Dr. Richard Alpert to Baba Ram Dass and includes the experiences and lessons he learned throughout his journey.
While reading through this, many of the lessons and ideas struck deeply with me. Ideas around the illusions of reality and the union of all living beings. I resonated strongly with the Hindu and Buddhist teachings Ram Dass described through his own experiences.
From all the lessons contained in Remember Be Here Now, one has remained close to me since my first reading of the book:
This idea. The idea of going, but not only going passed the comfort of your immediate surroundings. Going past everything you know. And going beyond that. Then, going even further than the conceivable beyond. Passed all limits and boundaries to an unfathomable time and place, in the here and now.
My younger self felt very inspired by the final line, hail the goer. Hail, acknowledge, and praise the one who braves the unknown path and chooses to go.
This idea sparked something inside me. A great desire, a deep longing to cross my own boundaries and to go beyond.
Since those days, now over a decade ago, I have continued to do what I can to go and to go beyond the beyond. And since those days, I keep this mantra near my heart, guiding me ever forward: Gatẽ Gatẽ Pāragatẽ Pārasaṃgatẽ Bodhi Svāhā.
Hence the name, this publication for me is a manifestation of this process. And I hope it can inspire at least one of you to also go.
Thank you for reading.
Blessings,
Marcos Del Valle