If the word ‘Yog’ comes to be synonymous with physical exercise, then it’s a joke. When you look at the mass of people, what is it that you find more unhealthy — the body or the mind? It is the mind that is extremely unhealthy. And all of that is because the mind is in ‘Viyog’ — the mind is separated from something that it desperately wants. So, Yog has to be an inquiry into who we are, and what it is that we really want.
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Questioner: Acharya Ji, Rishikesh is considered to be the capital of yoga. We would like to listen to you, what is your definition of yoga?
Acharya Prashant: It has to start from your definition of yourself, right? If you're convinced that you are the body, then your yoga has to be physical. If you are utterly convinced that you are nothing but the material body, then what else can yoga be for you? Something bodily.
But if your primary place is the mind, if your primary concerns are not physical but mental, then you have to address yourself as the restless mind. Let’s say, you have a sore knee or an inflamed back or a frozen shoulder, then you have no choice but to go for the physical kind of yoga, because your trouble itself is physical. So the solution has to be physical, right?
Right now I need water. Had he offered me Ramayan, that would have not helped me. My problem was my throat, not my soul. So my throat needed this material water. I got it, thanks. So if my knee needs some help or support, then the kind of physical yoga we mainly see in Rishikesh is obviously the right thing. But let's observe the condition of most people. Let’s look at mankind in general. We are talking of the 21st century today. Are our problems primarily physical anymore, or are we all victims of a neglected, ignored, restless mind?
