The three points of departure
Kaṭha Upaniṣad
A boy meets Death and asks the only question worth asking. Death, unusually, answers honestly.
c. 500–300 BCE
- When
- c. 500–300 BCE
- Where it sits
- The three points of departure
The chariot image — senses as horses, mind as reins, intellect as driver — has never been bettered as a model of a human being.
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The text itself
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Commentaries worth trusting
Read by teachers within the tradition, not summaries of it.
- Kaṭhopaniṣad, Chinmaya commentary — Swami Chinmayananda The chariot, the charioteer and the reins, unpacked as a working map of attention.
- Kaṭha Upaniṣad classes — Swami Sarvapriyananda A contemporary monk of the Ramakrishna Order teaching Naciketas' refusal of every consolation.
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