eddie stern is a yoga teacher lecturer and author who has been practising ashtanga yoga for thirty years stern first visited india 32 years ago for his yoga teacher training in kerala and for many years made annual trips to the mysore ashram where ashtanga was popularised and where he also met his wife his new book one simple thing a new look at the science of yoga and how it can transform your life brings together the realms of the scientific and spiritual he spoke to ketaki desai about his book cultural appropriation and sexual abuse in yogayou have taught many celebrities how seriously do they take yogathe first celebrity student we had was madonna she walked into my wifes class one evening out of the blue with no previous announcements she ended up practising with us for 1015 years she was very very good she brought along gwyneth paltrow who later brought along her then husband chris martin in the 1990s actor willem dafoe started practising with us these celebrities take yoga extremely seriously those people have gotten to where they are because theyre extremely artful and disciplined and thats why theyre drawn to a disciplined practice like ashtanga yogais there a difference in the way yoga is practised in india as compared to the westindians seem to be not as concerned with how it looks but what its doing to them in america people seem to be overly concerned with how it looks and the outer form but not quite as concerned with the actual content form is important but the postures dont need to be done right for them to work indians do yoga in a much easier gentler fashion and its more naturalsome see the western worlds embracing of yoga as a form of appropriation thoughtsits something i think about quite a bit especially since i have devoted more than half my life to yoga and also practising hinduism we ran a ganesh temple in new york for a long time i am trained in chanting the upanishads and the vedas i dont have an answer to it other than to be respectful and humble towards the immense cultural knowledge and devotion systems its all that i know in my spiritual life and i try not to exploit it in any wayin the book you say that first and foremost yoga is practice for the mind not body what do you mean by thatfrom a yogic perspective the mind and body are considered to be a continuum theyre not two separate things so what youre doing to one youre doing to the other but even though our mind and body are a continuum something drives us to do yoga the thing that drives us is the signal in our mind that says something is lacking and i need to fill in that gap it could be something physically or mentally like needing to stretch your body or wanting to be less stressedthere is a