Sadhguru: Fundamentally, the word “health” comes from the root word “whole.” What we call “feeling healthy,” is that we have a sense of wholeness within us. Just being free of diseases medically is not health. If we feel like a complete human being in our body, mind, and spirit, that is when we are really healthy. There are any number of people who are medically healthy but not healthy in the real sense because they do not experience a sense of wellness within themselves.

If one has to experience this sense of wholeness and oneness, it is important that the body, mind, and above all, the energy function in a certain level of intensity within themselves.

Physically, as per medical terms, a person may be healthy but energies may be lethargic. For such a person, things may not happen in life the way they should, both inside and outside. This is simply because one is not taking care of the wellbeing of his or her energy.

For every physical or psychological situation that you go through in life, there is fundamentally an energy basis which also manifests as a chemical basis. In a way, modern allopathic medicines have become just chemistry. For every problem that arises in your body, you try to take in some medicine – a chemical – and come to some kind of balance. If you use one chemical to bring down one aspect or enhance another, there is also a side-effect to this. For this side-effect, there is an antidote. For the antidote there is another antidote. It is an endless chain.

Because a man has got excess acids within him, you put some alkaline medicine into him. But why does he have excessive acids? Because of the way his mind, his body, and above all, his energy functions.

Whatever happens on the chemical level in your body is controlled by the way your energies function. In yoga, when we say health, we don't look at the body or the mind, we only look at the energy – the way it is. If your energy body is in proper balance and full flow, your physical body and mental body will be in perfect health. There is no question about it.

Keeping the energy body in full flow is not about doing any kind of healing or things like that. This is about going to the foundations of your energy system and activating it in a proper way, building a foundational yogic practice that establishes your energy in such a way that your body and mind are naturally fine.

When it comes to health, no human being gets to live in perfect conditions. The pressures of life, the food that we eat, the air that we breathe, the water that we drink can affect us in many ways. But if the energy in our system is properly cultivated and kept active, these things will not have much of an effect.