Question: When does a person know that he has control of the vital plane?

Sri Chinmoy: Now, 'vital' plane is a very vague term. If you use the word 'vital' in the emotional sense, then you are talking about emotions and passions. But there is also another vital which is called the spiritual vital or the dynamic, energising vital. This vital is surcharged with divine energy, divine power. When you ask how one individual can know that he has control over the vital, you are referring to the emotional plane or lower vital plane where there is pleasure, passion and so forth.

How can one know? One can know only when one sees through the eye of the soul. You may ask, "How am I to know where the eye of the soul is?" I wish to tell you that you can see with the eye of your soul when you concentrate or meditate. The best way is through meditation. During your meditation, try to feel that your whole body from the soles of your feet to the crown of your head has become one tiny ball and that this ball is at your command. You can pick it up and you can throw it. You should feel the lightness in your whole physical body. If you can have this kind of feeling about your body during your meditation, then easily you can have control over the emotional vital, since the emotional vital is inside the gross physical body. When the house is at your command, how can a tiny portion inside the house not be under your control? When you become this tiny ball, how do you see it? Not with your mind, not with your physical eyes, but with the Light inside you; and that Light is the eye of your soul.