Having just turned 98 years young on Aug. 13, Tao Porchon-Lynch, the world’s oldest yoga teacher seems to have done it all—but, by her own admission, she’s not done yet.
In 2013, Porchon-Lynch, then 93, was declared the world’s oldest yoga teacher by Guinness World Records. Having had an eventful life, she has clearly stuck by one of her mantras: “There is nothing you cannot do.”
Porchon-Lynch, a White Plains resident who has ballroom danced competitively around the world, currently teaches eight yoga classes a week in Scarsdale and Hartsdale, and took time out of her busy week to talk to At Home on the Sound members on Aug. 9 on her life and how yoga has changed it.
From discovering yoga at her hometown of Pondicherry, India as an 8-year-old in 1926 when the practice was considered strictly for males; helping Jews escape the Nazis across the English Channel during World War II as a French resistance fighter; performing in London cabarets during the Blitz; becoming a couture model and movie actress in the ‘50s and ‘60s; and co-founding the American Wine Society, Porchon-Lynch’s life makes for a fascinating story—one she captured in an autobiography, “Dancing Light: The Spiritual Side of Being Through the Eyes of a Modern Yoga Master.”
“Every aspect of Tao’s life was historical,” co-author Teresa Kay-Aba Kennedy said. The book has won five awards and took four years to write. “[Tao] has always said that we can breathe together, we can be together; a very simple, yet very powerful statement,” Kennedy added.
Porchon-Lynch said she was raised by her uncle; her Indian mother died during childbirth and her French father had no idea what to do with a newborn. She calls her uncle the greatest influence in her life; during her time in India, he helped her meet Mahatma Gandhi and other Indian spiritual and yoga leaders. She also travelled the world with her uncle, an experience that taught her “truth and oneness with the whole world.”
Absorbing yogic philosophy from masters including B.K.S. Iyengar and Indra Devi, Porchon-Lynch ignored the adage of yoga being a discipline only for men, and with her interest and perseverance, swayed one of the most renowned masters to teach her.
Porchon-Lynch’s talk was a part of At Home on the Sound’s Remarkable Women Over 90 series, which features nonagenarian women still making waves in the community and surrounding areas.
Porchon-Lynch had all eyes on her when she entered Russell Hall of the Larchmont Avenue Church. Wearing a pink and purple ensemble, complete with bright pink stilettos, she was completely at ease while addressing the crowd during the event that had been two years in the making, according to an organizer for At Home on the Sound.
Porchon-Lynch talked about her life experience and future goals to a room full of eager attendees. Having taken up competitive ballroom dance at 87, she holds more than 700 first-place awards in the activity. “It’s not that I’m good; I have a lot of fun,” she said.
A lifelong peace activist, Porchon-Lynch has met the Dalai Lama and was recently a speaker at the United Nations International Day of Yoga in June. In her 72 years of teaching yoga, she has certified hundreds of yoga instructors and has taught countless classes, including one at the Pentagon to 90 members of the Department of Defense.
At the conversation series, Porchon-Lynch told those in attendance to take things one day at a time, to always start each day with a positive attitude, and to never procrastinate. “Know that within you is the power to do everything. Don’t waste time on things you don’t like,” the proclaimed modern mystic said.
“I have so much more I want to do in life,” she added. “People may think I’m crazy, but this is how I am. Nothing is impossible.”
