Acharya Prashant explains that one's definition of Yoga must start from one's definition of oneself. If you are 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 Yoga can only be something bodily for you. However, if your primary place is the mind and your primary concerns are not physical but mental, then you have to address yourself as the restless mind. He clarifies that for physical troubles, such as a sore knee or an inflamed back, the solution has to be physical, and one must go for the physical kind of Yoga. He uses the analogy of needing water for his throat, not a scripture for his soul, because the problem is physical. He then questions whether mankind's problems in the 21st century are primarily physical anymore. With great advancements in medical science and industrial production, most physical problems can be taken care of. While acknowledging that some issues are psychosomatic, requiring the mind to be healed, he points out that for a purely physical ailment like an inflamed knee, medical science or Hatha Yoga can provide answers. The speaker asserts that the bulk of mankind's problems today lie in a neglected, ignored, and restless mind. He posits that if one looks at the general condition of humanity, the mind is extremely unhealthy, far more so than the body. Therefore, what is needed is the Yoga of the mind. Since Yoga literally means union, and it is the mind that is sick and restless, the crucial question becomes: what is it that the mind wants to unite with? The proper definition of Yoga for today is this inquiry into who we are and what we really want. This restlessness of the mind, he explains, is the root of our endless desires, blind consumption, and the resulting destruction of the planet. We try to satiate our appetite for 'something' through material consumption, but no amount of it brings final peace. This is because the mind is in 'viyog' (separation) from something it desperately wants. Therefore, real Yoga is an inquiry into the mind's deep-seated wants. To reduce Yoga to mere physical exercise is a travesty and a joke, as it fails to address the fundamental sickness of the mind, which is the real crisis facing humanity.
