WHO'S DRIVING YOUR CHARIOT?
Swami Jnaneshvara
The chariot is used by the ancient sages as a symbol for how to train
your mind and senses. Though most of us do not use horse drawn
chariots, the lesson is as practical today as it was thousands of
years ago. Allow your mind to visualize this image, and it will
become a wonderful tool in your daily spiritual life.
ROADS: The many roads down which the chariot may travel are the
countless objects of desire in the world and our memory.
HORSES: The ten horses are the ten senses (indriyas) through which we relate to the external world by perception and action.
REINS: The reins are the mind (manas) through which the sensesreceive their instructions to act and perceive.
CHARIOTEER: The charioteer is the higher intellect (buddhi), which issupposed to be the wise giver of instructions to the mind.
PASSENGER: The passenger is the Self, the Atman, the pure center ofconsciousness, which is always the neutral witness. (See koshas)
CHARIOT: The chariot itself is the physical body, the instrumentthrough which the Self, intellect, mind, and senses operate.
WHO'S DRIVING YOUR CHARIOT?
For many of us, much of the time, the charioteer is not on duty. Thereins called mind are flapping around freely without the properguidance of our inner wisdom. When the reins are free, they give noinstructions to the horses called senses. The horses (senses) roamfreely down any road they feel pulled towards in the moment, inresponse to their memories of the past (chitta). The chariot (body)takes a beating, the horses (senses) get tired, the reins (mind) getfrayed, and the charioteer (intelligence) gets lazy. The passenger iscompletely ignored.
PUT THE CHARIOTEER BACK ON THE JOB
The solution to the problem is to retrain the charioteer(intelligence) to pick up the reins (mind) and start giving somedirection to the horses (senses). This training is called sadhana, orspiritual practices. It means training all of the levels of ourselvesso that we might experience the still, silent, eternal center.
ALLOW THE CHARIOTEER TO SERVE THE PASSENGER
As the charioteer (intelligence) becomes more stabilized in beingback on the job, there is an ever increasing awareness of the factthe the entire purpose of the chariot, horses, reins, and charioteer,are to serve as instruments for the passenger, the true Self.
SEE ALSO:
Coordinating the Four Functions of Mind
Training the Ten Senses or Indriyas
Self, Five Koshas or Sheaths
Also on an AUDIO podcast through these links:
SwamiJ.com podcast page / Direct link to sound
iTunes / Yahoo.com / Podcast.net / Odeo.com
(Podcast.com, iTunes, Yahoo.com, and Odeo.com may take some time to update. )
Attaining Yoga or Union:
Yoga or "Union" is attained by first training, balancing, and purifying each of the aspects of our being individually, and then systematically receding attention inward through those levels, expanding so as to experience the state of Union, Yoga, Samadhi, or Turiya.
