The Beatles in India

THE PILGRIMS’ PROGRESS – with the Beatles in India

Two BEATLES sat in the hot Eastern sun on a breathtaking plateau overlooking the Ganges listening to an Indian greybeard perched on a pink plinth. They were learning how to face a hard day’s night meditating without food, drink or sleep while in search of the secrets of peace and everlasting life. In uncluttered caftans, George Harrison and John Lennon, with wives Cynthia and Patti, have stopped the show for a while to be the pupils of the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi.

The Maharishi told me today that George and John, along with Paul McCartney and Ringo who arrive on Tuesday to complete the set, face thirty-hour fasts – or meditative trances – as part of the two-month course at his fifteen-acre academy in the forest-clad foothills of the Himalaya.

But the Maharishi pointed out that, when the foursome reach this advanced stage in their meditation, they will gradually decrease the fast sessions and readapt their systems to rejoin the everyday world.

When they return, will they be better Beatles?

Before he ascended to the Maharishi’s academy George Harrison told me : “I believe I have already extended my life by twenty years. I believe there are bods up here in the Himalayas who have lived for centuries. There is one somewhere around who was born before Jesus Christ and is still living now.“

And John. “The way George is going he will be flying on a magic carpet by the time he is forty. I am here to find out what kind of role I am now to play. I would like to know how far I can progress with it. George is a few inches ahead of us.”

But there can be no doubt John believes. He has sent his famous psychedelic Rolls-Royce to America where he hopes it will be sold — the proceeds will help the Maharishi to open academies across the world.

George, the leader of the Beatle pilgrimage, and John attended the Maharishi’s first lecture today along with sixty other devotees, including Sinatra’s wife, 22-year-old Mia Farrow — who now wears robes and carries a staff. Also in the Beatle party is Patti Boyd’s 20-year-old sister Jenny.

Bu their first day wasn’t all peace and love. Angry Indian newsmen crashed down the locked gates of the academy because the two Beatles had arrived unnoticed and had refused to be photographed. John said: “This is one time in our lives when we refuse to be disturbed by anyone or anything.“

On Tuesday Ringo brings his wife Maureen, and Paul his actress girlfriend Jane Asher to the bare feet of the Holy Man. They will live in whitewashed chalets and attend lectures in a hall which are eighty-four caves in rocks where followers meditate in complete silence. At home, the Beatles have left a pile of legal contracts to take care of administration in their absence. They have even cut their new single record, appropriately titled “Lady Madonna,” for release in the beginning of next month. Beatles’ children Zak, Jason, and Julian are being looked after by nannies and mothers-in-law.

This pilgrimage must be the Manarishi’s finest hour—though when he spoke to me today he was reluctant to admit the Beatles brought him fame.

“It would have happened in any event,” he said. “It was only a question of time before the world came to know about me.”

Only a question of time? He had roamed the world for seven weary years and failed to arouse any real interest by his promises of salvation. Then, out of the blue, came the Beatles, their curiosity aroused by the developing interest of George Harrison in Indian music and tradition. The Beatles proclaimed the Maharishi their spiritual leader. And suddenly the rest of the world stopped, looked and listened… Some laughed.

On his way to the academy George Harrison admitted to me: “A lot of people think we’ve gone off our heads. Well, they can think that — or anything they like. We’ve discovered a new way of living.

“The fact is that since we have been initiated we have moved closer to the people we know. We have always been close to our homes and families in Liverpool and its dockers and the people we grew up among. Now we are closer than ever In the same way with our fans. We hope they have trust in us to know what we are doing. We have always kept our identity with them.“

Two years ago, when George first started experimenting with Indian music, he reached a point when he nearly quit the Beatles. He yearned for the new life that was awaiting him in India.

He told me: “I felt I wanted to walk out of my home that day and take a one-way ticket to Calcutta. I would have even left Patti behind in that moment and all I would have taken would have been my sitar… Anyway, I didn’t go and it was just as well for today I realise that the Beatles must never cop out of the scene. We have got to prove to people what we believe in, and the only way we can do that is by remaining Beatles and transmitting our message through our music.”

Surprisingly, it was model George’s model girl wife Patti who was the first of the Beatle folk to become initiated into the British branch of the Maharishi’s Spiritual Regeneration Movement. Then George, Paul, John and Ringo joined the Maharishi’s clan. They gave up drinking and finished with drugs.

“Drugs,” said George, “were just a flirtation and nothing more. It served only as an experiment. But we found that through meditation we could reach newer horizons.”

Now the Beatles adhere to the Maharishi’s beliefs — including reincarnation. George said: “I am sure I was with Paul, John and Ringo before. What were we doing? I’ve no idea but we couldn’t have done all that good because we wouldn’t be here now. We didn’t make it.“

Just before he went into the academy George said to me: “We must go now I imagine it’s going to be something like a school camp.” Then he grinned. “Or may be like Billy Butlin’s.”

And with a wave, he shouted back: “We’ll see you in a couple of months’ time.”

Beatle manager Brian Epstein said to me just before he died last August: “The Beatles will go on and on because they possess such inquisitive minds.” Today those inquisitive minds have brought the Beatles to the Old World in search of the world to come.

From The Daily Mirror – February 19, 1968

Now in session.. the Maharishi’s well-known summer school and its very distinguished class of ’68 – A FIRST LESSON FOR THE BEATLES

THE Maharishi Mahesh Yogi sits cross-legged on his raised dais. And his pupils gather round to hear the word. So begins the first lesson at the Maharishi’s mountain academy, the school specialising in transcendental meditation and the everlasting life that goes with it.

This 1968 intake is already a celebrated one, including as it does Beatles John Lennon and George Harrison. And their wives Cynthia and Patti. And Mia Farrow, actress wife of Frank Sinatra.

They sit in a semicircle before their leader for the first open-air lecture in this wooded ampitheatre overlooking India’s River Ganges. The Maharishi, holding a red rose, talks slowly and quietly as he tells of the five steps of meditation which, he claims, lead to divinity. Then comes question time. And some of the questions bring a bubbling high-pitched chuckle from the bearded Maharishi.

Soon Ringo Starr and his wife Maureen, and Paul McCartney with actress Jane Asher, will arrive to catch up on the two-month course. And all the Beatles — together with the other pupils — will meditate non-stop for thirty hours without food, drink or sleep.

A few aids are supplied to help them to achieve this desired state of idyllic happiness and peace. There are, for example, heavy locks on all the gates and three separate rings of barbed wire all round the rural academy. These are needed to keep out an increasing number of Indian girls — some in saris and some in mini-skirts — who have also been making a pilgrimage to this lonely Himalayan outpost. Well, it appears they aren’t terribly interested in transcendental meditation. They just want to study the Beatles.

From The Daily Mirror – February 20, 1968

Beatles begin their career as ‘sages’

In the Himalayan foothills above Rishikesh, the Hindu place of pilgrimage, John Lennon and George Harrison, here on a course of instant mysticism, are being “fed high-level philosophy in simple words” in an atmosphere of coloured bunting, taped Indian music, and man-made meditation caves.

Ringo Starr and Paul McCartney were due to arrive here today to join their colleagues and the 70 or more Americans, Britons, and Europeans at the spiritual retreat overlooking the Ganges and situated in one of the most sacred areas of Hindu mythology.

The Beatles, Mia Farrow and other meditators less prominent will spend the next three months learning the finer points under their guru, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, president of the academy of transcendental meditation.

The course, the guru says, is designed exclusively for foreigners. Within three months he promises to turn Harrison, Lennon, McCartney and Starr into fully qualified teachers or semi-gurus of Hindu meditation.

While the sadhus (holy men) and professional hippies inhabiting the temples below the academy are slightly sceptical about the Maharishi’s wonder course, the guru is confident that the Beatles will return to Britain as Hindu sages — with diplomas to prove it.

Behind barbed wire

“George and John have progressed fantastically in the few days since they arrived here. I am not pushing them too hard at first; only a few hours of meditation a day. I am feeding them high-level philosophy in simple words”, the bearded guru says during one of his frequent press statements outside the barbed wire fence surrounding his retreat.

While the guru is forthcoming with the press on his thesis of transcendental meditation, he is reluctant to present his four pupils to the photographers and reporters.

Mr. Malcolm Evans, the Beatles’ manager, says they are here with only one thought in mind — to meditate. “They do not want publicity, fans or press. They want to be left alone to meditate and take a holy dip in the Ganges.”

The academy is set on a quiet wooded hillside overlooking the Ganges and the colourful temples where devout Hindus flock in their thousands to take a purifying bathe in the river. High above the banks where the lepers, beggars, and ascetic sadhus live on the offerings from passing pilgrims, the school for canned meditation functions as a modern hotel catering for spiritual tourism.

The ashram, or retreat, offers ultramodern apartments tastefully furnished and with hot and cold water. Dominating the ashram is the residence of the jet-age guru, who designed the £35,000 building himself. From the magnificently decorated underground lecture hall the pupils stroll through wooded gardens to the Sat Hangh hall, or private meditation caves. The hall consists of 84 caves — some are still under construction — where the disciples can meditate in private 6ft. by 4ft. compartments.

Accommodation and the course costs each disciple one week’s salary, which should put the academy on a sound financial footing when one reviews the lists of celebrities and businessmen attending the winter course. The academy has its own telephone system, printing press, and post office, which the Government installed for the benefit of the guru’s foreign disciples. On the outskirts the reception office issues entrance permits to those allowed beyond the barbed wire “outer holy gate”.

Puzzled onlookers

Crowding the perimeter fence. Indians, including sadhus, watch the ashram with slight bewilderment Bearded youths in the correct cross-legged postures sit for hours staring profoundly at the Ganges. A score or so of middle-aged western women trip awkwardly through the gardens fumbling with their now saris.

But if the silent gods watching over the Ganges are slightly perplexed with their new disciples, they are to be startled next week by the roar of the academy’s new helicopter. It has been hired to ferry the guru’s followers across the river for short journeys away from the spiritual world of the Ashram.

The Beatles’ daily routine begins with a private meditation. The guru explains that he has given each of his pupils a basic word, or at least a sound, on which to meditate. At the end of each private session the Beatles are asked to review their contemplation of their sound and to discuss their findings with the guru.

The Maharishi is unwilling to divulge the sound allocated to each pupil. “It is a secret between the guru and the disciple, similar to the privilege enjoyed between doctor and patient.”

After a vegetarian breakfast, prepared in a special European kitchen, the pupils congregate with flowers for the mass puja, or prayers, led by the guru. Lectures on transcendental meditation follow.

Malcolm Evans is quite convinced that Harrison, Starr, Lennon and McCartney will not end up as spiritual drop-outs before the course is completed. “They are here to meditate for three months and there is no doubt that they will remain here until the end of the course. The boys, I repeat, are keen on meditating.”

Rishikesh, Feb. 20. — George Harrison and John Lennon today made a pilgrimage to the banks of the Ganges. Squatting cross-legged in silent meditation, they dipped their hands into the icy river and sprinkled water on their eyes and faces. — Associated Press.

PILGRIM BEATLES ON BANKS OF THE GANGES

BEATLES John and George sat crosslegged on the banks of the Ganges yesterday and sprinkled themselves with water from the holy river. Meanwhile, back at the mountain retreat of the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, the rest of the Beatles entourage was settling down to some transcendental meditating.

Ringo Starr, his wife Maureen, Paul McCartney and his actress girl-friend Jane Asher arrived at the Maharishi’s temple after slipping quietly through New Delhi. And by the time they reached the retreat in the Himalayan foothills, the newcomers were probably in need of meditation.

For their 180-mile journey was like something right out of a madcap Beatles film. First, the car in which Ringo was travelling knocked down a pilgrim — who was not hurt. Then the motorcade had to make a detour because of landslides. They made the final lap of the journey on foot in driving rain.

The Maharishi was there to greet them. “Be happy,” he said. After the reunion, John and George — now old hands at the meditating game — went on their pilgrimage to the Ganges.

From The Daily Mirror – February 21, 1968