Vernon Katz received his doctorate from Oxford University, where he studied the Upanishads with Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, who later became president of India. Katz assisted the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, founder of Transcendental Meditation, in his classic translation of the Bhagavad Gita. Katz's books include The Blue Salon and Other Follies, an account of growing up as a Jewish boy in Nazi Germany.