The chariot of the self, from the Kaṭha Upaniṣad
A passage on the body as chariot, the senses as horses, and the mind as reins — newly translated and briefly introduced.
The image is among the most durable in the tradition: a chariot in motion, and the question of who, if anyone, holds the reins. The translation here is the editors' own.
Know the Self as the rider in the chariot, and the body as the chariot. Know the intellect as the charioteer, and the mind as the reins. The senses, they say, are the horses; the objects of sense, the paths they range.
The passage is not a doctrine but a diagnostic: it asks the reader to locate themselves in the figure. Are you the horses, pulled by what you see? The reins? Or the still rider for whom the whole apparatus moves?
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