Karel Werner: An Autobiographical Sketch

This issue of Religions of South Asia (RoSA) honours the life and work of Professor Karel Werner, whose work is well known to students of Indology. A short account of his remarkably varied and fascinating life is included. Professor Werner’s area of research has included the Vedic hymns, particularly those which contain philosophical ideas or can be interpreted as anticipating the beginnings of yoga. He has written extensively on the evolution of yogic and Buddhist spiritual practices, and the topic of rebirth or reincarnation in Indian teachings and in European thought. In this context his attention has often returned to the problem of the nature of the transmigrating personality in the Vedas, Upanishads and Buddhism. He has repeatedly explored and analysed the Vedic concept of human personality and its destiny, the Buddhist view of the self, the Buddhist interpretation of experience, personal identity in the Upanishads and Buddhism, the law of kamma, and mindfulness.