Note on BIOGRAPHIES on Raimon Panikkar

Fundació Vivarium Raimon Panikkar, founded by Panikkar as testamentary heir for the publication of his writings and his image, is aware that a number of scholars from various countries wish to write a biography on Panikkar. After responded to several enquiries, the Foundation would like to make the following statement to all Panikkar’s friends, acquaintances and colleagues for whom we have contact details:

1. It was the explicit wish of Raimon Panikkar, repeatedly expressed, that a biography of himself, based on information from his friends and acquaintances, not be published.

2. In particular:
a) Panikkar always said that what he wanted to leave to posterity were his intellectual intuitions, which he himself prepared for publication and, up until the very end, organically compiled in his Opera Omnia (currently being published in various languages).
b) It was important for him that his private life should not be the object of curiosity, out of respect both for his own “privacy” and for that of those he was close to, especially as a priest.
c) He remained reticent about some of the experiences of his life (membership of a religious order, family, personal relations), although he did allude to them in some writings and in interviews he gave.

3. For these reasons, many years ago Panikkar entrusted his diaries to one person, Milena Carrara, and also named her as depositary executor of his archives, manuscripts, letters and all personal documents, with the explicit direction to make any use of them in concord with Vivarium.

Therefore, any biography would be not only “unauthorised” but, more importantly, contrary to the wishes of Panikkar himself. Naturally, this would not apply to any kind of work concerning the intellectual examination of his thought.

It is our hope that these wishes will be respected by all, and that any inquiry into strictly personal matters through interviews or other means will be avoided.
As Panikkar said, “true communication is always that which happens (has happened and will happen) from heart to heart”, leading us to listen to his words directly. And this is the one true legacy he desired to leave to us.

Thank you for your understanding.

Fundació Vivarium Raimon Panikkar
Josep Torras – Vice President