The Three Lives of a Czech Yogi and Beyond

Freedom was the goal Karel Werner was sure of achieving at the start of his 'third' life. As one of the 'bouncing Czechs’ given refuge by Britain after the 1968 Moscow-led invasion of his homeland, he was at last free to teach, soon becoming a lecturer at Durham University and remaining there until he retired. Shedding communist shackles, he was now able to publish many uncensored books and articles, and founded a prestigious ‘Symposium for Indian Religions’ which continues to this day.

After Karel and his first wife divorced, he married a former Wimbledon tennis player, Marian Boundy. Their explorations abroad included eight visits to South Korea. He describes his third life as being continuous joy marred only by the realisation that many people in this country have taken their freedom for granted and some have even worked against it. Another academic career opened after the Velvet Revolution; while helping Masaryk University in Brno to found a department for the study of religions he wrote many notable books in Czech. During the fifty years he and Marian were together, each undertook to be in touch after death. Marian records in the Epilogue how, after he died in 2019, Karel has been fulfilling his promise.