For nearly four decades, Eddie Stern has lived at the intersection of tradition and experimentation. A yoga teacher, author, app creator, and founder of New York’s Broome Street
Ganesh Temple and Equal Ground, Stern has spent his career moving between scriptures and science, postures and physiology, ancient breathwork and modern technology.
His students have ranged from everyday practitioners to cultural icons like Madonna, Gwyneth Paltrow, and many others - a testament not to celebrity, but to the clarity and rigor of his teaching. His multidisciplinary approach has made him one of yoga’s most respected contemporary voices, as comfortable discussing Indic philosophy as he is outlining the neurological mechanics of breath.
During a recent visit to Mumbai, Eddie sat down with the TEGO team to reflect on the beginnings of his practice, the misconceptions he has unlearned, and why, after 35 years, he still believes yoga is less about the shapes we make and more about the presence we bring.
Across those same decades, he has watched the practice around him transform - moving from fringe rooms and improvised props to studios, wellness apps, performance gear, and global culture. What emerged wasn’t a reinvention, but a widening: an evolution shaped by science, accessibility, and curiosity. And through it all, Eddie has seen yoga change on the outside, but its purpose stays the same: helping you understand yourself.
1. Do you remember your very first yoga class - what drew you to it?
Yes, very clearly. I was 15, at a summer camp, and I saw “yoga” printed on the schedule. Somehow the word felt familiar, even though I didn’t actually know what it meant. I went to the classes every day for a week or two, and what stayed with me was the deep sense of peace and quiet I felt afterward. When I returned home, I wanted to continue, but I didn’t know where to begin. A few years later, in New York, I met someone who practiced yoga. I asked him to teach me - and that’s how the path really opened.
2. What were you seeking when you started yoga… and did you find it?
I was looking for meaning. For purpose. I didn’t want to follow the standard American script - university, job, predictable life. I wanted something creative, something with depth. Yoga spoke to that part of me, but it also reached the spiritual longing I didn’t yet have language for. Once that connection clicked - between the practices and the questions inside me - I knew this was the work I wanted to dedicate my life to.3. Back in 1987, yoga wasn’t mainstream. What made you stay?
Yoga wasn’t popular at all. There were no mats, no clothes, no industry. But the lack of infrastructure didn’t matter to me. At its heart, yoga is self-knowledge - knowing who you are beneath all the changing things in the world. That idea kept me committed. Even as yoga became commercialized later, the essence hasn’t changed for me: it’s an inward journey.
4. How has your practice evolved over time?
When I first began, my teacher told me the first step was to become a vegetarian - so that came before the postures. Then came meditation, chanting, reading. Today my practice looks different. I wake up around 3:45 a.m. I read spiritual texts, meditate, pray, and then move. Some days it’s an hour of yoga. Other days it’s strength work, kettlebells, mobility, or cardio. And on some days, it’s only yoga. Variety keeps me grounded.
5. What’s a misconception about yoga that your journey helped you
unlearn?
That doing a posture means you’re doing yoga. It doesn’t. Yoga isn’t the shape - it’s the presence you bring to whatever you’re doing. You can lift weights or swing kettlebells with the same mindfulness as a seated meditation, and it becomes a mind-body practice. You can sit in a perfect lotus and not be doing yoga at all. What matters is awareness.
6. If you could teach one lesson to every beginner, what would it be?
Change your routine. Nature thrives on variation - even a touch of chaos. If you repeat the same thing daily, your body adapts and stops responding. Mix strength, mobility, breathwork, and restorative practices. But whatever you choose, be present while doing it. That’s where the transformation begins.
7. What keeps you curious after all these years?
Yoga is endless. Every time you think you understand something, another layer reveals itself - through scripture, science, or lived experience. I’m still learning how the nervous system adapts, how breath shapes emotion, how attention shapes the body. Curiosity doesn’t fade when the subject keeps expanding.
8. What’s your message for Tego’s Everyday Athlete community?
We evolved to move. Movement makes us healthier, happier, more connected. So move everyday - even a little. Listen to your body, rest when needed, but stay enthusiastic. Think of your practice as an adventure. If you bring presence to what you do, you’ll discover something new about yourself every time. That, to me, is the real heart of yoga.
