This Country is filled with spiritual beliefs if you find yourself physically or emotionally exhausted the best way to overcome them is a trip to the Himalayas. Let me narrate an incident that happened to The Greatest Band in history which changed their lives once and for all. In late 1968 The Beatles found themselves emotionally and spiritually exhausted. Having just released the Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band a year before the Fab Four needed a different type of inspiration. George Harrison’s wife introduced them to the world of Transcendental Meditation. The Beatles not only brought eastern meditation to the west but their experience helped the band create a new form of music and probably changed the music industry.
As we all know that Pattie and George went on a trip to India after The Beatles final concert tour in America. It was during this trip George and Pattie fell in love with the Eastern way of living. Back in England after their trip, she had a conversation with one of her friends, she found a newspaper ad for Transcendental Meditation classes. Being disconnected from herself and people around her she felt like she should take it. And with that, the party girl ripped out the newspaper ad.
Later in that spring, she started attending TM classes in London. She felt silenced with there meditation techniques. Pattie wanted to share this experience with her loved once. And the same year the founder of TM or so-called GURU Maharishi Mahesh Yogi was going to give out a speech and advantages of TM at Hilton Hotel in London, She somehow convinced George and the band to go with her. This was when the band started questioning their abilities and realities. They needed something to ground them and some kind of meditation practice to bring them out of their Dope head. Pattie sounded confident and meditation seemed like a perfect idea. After completing and publishing the Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts The Beatles looked more inspired and wanted to follow the path of Maharishi. In later days The Guru became a white horse for the band.
Maharishi was also a motivational speaker who counselled college students across the US and Europe. This rule to students was not to overthink and make life complicated. Even though The Beatles ruled the whole music industry Maharishi asked them to forget everything about their fame and stuff. He also invited the band for a summer conference at Wales. It was during that trip that made the band become devotees. Maharishi also explained by practising TM twice a week will open their consciousness and transcend their brain. He also said no to drugs since they alter the state of consciousness. All he believed in was meditation, meditation, and meditation. Their Sgt album was a result of drugs. They were called Big Dope during those days. So the question should be asked were The Beatles capable of quitting drugs? Did TM altered their characters the answers is yes, The 10-day brought the best out of them and during the seminar they held a press conference where they publicly declared that they use drugs.
Fans around the world were shocked and some even announced the end of the band’s experimental sound. Paul McCartney went on to give an open statement that they weren’t gonna give up exploring mind but this time we have found a new way to do it (meditation).
Pattie later that year wrote that Maharishi was every bit as impressive as I thought he would be. While The Beatles accompanied by a member of Rolling Stone Mick Jagger were at the conference in Wales they received devastating news. Brian(The One which I said in my previous article) the long time manager for The Beatles died of a drug overdose. The band was members got ripped off and then they were invited by Maharishi to Rishikesh, India. He believed that this was the perfect time to get their mind off drugs. But Paul disagreed with this trip. Paul thought that they were supposed to focus on music and not meditate in some mountain region. But was convinced by the band.
The band joined with 60 other people were given the training to become TM teachers which included a member of the Beach Boys “Mike Loveâ€. The band didn’t want to be teachers but they were interested to stay at the “The Beatles ashram†(which is what the fans name it after they left India) for a few months to spend more time with Maharishi.
The Beatles had a very peaceful life they wake up every morning to the sound of peacocks, and 60% of the time was spent on meditation and the rest listening to Maharishi’s speech.
Life at the ashram was really good for them they had special accommodations. All night the musicians gather around and sing a song for Maharishi. And even they wrote songs there and the result was Ob-La-Di Ob-La-Da. John Lennon in The Beatles analogy said that the meditation practice made him more creative and helped him boost his songwriting skill. Paul says that we had a peaceful life no screaming fans or even fancy hotels just meditation which helped them not get distracted and just write songs. No parties just songs. A source said that India inspired them with more than 40 songs.
Talking about John Paul and George we forgot about Ringo Starr who was having a rough time in India. He didn’t expect the trip to be like this. Ringo was uncomfortable with the number of mosquitoes following him all day. Ringo and his wife decided to go back to his place after just 10 days since they missed their children and uncomfortable with the insects there. But as a matter of fact, Ringo practices meditation every day. A few days later Paul came back to the UK just to maintain the band multimedia company Apple Corps.
John had a fallout with Maharishi claiming that he had a secret relationship with one of his assistants. A few days later George and John planned to leave and John got his final song, Sexy Sadie. Which was supposed to be Maharishi? But Pattie claims that John just made up this as an excuse to get out of the ashram to be with Yoko Ono. John’s then-wife Mia was depressed the main reason she came to Rishikesh was to make their marriage strong but she failed.
A few days later the whole band claims that they were completely disappointed with Maharishi and he was fond of money. Paul said that Maharishi was a good man we still follow his rules but we are not going out with him anymore. In 1969, when John and Yoko went to India john, sent Maharishi a telegram hoping to meet with him and when Maharishi’s manager gave him the telegram he said that “I don’t know a John Lennonâ€. This message made Maharishi a bigger icon in pop culture and also made him 6,00,000 devotees. This was the last trip they went as a band some say that this trip was a tipping point for the band. Two years later “BOOM†the worlds best band broke up.
Some say that everyone had different personalities after that trip. There was high tension while recording the White Album which included many songs which they wrote in India. Ringo Starr temporarily left their band and Yoko Ono’s constant appearance at the studio irritated the band members. Their trip to India helped them in many ways like good music and introducing the world to TM and making George a better person who donated $70million to Bangladesh. This is what India helps you become a better person.
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