Question: Which dominates the body, the mind or the soul?

Sri Chinmoy: The soul is supposed to dominate the body, but sometimes the vital dominates the body and sometimes the mind dominates the body. Actually, the soul does not dominate; it inspires. When the mind or the vital wants to get something done by the body, they do not hesitate to use force. But the soul will never force; the soul is always acting through inspiration and love.

It is easier for the soul to inspire the body through the heart than through the mind. A child can be inspired most easily through the heart. But one can also see and feel the psychic movement in an old man of eighty years. How is it that we can see an old man acting like a child? It is just because the soul is inspiring him through the heart. If he is not a spiritual person, naturally he himself will not know what is happening. He will think, “My days are numbered, so let me now act like a child, let me regain my childhood.” But what actually happens is that since the soul has love and concern for the body, the soul inspires the body through the heart. So where the soul is concerned, what we observe is inspiration, and where the vital and mind are concerned, what we see is domination.