the beatles trip to india

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The Beatles in India: ‘With their long hair and jokes, they blew our minds!’

Two new documentaries offer intriguing insights on how the Beatles’ 1967 escape to study transcendental meditation shaped the band and India, baffled the KGB – and saw Ringo survive on a diet of baked beans

I n 1968, Paul Saltzman was a lost soul. The son of a Canadian TV weatherman, he was working as a sound engineer for the National Film Board of Canada in India when he received a “Dear John” letter from the woman he thought was going to be his wife. “I was devastated,” he says. “Then someone on the crew said: ‘Have you tried meditation for the heartbreak?’”

Saltzman went to see the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi – the founder of transcendental meditation – speak at New Delhi University. Emboldened by promises of “inner rejuvenation”, Saltzman then travelled to the International Academy of Meditation in Rishikesh. It was closed, due to the arrival of the Beatles.

As explained by Paul McCartney in the Beatles book Anthology, the exhausted group, still coming to terms with the death of their manager Brian Epstein in August 1967, had arrived in Rishikesh with wives and girlfriends to “find the answer” through the teachings of the Maharishi, whom Paul, George and John had first encountered at a lecture at the London Hilton. “There was a feeling of: ‘It’s great to be famous [and] rich,” said McCartney, “but what it’s all for ?’”

“I didn’t even know the Beatles were in India,” Saltzman says. “I waited outside for eight days and then I was taken to a small room where I was taught transcendental meditation. What replaced the agony [of the breakup] was bliss.”

Saltzman is now 78, and his new film, Meeting the Beatles In India , is one of two forthcoming documentaries on the subject. With narration by Morgan Freeman, and contributions from director David Lynch and Beatles biographer Mark Lewisohn , it is expansive and grand, but at its heart is the smaller, affecting tale of Saltzman himself.

He is charming company and there is a trustworthy innocence to his storytelling, his face openly ready to laugh or cry – both of which he does during our talk. You imagine it was something of this openness that led the normally wary Lennon to invite Saltzman to sit with the group, their wives and friends, one warm February morning 53 years ago.

“Maybe being in that altered state from having just meditated for the first time made a difference,” he says. “I think what they picked up immediately was: ‘This guy is not wanting anything from us.’”

Saltzman had arrived at the ashram with few belongings. One of those was a Pentax camera. “In the week I spent with them,” he says, “I never thought of asking for an autograph, and I only took my camera out twice.”

The photos he took during that week of meditation are remarkable. Forgotten about for 30 years, then rescued from storage in the late 90s when his daughter casually asked about “that time you met the Beatles”, they show John, Paul, George and Ringo hanging with fellow ashram guests Donovan, Mike Love of the Beach Boys, jazz flautist Paul Horn, Mia Farrow and her sister Prudence, in an unguarded and utterly relaxed state, rehearsing new songs or just gazing contentedly into the middle distance.

“I didn’t even think about the quality of the pictures,” says Saltzman. “Then I took them to Steven Maycock, the curator of rock memorabilia at Sotheby’s and he said: ‘These are the best intimate shots of the Beatles we’ve ever seen.’”

The group returned to London with 30 new songs, most of which would end up on the White Album in 1968. But the band soon fell back into a toxic pattern of late nights, drug use and interpersonal fractiousness. Saltzman’s photos – sharply focused and with deep eye contact – show four friends in a rare, late state of carefree contentment.

“You can tell the Beatles’ story so many different ways,” says Indian film director, Ajoy Bose, when I mention Saltzman’s story. “I always felt that the India part of the Beatles saga was bigger than Rishikesh.”

Bose’s film, The Beatles and India , maps a longer saga: a three-year journey, from when George first picked up a sitar on the set of Help!, via their brief sightseeing trip to Delhi in July 1966, to George’s friendship with sitar virtuoso Ravi Shankar and his recording of Wonderwall Music with classical Indian musicians in the HMV Bombay studios.

“For me, this isn’t a story about the Maharishi,” says Bose. “It’s about four working-class lads from Liverpool, who got deeply into Indian culture, when George was the de facto leader of the group.” Some got into it more deeply than others; worried about the spicy food, Ringo arrived with a suitcase full of tins of Heinz baked beans to sustain him.

Running parallel to that tale, Bose’s film tells the equally fascinating story of how and why India fell in love with the Beatles. “I discovered them when I was about 12 or 13,” says Bose. “I was from the English-speaking Bengali middle-classes, who had been into Elvis Presley, Jim Reeves and Doris Day, and who were naturally bi-cultural. PG Wodehouse was our sense of humour, and that’s why I think there was an immediate connection with the Beatles: the wit.

“But my father was a bureaucrat who started with the British Raj,” he says. “His problem with the Beatles was that they didn’t behave ‘like Britishers’ – people with a stiff upper lip, who had short hair and didn’t let their feelings show. So the Beatles, with their long hair and jokes, really blew our minds.”

Rather than presenting the Beatles’ relationship with India as one of cultural appropriation, Bose insists it was something closer to cultural exchange. “Osmosis on both sides,” he says. “And look at the paradox. The Beatles were tired of the west’s commercialised capitalist culture and looking for spiritual peace, but we looked upon them as exciting symbols of modern culture.”

Bose’s film tracks down former members of Beatles-influenced Indian “beat” groups such as the Savages and the Jets, but also goes beyond music to look at the political impact of the Beatles presence in India, including the reaction of a KGB spy at the Maharishi’s ashram.

“I went back to Indian newspapers in 1968,” says Bose, “and discovered that communist and socialist Indian politicians were saying Rishikesh was a CIA camp. The KGB even sent their top man, Yuri Bezmenov, to Rishikesh to find out what was going on.” Bose’s discovery results in one of the finest moments of the film, a clip of Bezmenov talking happily in the late 1980s about “Mia Farrow and other useful idiots from Hollywood” returning to the US to spread a message of “sit down, look at your navel and do nothing”.

“The Maharishi was not on the payroll of the KGB,” says Bezmenov, laughing, “but whether he knows it or not, he contributed greatly to the demoralisation of American society.”

“It’s a great clip,” says Bose, “but I do think that Rishikesh was massively important for so many reasons. India gave the Beatles a philosophical state of mind; India matured them, India helped them become individuals. In a way, the Beatles never left India. George’s ashes were scattered on the Ganges and Yamuna rivers. The Beatles fan club is still growing in India.”

What do the Beatles mean to a new generation of Indians? Bose says: “Covid has changed our world , our reality over the past 16 months. Everyone is feeling so much more vulnerable and tired and I think the Beatles, in a very fundamental sense, still reconnect us with a sense of romance, a sense of joy and a sense of innocence.”

Saltzman has been left with more than some priceless holiday photos. What memory does he still hold on to from that week? He replies, instantly: “Doing my first 30-minute meditation. It was fun meeting the Beatles, but that was secondary to the transformation of my inner life.”

The Beatles and India (dir. Ajoy Bose, Peter Compton) is closing the UK Asian Film Festival on 6 June at the BFI. Meeting the Beatles In India (Paul Saltzman, 2020) can be seen at gathr.com .

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The Stories

A collector’s masterpiece, we can evoke the beatles’ magic through their music, their words and their photographs, allowing us to experience that time in rishikesh today..

Paul Saltzman’s photo of John, finger to his ear, is the best picture I’ve ever seen of John Lennon from the Beatles’ era. It speaks volumes. Cynthia Lennon

Share the Journey

Paul Saltzman came to the ashram to heal a broken heart. He found the Beatles there and spent a week with them.  Now you can experience the photos he took there and the stories that go with them.

Why were John, Paul, George and Ringo there? And what can you see in their suntanned faces in these photographs?

They came to go deeper into meditation. And, India was their single most creative period as they wrote 48 songs in less than 7 weeks at the ashram.

Paul’s meditative photographs from the ashram are unique. You never see the Beatles like this. We took up our silk pantaloons. We could be ourselves again. And who ourselves were—who ourselves are—we were keen to find out. Donovan Leitch, Singer/Songwriter

35 Museum Quality Limited Edition Prints to Remind You of Your Inner Light

Travel to india and bhutan in 2025 with paul saltzman, visit this link for more information: visit india with paul.

We’ve done many tours and this is the best tour we’ve ever been on. Paul was the best tour guide ever. The most wonderful thing about this “experience” is the memories that pop up at the least expected time. Exquisite! Joe & Cheryl, BC, Canada

Your tour of India was so incredible!! I cannot thank you enough, Paul.  From the very special fellow tour members to the unique experiences of music and culture, you created a set of experiences which have changed me and will be forever memorable.     Cathy, TX, USA

Yes, please send me more information about this exciting tour!

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50 years on, India is celebrating the Beatles’ infamous trip to the country

• By Sandip Roy

Women practice yoga in front of Beatles-themed displays at the ashram of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi in Rishikesh, northern India, on Feb. 25, 2018. The area, which marks the 50th year of the British rock band's stay, has attracted many fans from around the world. 

In February 1968, the Beatles embarked on their famous discovery of India to study transcendental meditation with Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. Now 50 years later India is rediscovering the Beatles — or at least the tourism potential of the world’s most famous rock band seeking salvation in the country.

A yoga festival in Rishikesh is having a Beatles special this month. A tribute band from England, the Fab Four, is supposed to perform there. There are plans for a Beatles Museum and what’s left of the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi’s ashram, a 14-acre compound where the Beatles stayed, has been spruced up for tourists.

Of course, when the Beatles actually came in 1968, the Indian government was far warier.

“There was strong opposition in parliament to Maharishi Mahesh Yogi’s ashram and these international celebrities coming. The Communists felt that they were CIA spies,” says Ajoy Bose, a political journalist who has just written the book “ Across the Universe ,” which is about the Beatles in India.  Maharishi’s meditation compound, known as  Chaurasi  Kutia, was built using money given to him by the American heiress Doris Duke on land leased by the  Uttar Pradesh forest department.

Cultural purists were angry with sitar musician Ravi Shankar as well. They felt that by becoming George Harrison’s guru he had “sold out Indian culture and become a hippie,” says Bose.

Bose believes destiny probably brought the Beatles to India. He writes that the Beatles first met Maharishi Mahesh Yogi in London in 1967. The band attended his seminar in Wales but had to leave after the sudden death of their manager and mentor, Brian Epstein, in 1967 . The Maharishi came along speaking words of wisdom and soon the Beatles came to find themselves in India.

Some say the India trip marked the beginning of the end of the Beatles. Rock historian Philip Norman, who spoke about the Beatles at the Jaipur Literature Festival this year, says India probably “saved their sanity” and helped them stay together a little longer than they would have otherwise. The group was worn out by year after year of relentless hard work, touring and ego clashes.

“And what they really went to with Maharishi was essentially a spa with not too much discipline,” says Norman. “There was not very much meditation. They could sit around, eat nice vegetarian food. They could drink. Things were smuggled in. Pot was smuggled in.” They also got to spend rare quality time with their wives and girlfriends, long sidelined by their music.

But it wasn’t all a party. Ringo Starr’s stomach could not stand Indian food and its spices. He carried a suitcase full of Heinz baked beans. And his wife Maureen was terrified of flying insects.

“Poor thing, she had a lot of problems,” says Bose. “Rishikesh, being up in the hills, was in a remote area, close to the jungle. There were a lot of insects.” The stars did not last long.

The transcendental meditation did not work out that well either — the Beatles had short attention spans.

The Maharishi showered special attention on his star guests. They had the best bungalows with foam mattresses, as well as special audiences with the Maharishi. He tried to impress the Beatles by taking them on helicopter rides. John Lennon insisted on being the first to go up with the Maharishi. Later Paul McCartney asked him why he’d been so adamant.

“John said, ‘I thought the Maharishi would slip me the real secret mantra which would give me happiness,’” says Bose.

They never found the secret to happiness, but they found something they believed was more precious.

“It was the first time they had the opportunity to live out their lives as ordinary individuals,” says Bose. “They were out of London, they were out of studio. They were not even in usual holiday mode, they were not staying in luxury holiday villas. They were in a little ashram surrounded by Indian jungle.”

They were just left to themselves to talk to each other, play music and think. As musicians, it was phenomenally productive. Some 30 to 48 songs came out of that brief stay in Rishikesh — many of them ending up on the "White Album," some on "Abbey Road." “Dear Prudence” was about Mia Farrow’s sister Prudence’s obsessive meditation. “Why Don’t We Do It In The Road” was inspired by seeing monkeys having sex on the road. Even Ringo Starr wrote his first song for the Beatles, “Don’t Pass Me By,” in Rishikesh.

But it all came to an abrupt and ugly end within six weeks. Lennon accused the Maharishi of making a pass at Mia Farrow, or some say her sister Prudence. That became the song "Sexy Sadie." Norman says that was “complete rubbish.” Lennon was in love with Yoko Ono and missed her. The story of the pass was just an excuse to leave India.

Only George Harrison persevered and held onto his Hindu spirituality for the rest of his life, even reading from the Bhagavad Gita to his mother on her deathbed.

“What India really did was give George a raison d'etre,” says Norman.

Soon the Maharishi ran into trouble with Indian tax authorities. The ashram was abandoned and reclaimed by the jungle and psychedelic graffiti from Beatles fans from across the world.

When Bose went there he only found the ruins of the Maharishi’s grand bungalow overlooking the river and the remnants of the igloo-like meditation chambers, which were meant to evoke mountain caves.

But the memories remain. He found an old man who owned a music shop in nearby Dehra Dun and had repaired John Lennon’s guitar. At Lennon’s request, he made him a pedal harmonium and his niece had painted it in psychedelic colors.

“That’s somewhere with Yoko Ono now,” says Bose. “This man is now 85. And the last thing he wants to see in his life is this harmonium.”

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The Beatles in India

The importance of the Beatles trip to India in early 1968 and its eventual influence on what was to become The White Album cannot be overemphasized. While there John, Paul, and George, wrote many songs… and Ringo wrote his first.

The members of the Beatles and their significant others arrived in India in February of 1968. Front Row: Ringo and wife Mau­reen, Jane Asher with Paul McCartney, George and Pattie Harrison, Cyn­thia and John Lennon.

The Beatles traveled to Rishikesh, India in February 1968 to attend an advanced Transcendental Meditation (TM) training session at the ashram of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. Amidst widespread media attention, their stay at the ashram was one of the ’s most productive periods. Their interest in the Maharishi is said by some to have changed Western attitudes about Indian spirituality and encouraged the study of Transcendental Meditation. The Beatles first met the Maharishi in London in August 1967 and then attended a seminar in Bangor, Wales. They had planned to attend the entire 10-day session but their stay was cut short by the death of their manager, Brian Epstein. Wanting to learn more, they kept in contact with the Maharishi and made arrangements to spend time with him at his teaching center in India.

The Maharishi’s compound was located near Rishikesh, in the ” of the Saints” in the foothills of the Himalayas. The Beatles, along with their wives, girlfriends, assistants and numerous reporters, arrived there in February 1968 and joined the group of 60 people who were training to be TM teachers including musicians Donovan, Mike Love of the Boys, and flutist Paul Horn.

Starr and his wife left on 1 March, after a 10-day stay; the McCartney’s left after one month due to other commitments; while John Lennon and George Harrison stayed about 6 weeks and left abruptly following financial disagreements and rumors of inappropriate behavior by the Maharishi. Harrison later apologized for the way he and Lennon had treated the Maharishi and in 1992 gave a benefit concert for the Maharishi-associated Natural Law Party. In 2009, McCartney and Starr reunited and performed at a benefit concert for the David Lynch Foundation to raises funds for the teaching of the Transcendental Meditation technique to at-risk students.

In the mid-1960s, the Beatles became interested in Eastern influences, after using drugs in an effort to expand their consciousness, and made a short visit to India in 1966. Alexis “Magic Alex” Mardas, a friend of the Beatles and head of Apple Electronics, had heard a lecture by the Maharishi in Athens, Greece and when Harrison’s wife, Pattie Boyd, became interested in the Maharishi, both Mardas and Boyd encouraged the Beatles to hear the Maharishi speak.

At Boyd’s suggestion, the Beatles attended the Maharishi’s lecture at the London Hilton on Lane on 24 August 1967. The Maharishi had announced his intention to retire, so this was expected to be his last public lecture in the West. Some members had seen him on Granada TV years earlier. The Beatles were given front row seats and were invited to meet the Maharishi in his hotel suite after the lecture] During the ninety-minute meeting, he invited them to be his guests at a training retreat in Wales.

Two days later, on 26 August, the Beatles traveled by train to the campus in Bangor, Wales. It was perhaps the first time the had traveled without their tour managers and they had not even thought to bring money. The station was mobbed because of a bank holiday and Cynthia Lennon, mistaken for a fan, was held back. She ran after the train but missed it and arrived later by . The group, along with Mick Jagger, Marianne Faithfull, Cilla Black, Harrison’s sister-in-law Jenny Boyd, and around 300 others, learned the basics of Transcendental Meditation and were given their mantras. The group hesitated only slightly when asked to donate the customary week’s wages, a large sum for a Beatle, to learn. While there, they announced at a press conference that they were giving up drugs (apparently referring to psychedelics, but not marijuana) . This was a choice “in keeping with the Maharishi’s teachings.” but which they had made prior to meeting the Maharishi.

The Maharishi advised them privately to avoid involvement with the “Ban the Bomb” movement and to support the elected government of the day. Their intention was to attend the entire 10-day seminar but their stay was cut short by the death of their manager, Epstein, in London on 27 August. The Maharishi helped ease their shock by telling them that Epstein’s spirit was still with them and their good thoughts would help him “to have an easy passage” and journey “to its next evolution” . According to McCartney, the Maharishi “was great to us when Brian died” and Cynthia Lennon wrote, “it was as though, with Brian gone, the four needed someone new to give them direction and the Maharishi was in the right place a the right time.”

Curious to learn more, the Beatles made plans to spend time at the “Maharishi’s training center” in India in late October. However, the trip was postponed due to commitments related to the Magical Mystery Tour film and the soundtrack album. Harrison and Lennon appeared twice on David Frost’s program in Autumn 1967 to talk about their involvement with TM when, according to Lennon’s wife, John was “evangelical in his enthusiasm for Maharishi” who was now being publicized as “The Beatles’ Guru” . The Maharishi went on his eighth world tour, giving lectures in Britain, Scandinavia, Germany, Italy, Canada, and California. At that time, Lennon said thanks to his meditation: “I’m a better person and I wasn’t bad before” . When the Maharishi spoke to 3,600 people at Madison Square Garden in , in January 1968, the Beatles sent a large flower arrangement to his suite at the Plaza Hotel. After the Beatles became involved with the Maharishi attendance at his lectures tripled and during 1967 and 1968 the Maharishi appeared on the covers of Time, Newsweek, Look, Life, and Esquire.

Harrison flew to Bombay in January 1968 to work on the Wonderwall soundtrack, expecting the rest of the group to follow shortly. When they were delayed he flew back to London where the group spent a week in the studio. Before leaving for India, the recorded the instrumental tracks for “Across the Universe” , whose refrain, “Jai Guru Dev” , was a standard greeting within the Maharishi’s Spiritual Regeneration Movement. Also in January, the Maharishi, Mia Farrow, Prudence Farrow, and their brother, flew from the US to London and on to India.

Lennon, his wife Cynthia, the Harrisons and Jenny Boyd arrived in Delhi on 15 February, where they were met by Mal Evans, their advance man, who had arranged the 150-mile (240 km), six-hour drive to Rishikesh. McCartney, his girlfriend Jane Asher, Starr and his wife Maureen arrived four days later. The group arrived three weeks after the session, due to end 25 April, had already begun. They were accompanied by a small retinue of reporters and photographers who were mostly kept out of the fenced and gated compound. Entourage members Evans, Brown and Neil Aspinall were there for all or part of the time and Mardas arrived four weeks later.

As soon as Starr arrived in Delhi he asked Evans to take him to a because of a reaction to an inoculation: “When we arrived at the local , I tried to get immediate treatment for him [Starr], to be told curtly by the Indian , ‘He is not a special case and will have to wait his turn.’ So off we go to pay a private ten rupees for the privilege of hearing him say it will be all right” . Also there at the same time were Mia Farrow (who had recently divorced Frank Sinatra), her sister Prudence and brother John, Donovan, Gyp “Gypsy Dave” Mills, Mike Love, jazz flautist Paul Horn, journalist Lewis H. Lapham, film-maker Paul Saltzman, socialite Nancy Cooke de Herrera, actors Tom Simcox and Jerry Stovin, and dozens of others, all Europeans or Americans. Despite speculation, Shirley MacLaine did not attend and Lennon, who had thought of bringing Yoko Ono, decided against it.

The Facility

Located in the holy ” of the Saints” , the International Academy of Meditation, also called the Chaurasi Kutia ashram, was a 14-acre (57,000 m2) compound. It stood across the Ganges from Rishikesh, the “yoga capital of the world” and home to many ashrams in the foothills of the Himalayas, 150 feet (46 m) above the and surrounded by jungle. The Maharishi’s facility was built in 1963 with a $100,000 gift from American heiress Doris Duke, on land leased from the Uttar Pradesh Department. The training center was designed to Western habits and was described variously as “luxurious” and “seedy” . Starr later compared the ashram to “a kind of spiritual Butlins” (a low-cost British holiday camp). It was built to accommodate several dozen people and each of its stone bungalows contained five rooms. Each was equipped with electric heaters, running , toilets, and -style furniture. According to DeHerrera, the Maharishi brought special items from the village for the Beatles rooms such as mirrors, fabric for the walls and carpeting, foam mattresses and bedspreads. She wrote that “by the standard of the other” bungalows The Beatles’ cottages “looked like a palace.

While the Beatles were there the Maharishi was negotiating with the Indian government to use some nearby parkland for an airstrip for a plane which he had been given; a deal which several thousand landless peasants objected to as they had been denied the use of the land for farming. The ashram was surrounded by barbed wire and the gates were kept locked and guarded. Evans wrote in his diary on 17 February 1968: “The press really tried kicking down the gates into the Ashram, the Indian people on the ashram called me half way through, but as soon as an Indian reporter told me ‘No bloody foreigner is going to stop me in my own country’, I cooled it” . While the Maharishi kept the media away from his famous students he himself gave interviews to the press.

The Experience

Lennon was respectful of the Maharishi but not in awe of him. At their first meeting, Donovan remembers that the Maharishi was “amiable but non-talkative” and during an awkward silence Lennon walked across the room and patted the Maharishi on the head, saying, “There’s a good little guru” while the room erupted in laughter. The Maharishi had arranged a simple lifestyle for his famous guests which included stone cottages and vegetarian meals taken outdoors in a communal setting. The days were devoted to meditating and attending lectures by the Maharishi, who spoke from a flower-bedecked platform in an auditorium. The Maharishi also gave private lessons to the individual Beatles, nominally due to their late arrival. The tranquil environment provided by the Maharishi—complete with meditation, relaxation, and away from the media throng—helped the to relax. Harrison told Saltzman, “Like, we’re The Beatles after all, aren’t we? We have all the money you could ever dream of. We have all the fame you could ever wish for. But, it isn’t love. It isn’t . It isn’t peace inside, is it?” Maharishi canceled the formal lectures for a time and told students to meditate as long as possible. One student meditated for 42 straight hours, and Pattie Boyd once meditated for seven hours. Boyd’s sister Jenny meditated for long periods as well, but also suffered from dysentery (misdiagnosed as tonsilitis); she said Lennon also felt unwell, suffering from jet lag and insomnia. The lengthy meditation sessions left many students moody and oversensitive, a side-effect called “unstressing” . Like the 60 other students at the ashram, the Beatles adopted the native and the ashram had a on the premises to make clothes for the students. They shopped in Rishikesh and the women bought saris not only for themselves but to be made into men’s shirts and jackets in the loudest colours, which affected Western fashions when they were worn back home.

Vegetarian meals were eaten in an open dining area, where food was vulnerable to aggressive monkeys and crows. Accounts of the food vary, some calling it spicy while others said it was bland. Lennon called the food “lousy” , while Pattie Boyd says it was delicious. items included chickpeas mixed with cumin seeds, whole wheat dough baked over a fire, spiced eggplant, potatoes that had been picked locally, and, for , cornflakes, , and . Starr had problems with the diet because of his past illnesses: “The food was impossible for me, because I’m allergic to so many different things, so I took two suitcases with me: one of clothes and one of Heinz beans” and eggs. After , the musicians gathered on the roof of Harrison’s bungalow to talk and listen to the Ganges . Sometimes they listened to records and played guitar or sitar while their wives gathered in one of their rooms and discussed life as the partner of a Beatle.

Donovan taught Lennon a guitar finger-picking technique that he passed on to Harrison. The technique was subsequently implemented by Lennon on the Beatles’ songs “Julia” and “Dear Prudence” . The latter was composed by Lennon to lure Prudence Farrow out of her intense meditation. Lennon later said: “She’d been locked in for three weeks and was trying to reach God quicker than anyone else” . Another inspiration was hearing for the first time Bob Dylan’s newly released album, John Wesley Harding. The stay at the ashram turned out to be one of the group’s most creative periods, as Lennon remembered: “I was going humity-humity in my head and the songs were coming out. For creating it was great. It was just pouring out!” Farrow remembered Lennon’s once saying, “Whenever I meditate, there’s a big brass in me head” . Lennon said that “Although it was very beautiful and I was meditating about eight hours a day, I was the most miserable songs on earth” . However later he considered them “some of his very best.” Both Lennon and McCartney often spent time composing rather than meditating, and even Starr wrote a song, “Don’t Pass Me By” , which was his first solo composition. Plans were made for a concert in Delhi to feature the Beatles, the Boys, Donovan, and Paul Horn. Harrison complained that more time should be spent on meditating, saying, “We’re not here to talk about . We’re here to meditate” . Lennon commented on Harrison’s commitment to meditation by saying: “The way George is going, he’ll be flying a magic carpet by the time he’s forty.”

While Lennon was evangelical in his enthusiasm for the Maharishi, Cynthia was a little more skeptical. According to Cythnia she “loved being in India” and had hoped she and Lennon would “rediscover our lost closeness” however to her disappointment Lennon became “increasingly cold and aloof.” The Lennon’s room contained a “four-poster bed, a table, a couple of chairs and an electric fire” . Lennon played guitar, while his wife drew pictures and wrote poetry between their long meditation sessions. After two weeks Lennon asked to sleep in a separate room, saying he could only meditate when he was alone. Meantime he walked to the local every morning to for Yoko Ono’s almost daily telegrams such as the one saying: “Look up at the sky and when you see a cloud think of me” .

Special Events

Although access to the individual Beatles was limited, the Maharishi arranged a class portrait with the Beatles at the center and each student was adorned with a marigold garland All sat on a podium and the Maharishi had a large picture of his guru, Brahmananda Saraswati, behind him. The photo took half an hour and has been described as one of the most iconic photographs in the of rock ‘n’ . Photographers included Paul Saltzman, a Canadian filmmaker who was visiting the ashram after completing film work elsewhere in India. Saltzman’s snapshots from this time were later assembled into a book, The Beatles in India (2000).

Mia Farrow, the star pupil before the ‘s arrival, felt overwhelmed by the Maharishi’s attention to her, including private sessions, gifts of mangoes, and a birthday party where he gave her a paper crown. The Maharishi celebrated Harrison’s 25th birthday, on 25 February, with a cake and a display of fireworks. He gave Harrison an upside-down plastic globe of the world and saying, “George, the globe I am giving you symbolizes the world today. I hope you will help us all in the task of putting it right”. Harrison immediately turned the globe to its correct position, shouting, “I’ve done it!” (Harrison “affectionately” referred to the Maharishi as the “Big M” ). On 8 April, the Maharishi gave an Indian prince’s outfit to the Lennons for their son in England on his birthday. McCartney was uncomfortable with the Maharishi’s flattery, including calling the “the blessed leaders of the world’s youth”. Cooke de Herrera, a long-time follower, warned the Maharishi not to give too much special attention to his celebrity guests.

An aviation company owner and patron of the Maharishi’s, Kershi Cambata (K.S. Khambatta), flew two helicopters to Rishikesh to take the Maharishi and his guests for rides, for the publicity value, even though the flights required the transportation of fuel by truck to Rishikesh. Newspaper and newsreel reporters covered the event. McCartney remembered Lennon as being extremely eager to be the first to with the Maharishi in a helicopter, and after they landed McCartney questioned Lennon about his enthusiasm. Lennon replied, “I thought he’d slip me the answer”. On another occasion, an Italian newsreel company filmed the Maharishi and many students, including the and other musicians, going down to the while the musicians sang standards such as “When the Saints Go Marching In” and “You Are My Sunshine” . One evening, when the moon was full, the Maharishi arranged for everyone to cruise on the Ganges in two barges. The trip started with the chanting of Vedas by two pandits, but soon the musicians brought out their instruments. The Beatles sang Donovan’s songs, while Love and Donovan sang Beatles’ songs, and Horn “really wailed” .

Early Departures

Starr’s wife had an aversion to : spiders, mosquitoes, and the swarms of flies that were ever-present in the ashram, so he complained to the Maharishi, but was told: “For people traveling in the realm of pure consciousness, flies no longer matter very much”. Starr replied, “Yes, but that doesn’t zap the flies, does it?” The Starrs left India on 1 March, saying the unfamiliar food was not to their liking, and they were missing their children. Their departure was per schedule by one account, but premature by others. McCartney and Asher departed in mid to late March as he needed to get back to London to supervise Apple Corps and she had a theatrical commitment. When he left he told another student, “I’m a new man”. Alex Mardas arrived after McCartney left, either at Lennon’s invitation or on his own initiative.

Mia Farrow, who had come and gone from the ashram before, left again and drifted around India before returning to the United States. Geoffrey Giuliano in Revolver: The Secret of the Beatles says that, before leaving, she told The Beatles that the Maharishi had made a pass at her. Ned Wynn, one of Farrow’s childhood friends, wrote in his 1990 memoir that she had told him in the early 1970s that the Maharishi had definitely made sexual passes at her. In her 1993 autobiography, Cooke de Herrera wrote that Farrow had confided to her, before the arrival of The Beatles, that the Maharishi had made a pass during a private puja ceremony by stroking her hair. Cooke de Herrera wrote that she told Farrow that she had misinterpreted the Maharishi’s actions. Farrow’s 1997 memoirs are ambiguous, describing an encounter with the Maharishi in his private meditation “cave” when he tried to put his arms around her. She reports that her sister Prudence told her that it was an honor and a tradition for a holy man to touch someone after meditation.

Business negotiations, allegations of sexual impropriety, alcohol and non-prescription drug use were sources of tension between the Maharishi and the Beatles. Aspinall was surprised when he realized the Maharishi was a sophisticated negotiator, knowing more than the average person about financial percentages. Evans told Saltzman that the Maharishi wanted the to deposit up to 25% of their next album’s profits in his Swiss bank account as a tithe, to which Lennon replied, “Over my dead body”. Mardas pointed to the luxury of the facility and the business acumen of the Maharishi and asked Lennon why the Maharishi always had an by his side. Mardas said the Maharishi offered him money to build a high-powered radio station. Lennon later told his wife that he felt that the Maharishi had, in her words, “too much interest in public recognition, celebrities and money” for a spiritual man. According to her sister, Pattie Boyd had dreamt that “the Maharishi wasn’t what he seemed”. Cynthia Lennon, Cooke de Herrera, and authors such as Barry Miles have blamed Mardas for turning Lennon against the Maharishi but Mardas denies this. Meanwhile, the weather, which had been quite cool in February, was growing hot and the Maharishi was planning to move the whole group to Kashmir, at a higher and cooler altitude in a week.

Some of the business negotiations concerned arrangements for a film about the Maharishi. One project involved Four Star Films and Bliss Productions, a company run by Charles Lutes who was the head of the Maharishi’s Spiritual Regeneration Movement in the US. It was negotiated by Horn and John Farrow was scheduled to direct. It was hoped that the Beatles would appear in it, but the contract was signed without their commitment. That deal conflicted with another film being negotiated with the group, according to Cooke de Herrera, who was bound by a contract with United Artists. When the film crew from Four Star arrived around 11 April, Harrison and Lennon stayed out of sight. Cooke de Herrera considered the presence of the film crew, and Lutes and his , to have precipitated the sudden departure of Harrison and Lennon, and Horn said it was the catalyst for their discontent.

Lennon became convinced that the Maharishi, who said he was celibate, had made a pass at Farrow or was having relations with other young female students and later called the Maharishi a “lecherous womanizer”. According to Mardas, an American named Rosalyn Bonas had told both he and Lennon that the Maharishi had made “sexual advances” towards her. However, Cynthia Lennon said she thought Mardas had put the “young and impressionable” girl up to it. Brown recalls that Mardas told him that a young blonde from California had said she’d had a sexual relationship with the Maharishi. In addition, Mardas arranged to spy on the Maharishi when Bonas was with him and said that he saw the two of them in a compromising position. At the same time, many of the people who were there, including Harrison, Horn, Cooke de Herrera, Cynthia Lennon, and Jennie Boyd did not believe that the Maharishi had made a pass at any woman. According to Cynthia Lennon, Mardas’ allegations about the Maharishi’s indiscretions with a lady gained momentum “without a single shred of evidence or justification.” Likewise, McCartney said, “It was Magic Alex who made the original accusation and I think that it was completely untrue”.

Deepak Chopra, who was not present but later became a disciple of the Maharishi and a friend of Harrison’s, said in 2008 that the Beatles and their entourage “were doing drugs, taking LSD, at Maharishi’s ashram”. An article in the Post reported that “others said the Beatles resumed drug use at the ashram”. The Beatles’ group also violated the Maharishi’s no alcohol rule when they consumed “hooch” which Mardas, who Cynthia thought was not an active meditator, began “smuggling” it in from a nearby village.

Later Departures

On the night of 11 April, Lennon, Harrison, and Mardas sat up late discussing their views of the Maharishi and decided to leave the next morning. They packed hurriedly, leaving souvenirs behind, while Mardas went to Dehradun to find taxis. Lennon was chosen to speak to the Maharishi. When asked why they were leaving, Lennon replied: “If you’re so cosmic, you’ll know why”. Paul Mason, a biographer of the Maharishi, has interpreted Lennon’s statement as a challenge to the Maharishi’s claim of cosmic consciousness. Lennon said that his mind was made up when the Maharishi gave him a murderous look in response. According to Mardas: “John Lennon and I went to the Maharishi about what had happened … he asked the Maharishi to explain himself” ; and the Maharishi answered Lennon’s accusation by saying, “I am only human”. Other accounts say the Maharishi responded by saying “I don’t know why you must tell me.” While waiting for Madras to return from Rishikesh with taxis, Lennon wrote the song “Maharishi” , later renamed to “Sexy Sadie” because of its potentially libelous content.

According to Cynthia Lennon, when the group walked past the Maharishi to their taxis he looked “very biblical and isolated in his faith”. The Maharishi reportedly said, “Wait, talk to me”. The taxis kept breaking down, leading them to wonder if the Maharishi had placed a curse on them. The that the Lennons were in suffered a flat tire and the driver left them, apparently to find a replacement, but did not return for hours. After it grew dark they hitchhiked a ride to Delhi. They caught the first available flight back to London, during which John drunkenly recounted a litany of his numerous infidelities to Cynthia. The Harrisons were not ready to go home, so they traveled to Delhi or Madras and worked with Ravi Shankar. When George Harrison got dysentery he thought it might be due to a spell cast by the Maharishi, but he recovered after Shankar gave him some amulets. Harrison later said he had never intended to stay for the second half of the course in Kashmir and that Lennon probably wanted to get back to his relationship with Ono.

The departure and split with the Maharishi was well-publicized. In Delhi, Lennon and Harrison told the reporters that they had urgent business in London and they did not want to appear in the Maharishi’s film. Back in the UK, the members said that they were disillusioned by the Maharishi’s desire for financial gain. McCartney called it a “public mistake”. Lennon said on the The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, “We believe in meditation, but not the Maharishi and his scene”, and, “We made a mistake. He’s human like the rest of us”. According to Chopra, the Beatles and their entourage “were doing drugs, taking LSD, at Maharishi’s ashram, and he lost his temper with them. He asked them to leave, and they did in a huff”. Prudence Farrow stayed with the three-month programme and became a TM , along with 40 other students. Mike Love also became a TM and traveled with the Maharishi to Kashmir later in the year. The trip to India was the last time all four Beatles traveled abroad together.

Philip Goldberg, in his book American Veda: From Emerson and the Beatles to Yoga and Meditation, How Indian Spirituality Changed the West, wrote that the Beatles’ trip to Rishikesh, “may have been the most momentous spiritual retreat since Jesus spent those forty days in the wilderness”. Despite their temporary rejection of the Maharishi, they generated wider interest in Transcendental Meditation, which encouraged the study of Eastern spirituality in Western popular culture. The “public falling out” between the Beatles and Maharishi was widely reported but there has been “little mention” of “the continued positive relationship Maharishi maintained” with McCartney and Harrison. Chopra credits Harrison with spreading TM and other Eastern spiritual practices to America almost single-handedly. Following the ‘s involvement, the concept of meditation spread into Western society’s every corner.

After 1967 the Maharishi fell out of the public spotlight for a period and TM was described as a passing fad. Mike Love arranged for the Boys to tour with the Maharishi in the US during the summer of 1968. However, the tour was cancelled after several appearances and was called “one of the more bizarre entertainments of the era”. Interest grew again in the mid-1970s when scientific studies began showing concrete results. The Maharishi moved to Europe in the early 1970s and appeared twice on American television’s The Merv Griffin Show in the mid-1970s leading to a surge of popularity called the “Merv wave”. That was followed by the introduction of “Yogic Flying”, a technique which offered the promise of levitation. In 1978 Lennon wrote that he considered his meditation a “source of creative inspiration”.

During the 1990s both McCartney and Harrison were so convinced of the Maharishi’s innocence that they offered their apologies. Harrison gave a benefit concert for the Maharishi-associated Natural Law Party in 1992, and later apologized for the way the Maharishi had been treated by saying, “We were very young” and “historically, there’s the story that something went on that shouldn’t have done—but nothing did.” Cynthia Lennon wrote in 2006 that she “hated leaving on a note of discord and mistrust when we had enjoyed so much kindness from the Maharishi.” Asked if he forgave the Beatles, the Maharishi replied, “I could never be upset with angels.” McCartney took his daughter, Stella, to visit the Maharishi in the Netherlands in 2007, which renewed their friendship. By the time of the Maharishi’s death in 2008, more than 5 million people had learned Transcendental Meditation, and his worldwide movement was valued in the billions of dollars. The ashram, built on land belonging to the Rajaji National , was reclaimed by the government in the mid-1990s after the lease expired in 1981, and fell into disrepair. After the Maharishi died, McCartney said: “…My memories of him will only be joyful ones. He was a great man who worked tirelessly for the people of the world and the cause of unity”. Starr said in 2008, “I feel so blessed I met the Maharishi – he gave me a mantra that no one can take away, and I still use it”. In 2009, McCartney, Starr, Donovan, and Horn re-united at a concert held at ‘s Radio City Hall to benefit the David Lynch Foundation, which funds the teaching of Transcendental Meditation in schools. A 2008 article in Rolling Stone magazine reported Yoko Ono as saying: “John would have been the first one now, if he had been here, to recognize and acknowledge what Maharishi has done for the world and appreciate it”. Gary Tillery wrote in 2010 that “benefited from the experience” and “for the rest of his life he [Lennon] often turned to meditation to restore himself and improve his creativity.”

In 2011, a 1967 letter surfaced in which Lennon wrote to a fan saying the Beatles “were lucky to have met” the Maharishi. A 2011 article in The Telegraph reported Harrison as saying: “Maharishi only ever did good for us, and although I have not been with him physically, I never left him”. In 2007, a Canadian , Maggie Blue O’Hara, announced plans to renovate and convert the property into a home for the children of New Delhi. In 2011, a plan was announced by the state government to build an Ayush Gram on the site. In 2003, Jerry Hall produced a series for the BBC titled “Gurus”, which included interviews with TM initiates, Jagger, and Cooke de Herrera, and a visit to the ashram in Rishikesh. Saltzman’s photographs at the ashram have subsequently been displayed in galleries worldwide and published in two books. Mira Nair began work on a documentary film about the Beatles’ visit to India; although no date for the film release has been announced.

The Beatles wrote many songs during their visit to Rishikesh: 30 by one count, and 48 songs in seven weeks by others. Lennon said: “We wrote about thirty new songs between us. Paul must have done about a dozen. George says he’s got six, and I wrote fifteen” . Eighteen of those songs were recorded for The Beatles (the White Album) , two songs appeared on the Abbey album, and others were used for various solo projects. Several of the songs contained Eastern musical influences.

Recorded for The Beatles: Back in the U.S.S.R. Blackbird Cry Baby Cry Dear Prudence (named after Prudence Farrow, who would not “come out and play” ) Don’t Pass Me By (written by Starr) Everybody’s Got Something to Hide Except Me and My I Will I’m So Tired Julia Long, Long, Long Mother Nature’s Son (inspired by a lecture given by the Maharishi) Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da Revolution Rocky Raccoon (co-written with Donovan and inspired by Bob Dylan’s new album John Wesley Harding, which they heard for the first time at Rishikesh) Sexy Sadie (originally named “Maharishi” but changed to avoid libel) The Continuing Story of Bungalow (inspired by the son of an American student who went hunting) Why Don’t We Do It in the ? (inspired by monkeys mating in the ) Wild Honey Pie Yer Blues

Recorded for Abbey : Mean Mr. Mustard Polythene Pam

Recorded for solo records and others: Child of Nature (reworked as “Jealous Guy” for Lennon’s Imagine) Dehradun (Harrison’s song, but never released) Junk (on McCartney in 1970) Look at Me (on John Lennon/Plastic Ono in 1970) The Rishikesh Song (also called “The Happy Rishikesh Song”, but never released) Sour Milk (performed by Jackie Lomax and released on a single) “Spiritual Regeneration/Happy Birthday Mike Love” (recorded on tape at Rishikesh) Teddy Boy (on McCartney in 1970) What’s the New Mary Jane (officially released on the 1996 compilation Anthology 3)

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George Harrison, Mike Love, and John Lennon at the ashram near Rishikesh, India. (1968)

Paul McCartney, Donovan, and Mike Love painting faces. (1968)

The importance of the Beatles trip to India in early 1968 and its eventual influence on what was to become The White Album cannot be overemphasized.

The Beatles arrived in India in February of 1968.

The Maharishi’s compound was located near Rishikesh, in the of the Saints in the foothills of the Himalayas. The Beatles, along with their wives, girlfriends, assistants and numerous reporters, arrived there in February 1968 and joined the group of 60 people who were training to be TM teachers including musicians Donovan, Mike Love of the Boys, and flutist Paul Horn.

Ringo Starr and his wife left on 1 March, after a 10-day stay; the McCartney’s left after one month due to other commitments; while John Lennon and George Harrison stayed about 6 weeks and left abruptly following financial disagreements and rumors of inappropriate behavior by the Maharishi. Harrison later apologized for the way he and Lennon had treated the Maharishi and in 1992 gave a benefit concert for the Maharishi-associated Natural Law Party. In 2009, McCartney and Starr reunited and performed at a benefit concert for the David Lynch Foundation to raises funds for the teaching of the Transcendental Meditation technique to at-risk students.

Located in the holy of the Saints , the International Academy of Meditation, also called the Chaurasi Kutia ashram, was a 14-acre (57,000 m2) compound. It stood across the Ganges from Rishikesh, the yoga capital of the world and home to many ashrams in the foothills of the Himalayas, 150 feet (46 m) above the and surrounded by jungle. The Maharishi’s facility was built in 1963 with a $100,000 gift from American heiress Doris Duke, on land leased from the Uttar Pradesh Department. The training center was designed to Western habits and was described variously as luxurious and seedy . Starr later compared the ashram to a kind of spiritual Butlins (a low-cost British holiday camp). It was built to accommodate several dozen people and each of its stone bungalows contained five rooms. Each was equipped with electric heaters, running , toilets, and -style furniture. According to DeHerrera, the Maharishi brought special items from the village for the Beatles rooms such as mirrors, fabric for the walls and carpeting, foam mattresses and bedspreads. She wrote that “by the standard of the other” bungalows The Beatles’ cottages “looked like a palace”.

Recorded for The White Album: Back in the U.S.S.R. Blackbird Cry Baby Cry Dear Prudence (named after Prudence Farrow, who would not “come out and play” ) Don’t Pass Me By (written by Starr) Everybody’s Got Something to Hide Except Me and My I Will I’m So Tired Julia Long, Long, Long Mother Nature’s Son (inspired by a lecture given by the Maharishi) Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da Revolution Rocky Raccoon (co-written with Donovan and inspired by Bob Dylan’s new album John Wesley Harding, which they heard for the first time at Rishikesh) Sexy Sadie (originally named “Maharishi” but changed to avoid libel) The Continuing Story of Bungalow (inspired by the son of an American student who went hunting) Why Don’t We Do It in the ? (inspired by monkeys mating in the ) Wild Honey Pie Yer Blues

How the Beatles in India Changed America

By Claire Hoffman

Claire Hoffman

On a February morning in 1967, George Harrison ‘s wife, Pattie Boyd, sat at her kitchen table and lamented to a girlfriend how she longed for something spiritual in her life. With that, the legendary party girl ripped a tiny newspaper advertisement for Transcendental Meditation classes out of the paper and, in that instant, began a ripple that would affect generations of young people across the world. A year later, the Beatles would go to India . Out of that trip came not just the band’s epic White Album and Donovan’s “Hurdy-Gurdy Man,” but a seismic shift in the popular understanding of Eastern spirituality, meditation and music. It also was the beginning of a strange relationship between the Beatles and the meditation movement that they inadvertently popularized. Not to mention the rise of an Indian guru who shaped my own life.

In August 1967, Boyd talked her husband into joining her at the Hilton Hotel in London to see Maharishi speak. She had learned his trademarked Transcendental Meditation that spring and had fallen in love with her daily mantra-based practice. In the end, all the Beatles joined them. Maharishi cut an enticing anti-establishment figure at a moment when the Beatles were questioning their reality – the then-47-year-old Indian man had long hair that flowed mane-like into his greying beard. He wore only a simple white robe and flip-flops. As he lectured at colleges and universities around the United States and Europe, young people became enamored with his simple notion of using meditation to elevate your consciousness. He would answer even the angstiest questions on the meaning of life or world events with an infectious giggle and the reassurance that life was simple and blissful.

Maharishi supposedly didn’t know who the Beatles were when he met them, but he knew they were very famous – he was nothing if not media savvy (as described in Kurt Vonnegut’s essay, “ Yes, We Have No Nirvanas “) – so he invited them all to a ten-day summer conference in Bangor, a small coastal city in Wales. It was there that the four men became devotees. The plan emerged to spend a few months in early 1968 at Maharishi’s ashram in Rishikesh. They all felt – to different degrees – a hunger to transform themselves. Maharishi was adamantly opposed to drugs and drinking and, Boyd wrote in her memoir, they were all on steady diet of weed and acid, stumbling daily through a mind-boggling hysterical swarm of paparazzi and fans.

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But the hard living was in the rearview mirror when the Beatles flew to India in February of 1968, with a phalanx of reporters in tow. They went to Rishikesh, a small town at the foothills of the Himalayas. The plan was to stay for a few months – it was a course to make them teachers of Transcendental Meditation, although it didn’t seem anyone in the Beatles crew actually wanted to teach, they just wanted that time with Maharishi.

Life there was idyllic and simple, by most accounts – the Beatles slept in sparsely furnished rooms, and were awakened by peacocks. They meditated for much of the day, and listened to Maharishi lecture about reincarnation and consciousness. There were about 60 people at the ashram, including Donovan and his manager; the Beach Boys’ Mike Love; and Mia Farrow, with her brother Johnny and sister Prudence. (“Dear Prudence,” written by Lennon, was supposedly a song they sang to Mia’s sister, who wouldn’t stop meditating, and wouldn’t come out of her room.)

How and why they left their guru is the stuff of differing legends , and I’ve heard a dozen versions of what happened. I would say that the truth lies in the music that came out of that time – somewhere between “Sexy Sadie” and “Across the Universe” – part transcendent cosmic consciousness and part total betrayal and loss of faith. Whatever actually occurred, they decamped after two months in a bit of a huff, leaving Maharishi and his meditation movement behind.

But Maharishi already had the photographic evidence and journalistic accounts of the Beatles’ devotion. The band moved on, but Maharishi’s star continued to rise, and TM became increasingly entrenched in popular culture. Life magazine proclaimed 1968 “The Year of the Guru,” and featured Maharishi on the cover with groovy, hallucinogenic spirals framing his face.

By the mid-1970s, the Movement estimated that it had 600,000 practitioners, with celebrities such as actress Shirley MacLaine and football star Joe Namath continuing to promote Maharishi’s techniques and vision. TM how-to books were a staple on the best-seller list, and at the time, the Movement estimated that an average of 40,000 people a month were learning the meditation practice. He bought two Heidelberg presses and began printing elaborate pamphlets and books and mission statements. He sent them out to world leaders and set up hundreds of certified centers throughout the United States, Europe and India. Later the media would describe TM as “the McDonald’s of the meditation business.”

The Beatles in India: 16 Things You Didn't Know

I was born close to a decade after the Beatles left their Indian retreat and their guru Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, but that trip entirely shaped my world – my parents would never have met, fallen in love nor moved to a remote town in Iowa to the meditation community where I was raised.

In the fall of 1968, my mom was a student at the University of Colorado in Boulder. After reading an article in the Saturday Evening Post , my mom – raised in a Roman-Catholic family where gloom and sin loomed ever-present – fell in love with Transcendental Meditation. So in the early 1980s, when Maharishi asked his devotees to move to rural Fairfield, Iowa, to help build his global headquarters, well, my mom thought that was a great idea.

Growing up in Fairfield in the 1980s and 1990s, the Beatles were an awkward part of our founding history. At the Maharishi School of the Age of Enlightenment – where I was a student until I was 14 years old – John, Paul, George and Ringo were sort of like estranged uncles whose stories were left to the shadows. There were celebrities who practiced meditation and who sometimes visited our school, smiling warmly as they watched us meditate or embark on our “consciousness-based education.” But while I have strange memories of Mike Love singing in our tiny school library, no Beatle ever came to visit.

While the Beatles went through their own unraveling, tragedy and emergence as solo artists, the Transcendental Meditation community was winding itself into a tighter internal facing realm, entirely devoted to Maharishi and his global plans. Maharishi’s picture hung on the walls of our home and in in my school. We would always place the first slice of birthday cake beneath his picture, and sing a funny little song about achieving higher and higher levels of consciousness as we did.

At the time, TM became a forgotten byproduct of the hippie era, except for our little bubble in Iowa. There we followed Maharishi’s directives on how to eat, how to sleep, how to dress, how to be. As time went by and I grew up, it felt more and more restrictive and alienating. I began to think it was all as simple as the Sexy Sadie lyric, “Oh look what you’ve done, you’ve made a fool of everyone.” My teen angst and Lennon’s cosmic comedown dovetailed perfectly.

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The binary tumult of that moment with the Beatles seemed to shadow Maharishi until his death. People treated him either like a god or a pariah. Popular narratives seemed stuck on this idea of a guru-disciple relationship, where Maharishi was either an enlightened sage who would transform your consciousness or as a media-savy opportunist who was after everyone’s money. There didn’t seem to be a middle option.

However, in the 2000s as Maharishi grew older and less present, something unlikely happened. TM returned to popular culture, thanks to the evangelical efforts of David Lynch, a longtime meditator who in 2002 attended something called the Enlightenment Course with Maharishi in Europe. After that, Lynch traveled around the country, talking to large groups about a simple technique that could make you happier, calmer, and more productive. Suddenly Rupert Murdoch and Katy Perry were tweeting about how much they loved it, but there was little to no mention of the guru. In 2009, Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr performed for the David Lynch foundation, raising money to help children learn TM, along with Mike Love and Donovan. Onstage, they reminisced about the time and the music they made and said they loved meditation. All it seemed had been forgotten or forgiven, and together they sang “Cosmically Conscious.” Maharishi was not mentioned.

Claire Hoffman is a journalist and author of Greetings from Utopia Park: Surviving a Transcendent Childhood.

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How The Beatles were affected by their famed trip to India

What exactly happened at the maharishi’s ashram has been a topic of conjecture and controversy for half a century.

<p>Maharishi Mahesh Yogi with members of the Beatles and other famous followers. Included in the group are, from left to right; unknown, John Lennon (1940 - 1980), Paul McCartney, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, George Harrison (1943 - 2001), Mia Farrow, unknown, and Donovan. Getty Images</p>

It was "lousy" and "delicious"– a "mistake" and a "uniquely calm and creative oasis". For The Beatles, the world's most famous, successful and influential pop group, it was the beginning of the end.

At the end of April 1968, 50 years ago, George Harrison landed in England after 10 weeks studying with the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi in Rishikesh, northern India. With the Vietnam War escalating and student protests threatening to break out across the US and Europe, the Fab Four withdrew from the fray to study transcendental meditation.

The Beatles were changed by it, for good and bad, and so too was the world, albeit in quieter, smaller ways. The group's sojourn in the Himalayas was a pivotal moment in the relations between Eastern and Western hemispheres and laid a blueprint for the modern mass-media event.

What happened at the ashram?

What exactly happened at the Maharishi's ashram has been a topic of conjecture and controversy for half a century. Many eyewitnesses maintain it was a period of much-needed harmony. Personal rifts were healed, not just within the band, but with long-suffering wives. Cynthia Lennon would later write of her desire to "rediscover lost closeness" with her husband, John. Other students included folk singer Donovan, actress Mia Farrow and The Beach Boys' Mike Love.

It was a time of artistic productivity: many of the songs on the classic White Album , released in November that year, were written in India.

"There were no fans, no press, no rushing around with busy schedules," wrote photographer Paul Saltzman of life at the ashram. "And in this freedom[…] they created more great music than in any similar period in their illustrious careers."

Nevertheless, the Fab Four's return to England told its own story. Each Beatle arrived alone and in pursuit of distinct goals. Drummer Ringo Starr departed after only two weeks, complaining of everything from the food to the accommodation : "A kind of spiritual Butlin's," he said, comparing the ashram to Britain's cut-price holiday camps. Paul McCartney lasted almost a month, but in March was unable to resist the call of the band's new business , Apple Corps.

Only Lennon and Harrison made it into April. By that stage, the "calm and creative oasis" had been destroyed by ugly rumours concerning the Maharishi's sexual misdemeanours and financial greed. Lennon left as quickly as a fleet of broken-down taxis would allow. Harrison followed, but loitered with Ravi Shankar in Madras, unwilling to return to material concerns and unable to let go of India .

What's it all for?

Not one Beatle remained until the planned departure date of April 25. This fractured homecoming foreshadowed bickering, arguments and separations to come, and contrast ed sharply with the idealistic first intentions. These were nothing less than to find the meaning of life – "the answer" as Lennon put it – or at least the meaning in life as a Beatle. "We'd been The Beatles, which was marvellous," McCartney later said. "But there was a feeling of: 'It's great to be famous, it's great to be rich – but what's it all for?'"

No Beatle asked this question more loudly than Harrison, the first to tire of Beatlemania . In 1967, Harrison's wife Patti spotted an advert for the Maharishi's "Spiritual Regeneration Movement".  

How did it begin?

Soon The Fab Four were all attending lectures and travelling (with Mick Jagger in tow) to Bangor, North Wales, for more immersive study.

This inner soul-searching reflected a series of external crises. The death in August 1967 of the band's manager Brian Epstein, which the group learn t of while in Wales, ushered in a period of melancholic uncertainty, whose first expression was the much-derided Magical Mystery Tour film and record.

The rudimentary regime of the ashram promised clarity and spiritual refreshment. "Basically it was just eating, sleeping and meditating – with the occasional little lecture from Maharishi thrown in," McCartney recalled. It was too rudimentary for Starr. He hated the constant flies. "For people travelling in the realm of pure consciousness, flies no longer matter very much," the Maharishi advised. "Yes, but that doesn't zap the flies, does it?" Starr replied .

All four Beatles would speak glowingly about meditation

, and the refuge from the pressures and temptations of swinging London did have unmistakably positive creative effects.

"Songwriting came easy," Donovan wrote in his autobiography. By the time Lennon, McCartney and Harrison reconvened in May 1968 to demo songs written in India, they had almost 30 to draw from. Lennon was particularly inspired, composing 14 to McCartney's seven. Even Starr finished one: Don't Pass Me By , which he had allegedly been working on since 1963.  

Many of the songs documented life on the ashram, whose low-tech atmosphere demanded the use of acoustic guitars. Lennon and McCartney learn t fingerpicking techniques from Donovan that can be heard on White Album masterpieces like Julia and Dear Prudence . The latter song was named after Farrow's sister , who was said to have meditated so intensely that she refused to venture from her hut .

The unsettling finale of The Beatles stay inspired an early version of Lennon's Sexy Sadie , originally entitled Maharishi : "Maharishi, what have you done? You made a fool of everyone." The answer is contained in murky rumours that the Maharishi had made unwanted advances on one of The Beatles' group. Both McCartney and Harrison would later dispute the accusations; in 1968, the furore prompted the final Beatles to leave on April 12. When the Maharishi asked why, Lennon spat back: "If you're so cosmic, you'll know why."

If The Beatles were disillusioned by this fall from grace, their disenchantment proved complex. At the initial recording sessions in May, Lennon would sing the Maharishi-inspired  Child of Nature with genuine conviction.

It was Lennon who seems most altered by the retreat. Shortly after Harrison’s return, he had called a band meeting to announce he was Jesus – though whether this was a sign of religious devotion or deluded egomania is hard to say. On the plane journey back from India, he confessed his many infidelities to Cynthia. In London, he began his relationship with Yoko Ono; the rest, as they say, is history.

The other band members seemed largely unchanged . McCartney, and to a lesser degree Starr, treated India as merely another interesting Beatles jaunt. Harrison, already a true believer in transcendental meditation, remained one despite the Maharishi's alleged transgressions.

As a collective, The Beatles were never so close again. By the time they began recording the songs written in Rishikesh, they were working almost as distinct, self-centred solo artists.

How did it end?

Each had a studio to themselves at Abbey Road , in part to complete the vast backlog of songs, but also through growing suspicion and isolation. "The Beatles' Rishikesh experience cleared their heads and regenerated their energies," Ian MacDonald wrote in his Beatles study Revolution in the Head . "Unfortunately, once back in the familiarity of London, they soon returned to their old regime ."

This haphazard arrangement occasionally struck gold: furious with McCartney's Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da , Lennon bashed out a ska piano introduction and transformed the song. More often, the mood was fractious. Ironically, the breaking point seems to have been McCartney's bucolic Mother Nature's Son : Starr walked out two days later.

The Beatles’ genius always negotiated a precarious balance between craft and spontaneity, art and commerce, rivalry and collaboration.

India was the final flare of this as a positive unifying force. After their retreat – from the economic, material and political demands of the western world – the Beatles began to disintegrate. It was, as Lennon recalled grimly, a “slow death”.

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• Beatles features

The Beatles and India

The music and philosophy of India had a key effect on The Beatles’ music, particularly between 1965 and 1968. They tentatively began using traditional Indian instruments in 1965. Between 1966 and 1968 the group wrote three songs written by George Harrison in the Indian style.

George Harrison recorded three songs with The Beatles which were influenced by the Indian classical style. ‘Love You To’ was recorded for Revolver in 1966. The following year the second side of Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band opened with ‘Within You Without You’ .

Harrison’s Indian trilogy was completed by ‘The Inner Light’ , the b-side of the ‘Lady Madonna’ single. Its lyrics were based on the Taoist holy book Tao Te Ching. The song’s backing track was recorded with Indian musicians in January 1968 in Bombay, where Harrison was producing the soundtrack to the film Wonderwall .

The Beatles’ exposure to Indian music occurred while they were making Help!, their second film.

We were waiting to shoot the scene in the restaurant when the guy gets thrown in the soup and there were a few Indian musicians playing in the background. I remember picking up the sitar and trying to hold it and thinking, ‘This is a funny sound.’ It was an incidental thing, but somewhere down the line I began to hear Ravi Shankar’s name. The third time I heard it, I thought, ‘This is an odd coincidence.’ And then I talked with David Crosby of The Byrds and he mentioned the name. I went and bought a Ravi record; I put it on and it hit a certain spot in me that I can’t explain, but it seemed very familiar to me. The only way I could describe it was: my intellect didn’t know what was going on and yet this other part of me identified with it. It just called on me … a few months elapsed and then I met this guy from the Asian Music Circle organisation who said, ‘Oh, Ravi Shankar’s gonna come to my house for dinner. Do you want to come too?’

On 5 and 6 April 1965 they shot the ‘Rajahama’ Indian restaurant scenes at Twickenham Film Studios.

The first time that we were aware of anything Indian was when we were making Help!. There was an odd thing about an Indian and that Eastern sect that had the ring and the sacrifice; and on the set in one place they had sitars and things – they were the Indian band playing in the background, and George was looking at them. We recorded that bit in London, in a restaurant. And then we were in the Bahamas filming a section and a little yogi runs over to us. We didn’t know what they were in those days, and this little Indian guy comes legging over and gives us a book each, signed to us, on yoga. We didn’t look at it, we just stuck it along with all the other things people would give us. Then, about two years later, George had started getting into hatha yoga. He’d got involved in Indian music from looking at the instruments in the set. All from that crazy movie. Years later he met this yogi who gave us each that book; I’ve forgotten what his name was because they all have that ‘Baram Baram Badoolabam’, and all that jazz. All of the Indian involvement came out of the film Help!

George Harrison first played a sitar on the Rubber Soul song ‘Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)’ , recorded in October 1965.

I went and bought a sitar from a little shop at the top of Oxford Street called Indiacraft – it stocked little carvings, and incense. It was a real crummy-quality one, actually, but I bought it and mucked about with it a bit. Anyway, we were at the point where we’d recorded the Norwegian Wood backing track and it needed something. We would usually start looking through the cupboard to see if we could come up with something, a new sound, and I picked the sitar up – it was just lying around; I hadn’t really figured out what to do with it. It was quite spontaneous: I found the notes that played the lick. It fitted and it worked.

However, Norwegian Wood wasn’t the first Beatles release to feature a sitar. The North American version of the Help! album featured an instrumental, called Another Hard Day’s Night; a medley of ‘A Hard Day’s Night’ , ‘Can’t Buy Me Love’ and ‘I Should Have Known Better’ performed on a sitar, tablas, flute and finger cymbals.

Although The Beatles didn’t perform on it, Another Hard Day’s Night soundtracked the film’s Rajahama restaurant scene. The music was written by Ken Thorne. The US Help! album was issued in August 1965, four months prior to Rubber Soul.

Latest Comments

https://thebeatlesinindia.com/book/

What I would have given to be in India at the time……

I wish I was there too.

Yoko? Not really. They meditated days and weeks together in India. Then returned to England and went their 4 separate ways. Twas India that broke up the beast. They’ve all said the White Album was brutal. Ringo & George walked out. John shrugged and tried to get Clapton. We’ll never know what happened from the time they arrived in India and returned to England. But it sure wasn’t Bliss. Amazingly, they produced a brilliant collection of pretty much solo songs. For that I’m grateful. As Paul said in Antholgy, Sod off, it’s The White Album.

What he actually said was ‘Shut up, it’s the bloody white album’.

I gotta say that, just as the 60’s years would not have been the same without the Fab Four, so the Beatles would not have been the same without George Harrison. The influence of the Beatles on music and culture was great, including making the 60’s much more colorful. The sounds of George on the Beatles albums and his sitar and melodies/lyrics just fit the ‘hip’ moods and the times and all of that philosophical talk, including counter-cultural ‘happenings.’ Really, I’m sayin’ the Beatles were moved more progressively because of George aside from the musical genius that they already had. Can you relate..?

Such a wacky time.

They’re there with Maharishi (and Donovan and Mia and Prudence and Mike Love…) and Magic Alex. John is enthralled by Magic Alex. Maharishi, with his physics background, knows what a fraud Alex is. Big problem!

John is enraptured by Yoko, omnipresent in her letters and the clouds above, but is supposed to be having a “second honeymoon” at least in Cynthia’s hopes, with his wife. Big problem!

Ringo can’t take the food! A boyhood of unbelievably severe physical digestive-system assaults.

Paul… well Maharishi or not, he digs his Martin acoustic and writes a bunch of Martin acoustic-styled songs. He may not be enraptured, but he’s not impolite either.

George… He led them here. I guess he gets deflected from Maharishi when John (as prodded by Magic Alex) loses faith, but not for long. This is kind of a home in spirit.

And John, Paul, and George all write a ton of great songs, maybe just because they are kind of camping out together.

which bungalows did each stay? no one seems to know or write it.

6 rooms, john, paul, george, ringo, mia/prudence and mike love? donovan?

standing in front facing the bungalow I think George was far left, he practiced sitar….but if he was in 1, who was in 2,3,4,5….and mia/prudence were in the far right bungalow.

this is life importance stuff, it has to be found out!!!!! lol

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My Transformative Time With the Beatles in India

Photos © Paul Saltzman. All Rights Reserved.

Paul Saltzman was 24 when he studied with the Beatles under the Maharishi in Rishikesh, India. His new film, “Meeting The Beatles In India,” chronicles the eye-opening experience.

“ We were there four months—or George and I were. We lost thirteen pounds and (barely) looked a day older,” John Lennon told a BBC reporter while promoting the Beatles’ new business venture, Apple Records, of The Fab Four’s 1968 visit to India to study with Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. “I don’t know what level he’s on, but we had a nice holiday in India and came back rested-to-play businessmen.”

“He’s on the level,” Paul McCartney, ever the diplomat, chimed in.

Fifty-two years ago, in the spring of 1968, the Beatles traveled to Rishikesh, India, to study with Maharishi, after meeting the ambassador of Transcendental Meditation in the summer of 1967. It’s an oft-discussed but little understood period in the band’s history, and came at a time when the Beatles were both at the top of the mountain creatively and culturally, but had also just come out of the rockiest period they’d ever experienced since exploding into the world’s collective consciousness earlier that decade.

While Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band and the singles “Penny Lane” / “Strawberry Fields Forever” and “All You Need Is Love”—also part of the first global satellite broadcast —had broken sales records around the world and ushered in a massive change to the pop-music landscape, the Beatles’ television film Magical Mystery Tour had been met with derision, and their manager, Brian Epstein, had died of a drug overdose at the shockingly young age of 32.

“I knew that we were in trouble then,” John Lennon said , reflecting on the period to Rolling Stone ’s Jann Wenner in 1970. “I didn’t really have any misconceptions about our ability to do anything other than play music. I was scared. I thought, ‘We’ve fuckin’ had it.’”

And so, at the urging of George Harrison , already a disciple of sitar master Ravi Shankar and seeking a spiritual path beyond the doses of LSD he was popping—and Lennon was reportedly taking daily—the Beatles were off to India.

“We had all the material things, fame and all that, but there was still something needed, you see,” Harrison told the Saturday Evening Post at the time. “It can’t be one hundred percent without the inner life, can it?”

“They had everything they could ever want, but they’d realized that wasn’t the answer to anything,” recalls Jenny Boyd, a model at the time, and the sister of Pattie Boyd, George Harrison’s then-wife, who traveled with the entourage as part of their pilgrimage to India. “It was all very exciting because I thought, ‘Oh, gosh, this is what I want. I want to be able to have something that feels meaningful.’ Everyone else was quite excited, too.”

Still, Boyd had her concerns about Maharishi.

“When we’d gone to study with him the previous summer—when Brian died—I remember walking in the lecture hall and there were the four Beatles up there on the stage with him,” Boyd says. “It seemed a little bit like they were the goose that had laid the golden egg. So I was never sure about Maharishi. If someone calls themselves a holy man, you want to feel some connection, but I didn’t feel any connection.”

The visit to Rishikesh is the subject of a new film, Meeting The Beatles In India , from director Paul Saltzman, which opens via the Gathr online platform on Sept. 9. Saltzman, who through a series of what can only be viewed as synchronistic events, ended up the only outsider at Maharishi’s compound during the Beatles’ stay there.

“I ended up there because I was heartbroken,” Saltzman, who at 24 was a successful Canadian TV actor at the time, remembers. Seeking enlightenment, he’d joined a documentary film crew as its soundman, before ending up at the gates of Maharishi’s ashram after receiving a Dear John letter from his then-girlfriend. Initially denied entry on account of the famous guests in attendance, Saltzman persisted, sleeping in an Army tent on the outskirts of the ashram. “I was looking for a way to ease the pain. I didn’t know and didn’t care that the Beatles were there.”  

Eventually allowed in and taught meditation, though still relegated to the Army tent, Saltzman was also quickly accepted into the group of people studying with Maharishi, which just so happened to include John, Paul, George, and Ringo. Saltzman was soon at ease enough to ask each of the Beatles if they minded if he took some photos. They obliged, and Saltzman’s photos chronicling his time at the ashram by the banks of the Ganges—which were packed away and forgotten for many years—are remarkable; as intimate and relaxed as any of the Beatles, some of the most photographed people in the world, then or now.

“My daughter had become a Beatles’ fan and asked me to find them,” Saltzman recalls. “It was the beginning of a journey that ended in the making of this film.”

“You’d get a knock on the door, early, and there’d be ‘Mango man,’ as we called him, with a lovely glass of fresh mango juice,” Boyd, who appears in Meeting The Beatles In India , recalls of her nearly three months in Rishikesh. “Then I’d hook up with Pattie and walk down to the breakfast table, then head back to my bungalow to meditate. After that, we’d go up on the roof and listen to John and Paul and George playing, and then have henna put on our hands, or learn how to put on a sari, or sometimes Pattie and I would go down to the Ganges and just sort of dip our toes in there. Once Pattie and I went across the Ganges in a little boat and went to look at the village of Rishikesh. So we’d do little things like that, and it just became a way of life. But mainly there was a lot of meditation. And we’d have our meetings with Maharishi, sitting outside. By that time I wasn’t hung up by not being sure about him, because the meditation was amazing and I’d proved it to myself how amazing it made me feel.”

“I would see them doing those things, and I would just be hanging out at a table by the cliff,” recalls Saltzman, who was at the ashram for eight days, and says the broken heart he was nursing was lifted the first time he meditated. “I’d do some meditation, I would read, I would write, I would meditate some more. And I was in heaven that I wasn’t in agony anymore.”

Of course it wasn’t all meditation and vegetarian meals for the most famous men on the planet.

“Apparently, there was a lot of experimentation with drugs and Maharishi was not happy about that,” Deepak Chopra, a close friend of George Harrison’s, recalls the former Beatle telling him of his time studying with Maharishi. “George did admit that there was a lot of drugs and that it was not appropriate for the ashram atmosphere. But they were also very creative, and they wrote lots of songs whilst they were there.”

Indeed, the Beatles were incredibly prolific while in Rishikesh. Though accounts vary, Lennon, McCartney, and Harrison wrote in the neighborhood of 30 songs while there, many of which made up the band’s holiday release that year, their fabled self-titled LP known as the White Album .

“They could just be themselves, and that was very rare,” Boyd, who has written extensively about creativity and is sure the atmosphere sparked the Beatles’ creative juices, recalls. “Even though we’d go to nightclubs all together that were filled with musicians back in London, and it was very cool, and nobody coming to ask for autographs or anything, they were still the Beatles. They couldn’t help but be affected by being in that fishbowl. But this was very different. It was the first time that they could just relax and be all together, because it was like living in a commune, in a way. There was no press; there was no pressure. They just had each other and their creativity, and of course, the inspiring surroundings. They could let whatever came out come out. All their inspiration just seemed to come from whatever was going on.”

“I know that once I began meditating, things started expanding in my awareness, and I started having epiphanies and creative insights that haven’t stopped for a single day, and George told me they all found it very useful and they found it very helpful to their music,” Chopra, who began meditating while a medical resident in 1980, adds. “With George, although he was of course supremely musical, I’m sure a lot of that focus came from meditation. I lived with him for a while at his home outside of London, and every time you spoke to George, by the time you finished speaking to him, in his head, he had a song. That was so amazing to me.”

Ultimately, as Beatles historian Mark Lewisohn recounts in the film, the Beatles fell out with Maharishi. But whatever John Lennon said in the years after the Beatles’ trip to India, the trouble appeared to begin after “Magic” Alex Mardas, an intimate of the Beatles, showed up in India.

“Magic Alex came over and I knew he was up to no good,” Boyd recalls. “He had come to visit me the night before we went to India, and John and Cynthia were there. He was still trying to get John to go to his guru instead. So there was a real jealousy there, because he thought he was John’s friend, and didn’t want anyone in his way. So when he arrived, I thought, ‘Uh-oh, he’s here to make trouble.’ I just had this feeling. I’d see him walking around the ashram hand in hand with this woman, and I could sense there was something being cooked up. Then he told John that the woman had said that Maharishi had tried something on her, and that Mia Farrow had said the same thing. So John went to George, and they both went to go and see Maharishi.”

Lennon confronted Maharishi. “'There was a hullabaloo about him trying to rape Mia and a few other women. The whole gang charged down to his hut and I said: ‘We're leaving!’” Lennon later recounted to Rolling Stone .

“But why?” Maharishi pleaded.

“Well, if you’re so cosmic you’ll know why,” Lennon shot back.

“The next morning, George woke me up and said, ‘C’mon, you and me and Pattie are going to south India to join Ravi Shankar,’” Boyd recalls. “By then, I was so ensconced, it was really sad as we all walked past. There was Maharishi, he had been called, told that his prize troupe were leaving, he was sitting down and one of his people was holding an umbrella over his head, and he kept saying, ‘Boys, boys, why are you leaving?’ It felt awful. I just thought, ‘Nobody’s told him?’ I felt that we’d betrayed him.”

In true Lennon fashion, he also immortalized the souring of the relationship in song.

“Maharishi, what have you done, you’ve made a fool of everyone,” Lennon wrote in the original lyrics to “Sexy Sadie,” a song he came up with while waiting for the car that whisked him, his wife Cynthia, George Harrison, and Pattie and Jenny Boyd from the Maharishi’s ashram. It was only after Harrison suggested changing the title that Lennon softened the blow to the now familiar refrain of the song.

“I titled it ‘Sexy Sadie,’” Harrison recalled to Entertainment Weekly in 1987. “I don’t know what John would say about that, but he was sitting there and I was saying, ‘Well, John, wouldn’t it be more subtle to call it, say, something like ‘Sexy Sadie?’ It’s a bit obvious—‘Maharishi.’ The words, that was John’s concept of what happened to him. But even John was wrong some of the time.”

“We went to visit Maharishi in an ashram, and the first thing that George did—after offering him a rose as a greeting for him to bless and then give it back to us at the end—was to say, ‘I’ve come here to apologize on behalf of the Beatles,’” recalls Chopra. “Maharishi asked, ‘Why did you come to apologize?’ George said, ‘Because of what happened in 1968. You know, John said some unfortunate things about you.’ I don’t even know what it was, but it was something salacious, apparently, and it created a bit of a scandal. And Maharishi laughed it off. He said, ‘There’s nothing to apologize for. The Beatles are angels on earth. Because of the Beatles, the world will change. Their music will change the world and it will cause a big shift in collective consciousness. There’s never any need to apologize.’ And George was very emotionally moved, and he slept in the ashram that night.”

Ultimately, the Beatles were never again the four men, united against the world, that they had been before their visit to Rishikesh. From 1968 onward they were on parallel paths, and Paul Saltzman, whose journey led him from meeting the Beatles in India and, ultimately, to making a film about the experience, has some insight into why.

“When you delve into your inner self—with a capital S—which most people avoid and run away from, and when you touch into your heart and soul, which was what was happening at the ashram, you’re dealing with, in a sense, your best self,” Saltzman says. “You’re feeding your best self really well, you’re resting well, you’re touching into your inner self, heart, and soul through meditation. And I think you come back from that changed. And so I think India changed the Beatles—forever.”

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The Beatles in India: new exhibition celebrates 50 years of their historic trip

By Salil Deshpande

It was a trip that changed their life, their story and in many ways, the world of music. Fifty years after The Beatles arrived in India , a UK museum is celebrating their time in Rishikesh with a special exhibition.

The Beatles in India

‘The Beatles Story' in Liverpool has curated an exhibition titled ‘Beatles in India'. These include a sitar used by Pandit Ravi Shankar, who was a guru to The Beatles—George Harrison, in particular. Also on display will be photographs from Paul Saltzman, a sound engineer, who photographed The Beatles during their stay. The exhibition will look at the groups' inspiration for the trip, their introduction into transcendental meditation as well as the songs they worked on in advance of the White Album. It will bring out this relatively secretive part of The Beatles' story with never-before-seen memorabilia, imagery and personal accounts from the people who were there with the band in 1968.

“The 1968 visit was an important time of reflection for The Beatles as their manager, Brian Epstein had sadly passed away in the summer of 1967, and they escaped away from their fans and the media in search of spirituality,” says Diane Glover, Marketing Manager at The Beatles Story. Pattie Boyd, former wife to George Harrison, has contributed to the exhibition. “It really was a special, magical time; forming many memories and, of course, an abundance of great Beatles music,” Boyd says of their time in Rishikesh.

The exhibition will kick off a series of celebrations, including some in Uttarakhand. Glover visited Rishikesh last year to meet with government officials and went to the Maharishi's Ashram, which has recently opened as a tourist attraction . “It's a magical place, to be honest, and as we walked through the remains of the Maharishi's Ashram, it is clearly a place of peace and seclusion,” she says.

Not coincidentally, 2018 will also recognise what would have been George Harrison's 75th birthday—the Beatle celebrated his 25th birthday with friends at the Ashram.

‘Beatles in India' will become part of The Beatles Story's exhibition on the Albert Dock for two years and is scheduled to open to the public on 15 February 2018, 50 years to the day that John Lennon, George Harrison and their wives Cynthia Lennon and Pattie Boyd arrived in India.

For tickets and details, visit the official website .

Why I'm Surprised Peter Jackson Is Bringing Another Classic Beatles Documentary To Disney+ After Get Back

Peter Jackson is going back to the well after Get Back and bringing a classic Beatles documentary to Disney+.

Disney+ is known as the place to go for all things Marvel and Star Wars, and of course, it’s home to all of Disney’s 100 years of animation , but over the last few years, the streamer has become a major source of musical content. The recent release and massive success of Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour (Taylor’s Version) was only the latest in a string of concert films that have arrived, and Disney+ subscribers also have access to great musical documentaries, both original films, like Peter Jackson ’s The Beatles: Get Back , and legacy content. Queen's famous Montreal concert film is coming to the service and it was just announced that Let It Be, the 1970 documentary film about the production of the titular album, will make its streaming debut on Disney+ next month.

While the release of Let It Be will be a big deal for any Beatles fan, it’s a somewhat surprising move considering that it is coming from Peter Jackson. Jackson is using the same film restoration techniques that were used on Get Back to give new life to the audio and video, but a big part of Get Back , which used outtakes of the same footage that made up Let it Be , was seemingly focused on rebutting the idea, largely popularized by that film, that the Beatles self-destructed while recording the album. I spoke with Jackson before the release of Get Back , and as he told me…

You read that John and Paul weren't writing songs anymore, they’d sort of do their own songs and bring them in. That's not true… I was kind of expecting them to come in, ‘Okay, here's this, here's a song. I wrote it at home, just play your guitar, do this.’ That's what I'd sort of thought. But it's not that at all. It's so collaborative, you see the creative process, and you see it in sort of overdrive. Because they have a deadline. And it's really, it's kind of it's quite exciting to watch.

Let It Be is a historic piece of media for Beatles fans as it is seen by many as the film that shows the self-destruction of the Beatles. Let it Be was the band’s second to last album that they recorded together, though it ended up being the final one released. The film was released a month after The Beatles officially broke up.

Considering that Let It Be is all of 80 minutes long, and Jackson’s Get Back is over six hours long , it would seem that Jackson’s film should be the definitive word, one way or another, on just how those late days of The Beatles were. Releasing Let It Be afterward certainly seems to be giving it the last word.

But it’s certainly possible that after more than 50 years, and with newly restored audio and video, viewing Let It Be now will be different. The film was never released on DVD or Blu-ray, and it hasn’t been streaming before, so it’s been quite a while since most people have actually seen it, maybe thanks to time, and thanks to Get Back changing our perspective, the film will be different now. Let it Be arrives on Disney+ May 8.

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CinemaBlend’s resident theme park junkie and amateur Disney historian, Dirk began writing for CinemaBlend as a freelancer in 2015 before joining the site full-time in 2018. He has previously held positions as a Staff Writer and Games Editor, but has more recently transformed his true passion into his job as the head of the site's Theme Park section. He has previously done freelance work for various gaming and technology sites. Prior to starting his second career as a writer he worked for 12 years in sales for various companies within the consumer electronics industry. He has a degree in political science from the University of California, Davis.  Is an armchair Imagineer, Epcot Stan, Future Club 33 Member.

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50 years on, India is celebrating the Beatles' infamous trip to the country

In February 1968, the Beatles embarked on their famous discovery of India to study transcendental meditation with Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. Now 50 years later India is rediscovering the Beatles — or at least the tourism potential of the world’s most famous rock band seeking salvation in the country.

A yoga festival in Rishikesh is having a Beatles special this month. A tribute band from England, the Fab Four, is supposed to perform there. There are plans for a Beatles Museum and what’s left of the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi’s ashram, a 14-acre compound where the Beatles stayed, has been spruced up for tourists.

Of course, when the Beatles actually came in 1968, the Indian government was far warier.

“There was strong opposition in parliament to Maharishi Mahesh Yogi’s ashram and these international celebrities coming. The Communists felt that they were CIA spies,” says Ajoy Bose, a political journalist who has just written the book “ Across the Universe ,” which is about the Beatles in India. Maharishi’s meditation compound, known as Chaurasi Kutia, was built using money given to him by the American heiress Doris Duke on land leased by the Uttar Pradesh forest department.

Cultural purists were angry with sitar musician Ravi Shankar as well. They felt that by becoming George Harrison’s guru he had “sold out Indian culture and become a hippie,” says Bose.

George Harrison of the Beatles sits cross-legged with his musical mentor, Ravi Shankar of India, a sitar virtuoso, in Los Angeles, Aug. 3, 1967, as Harrison explains to newsmen that Shankar is teaching him to play the sitar, a 25-stringed guitar-like instrument. Harrison said “Indian music makes God come through in a spiritual way.”

Associated Press

Bose believes destiny probably brought the Beatles to India. He writes that the Beatles first met Maharishi Mahesh Yogi in London in 1967. The band attended his seminar in Wales but had to leave after the sudden death of their manager and mentor, Brian Epstein, in 1967. The Maharishi came along speaking words of wisdom and soon the Beatles came to find themselves in India.

Some say the India trip marked the beginning of the end of the Beatles. Rock historian Philip Norman, who spoke about the Beatles at the Jaipur Literature Festival this year, says India probably “saved their sanity” and helped them stay together a little longer than they would have otherwise. The group was worn out by year after year of relentless hard work, touring and ego clashes.

“And what they really went to with Maharishi was essentially a spa with not too much discipline,” says Norman. “There was not very much meditation. They could sit around, eat nice vegetarian food. They could drink. Things were smuggled in. Pot was smuggled in.” They also got to spend rare quality time with their wives and girlfriends, long sidelined by their music.

But it wasn’t all a party. Ringo Starr’s stomach could not stand Indian food and its spices. He carried a suitcase full of Heinz baked beans. And his wife Maureen was terrified of flying insects.

“Poor thing, she had a lot of problems,” says Bose. “Rishikesh, being up in the hills, was in a remote area, close to the jungle. There were a lot of insects.” The stars did not last long.

The transcendental meditation did not work out that well either — the Beatles had short attention spans.

The Maharishi showered special attention on his star guests. They had the best bungalows with foam mattresses, as well as special audiences with the Maharishi. He tried to impress the Beatles by taking them on helicopter rides. John Lennon insisted on being the first to go up with the Maharishi. Later Paul McCartney asked him why he’d been so adamant.

“John said, ‘I thought the Maharishi would slip me the real secret mantra which would give me happiness,’” says Bose.

They never found the secret to happiness, but they found something they believed was more precious.

“It was the first time they had the opportunity to live out their lives as ordinary individuals,” says Bose. “They were out of London, they were out of studio. They were not even in usual holiday mode, they were not staying in luxury holiday villas. They were in a little ashram surrounded by Indian jungle.”

They were just left to themselves to talk to each other, play music and think. As musicians, it was phenomenally productive. Some 30 to 48 songs came out of that brief stay in Rishikesh — many of them ending up on the "White Album," some on "Abbey Road." “Dear Prudence” was about Mia Farrow’s sister Prudence’s obsessive meditation. “Why Don’t We Do It In The Road” was inspired by seeing monkeys having sex on the road. Even Ringo Starr wrote his first song for the Beatles, “Don’t Pass Me By,” in Rishikesh.

But it all came to an abrupt and ugly end within six weeks. Lennon accused the Maharishi of making a pass at Mia Farrow, or some say her sister Prudence. That became the song "Sexy Sadie." Norman says that was “complete rubbish.” Lennon was in love with Yoko Ono and missed her. The story of the pass was just an excuse to leave India.

Only George Harrison persevered and held onto his Hindu spirituality for the rest of his life, even reading from the Bhagavad Gita to his mother on her deathbed.

“What India really did was give George a raison d'etre,” says Norman.

Soon the Maharishi ran into trouble with Indian tax authorities. The ashram was abandoned and reclaimed by the jungle and psychedelic graffiti from Beatles fans from across the world.

When Bose went there he only found the ruins of the Maharishi’s grand bungalow overlooking the river and the remnants of the igloo-like meditation chambers, which were meant to evoke mountain caves.

But the memories remain. He found an old man who owned a music shop in nearby Dehra Dun and had repaired John Lennon’s guitar. At Lennon’s request, he made him a pedal harmonium and his niece had painted it in psychedelic colors.

“That’s somewhere with Yoko Ono now,” says Bose. “This man is now 85. And the last thing he wants to see in his life is this harmonium.”

From PRI's The World ©2017 PRI

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15 Best Places to Visit in India, According to Travel Experts

F rom the alpine meadows of Kashmir to the palm-fringed beaches of Goa, these are some of the subcontinent’s most enchanting destinations.

As a former longtime Delhiite and frequent traveler to India, people often ask me what the country is like. I never know how to respond, for trying to sum up a nation as vast and diverse as India feels impossible. So, instead, I asked a few experts for their insights.

“If you visit India, you feel you have visited several countries, as every part is different,” says Mohd Shafi Billo, an inbound tour operator who specializes in helping international travelers plan their trips to the country. “It’s an exceptional destination, thanks to its culture, history, and inclusiveness of different people from different faiths, and it has everything to offer, from forts to mausoleums, wildlife tours to mountain adventures.”  

Shoba Rudra, founder and partner at hospitality consultancy Rare India , agrees. “The country is living a dynamic moment in history, ever-changing,” she says. “What's constant, however, is the vibrant culture lived through its festivals, cuisine, heritage, crafts, and performing arts.”

While it would take years to see it all, India is an approachable destination — if you can narrow things down. With that in mind, here are 15 of the best places to get you started on your sojourn to the subcontinent.

Stretching along the southernmost part of India’s Malabar Coast, the tropical state of Kerala entices visitors with its marshy backwaters, which most people visit on overnight houseboat adventures. These popular cruises “showcase lush landscapes and peaceful villages, and [give visitors] a glimpse into local life amid tranquil waters and picturesque surroundings,” says Billo. While the backwaters are a star attraction, the state offers much more to explore, from the tea plantations of Munnar, known for its cool climate and seemingly endless rolling hills, to the historic city of Kochi, celebrated in equal measure for its rich coastal history and contemporary art scene . The beaches aren’t too shabby, either. “North Kerala is also famous, as the Malabar Coast is where the spice trade flourished,” says Rudra. “The coastal area is picturesque and this region is still unexplored.”

On the opposite end of the country from Kerala, Kashmir offers entirely different — but equally captivating — landscapes. With its alpine climate, evergreen trees, and snowy winters, Kashmir is often likened to a mini Switzerland . Famed 13th-century Sufi poet Amir Khusrau once proclaimed in Farsi, “If there is a paradise on earth, it is this,” and he may have been onto something. At the heart of it all is Srinagar, Kashmir’s capital city, which is known for its elegant gardens and watery centerpiece, Dal Lake. “Highlights include staying on a houseboat or taking a shikara [traditional Kashmiri boat] ride,” says Billo, who hails from the area. Don't leave without indulging in wazwan , an opulent, meat-heavy feast that can feature up to three dozen dishes in one sitting. 

Occupying a high-altitude plateau in the northernmost reaches of India, Ladakh is characterized by otherworldly landscapes and big skies, punctuated by palatial stupas and monasteries. Many visitors come to Ladakh’s capital, Leh, during the short summer tourist season, but this surreal region offers plenty more to experience beyond the city. Billo suggests visiting the Nubra Valley, an isolated part of the old Silk Road that’s only accessible by crossing Khardung La, one of the world’s highest motorable passes. “The valley offers a glimpse into Ladakh's unique geography and cultural diversity with monasteries, quaint villages, and apricot orchards,” says Billo. The region is also rich with unusual wildlife, from elusive snow leopards to the scaled-down Bactrian camels that originated in the steppes of Central Asia.

Rishikesh, Uttarakhand

On the banks of the sacred Ganges River, the holy city of Rishikesh has held a place in the hearts of spiritually minded travelers — both from India and abroad — for generations. It’s the self-proclaimed “yoga capital of the world,” with a mix of traditional ashrams (spiritual rest houses) that cater largely to Hindu pilgrims and yoga centers that attract international visitors with teacher-training courses and meditation retreats. If you’re not into yoga, you’ll still find plenty to do here. Popular activities include visiting the ruins of the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi’s ashram (dubbed the Beatles Ashram in honor of its most famous former residents) to whitewater rafting adventures on the mighty Ganges. It’s also a great place for a wellness getaway, and nearby Ananda in the Himalayas was voted one of Travel + Leisure readers' favorite international spas in 2023.

Auroville, Tamil Nadu

If you’re looking for a place that’s unlike anywhere else in India — or, frankly, the world — head to the intentional community of Auroville in South India. This UNESCO-recognized global township was founded in the 1960s with the goal of "realizing human unity," beyond the illusory divisions of creed or nationality, and it's home to generations of residents from around the world. Many visitors come for an hour or two, just long enough to view Auroville’s spiritual center — the golden, dome-shaped Matrimandir . However, it’s worth sticking around a bit longer to get a feel for what the community is about. As Akash Kapur, who grew up in Auroville and authored " Better to Have Gone " and " India Becoming ," puts it: "Come to Auroville if you're interested in alternative societies, sustainable living, or spirituality, but try not to just drop in for a few hours (as many do), and instead spend some time here, really getting to know the people and their work. The community rewards sustained immersion."

Andaman Islands

Although most people associate the crystalline waters of the Andaman Sea with Thai island getaways, the Andaman and Nicobar Islands in this tropical region are under Indian control. This little stretch of paradise is full of gorgeous shorelines, but most visitors devote their vacations to the island of Swaraj Dweep (formerly known as Havelock). The most popular beach on the island is Radhanagar Beach , which offers just over a mile of white sand sandwiched between tropical jungle and warm, transparent waters. Getting to this remote island requires a bit of gumption: You'll need to fly from the Indian mainland to Port Blair on South Andaman Island, then catch a ferry or charter a seaplane for the final stretch. While visitors are welcome on many islands in the chain, a few — including secluded North Sentinel Island — are off-limits. 

While many travelers see India’s capital as a jumping-off point for visiting further-afield destinations, it’s worth sticking around for a while to truly appreciate what Delhi has to offer. There’s certainly never a dull moment in this busy metropolis, whether you’re shopping for handicrafts at one of its numerous markets or learning about medieval and Mughal history at one of its three UNESCO World Heritage Sites: Humayun's Tomb, Qutb Minar, and Red Fort. Although Delhi is undeniably rambunctious, it also has a quieter, more peaceful side that you can find amidst the trees and 15th-century tombs of Central Delhi’s Lodi Gardens or in the quiet interiors of the Baháʼí Lotus Temple.

Taj Mahal, Agra, Uttar Pradesh

Many travelers to India put the 17th-century Taj Mahal at the top of their list. This white marble mausoleum is easily India’s most recognizable structure — and it’s one of the New Seven Wonders of the World . This popular attraction also has a romantic backstory. “This iconic symbol of love is renowned for its architectural beauty, intricate marble work, and the captivating story behind its creation by emperor Shah Jahan in memory of his wife, Mumtaz Mahal,” notes Billo. The bodies of the emperor and his wife remain interred in the Taj to this day. 

Jaipur. Rajasthan

The capital of Rajasthan and one-third of North India’s popular Golden Triangle tourist route (which also includes Agra and Delhi), Jaipur is a must-visit for those who love architecture and shopping. “The Pink City, as it's nicknamed, offers a rich cultural heritage, stunning [landmarks] like Amber Fort, vibrant bazaars, and intricate handicrafts,” says Billo. Many of Jaipur's key attractions are found in the historic walled part of the city, which became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2019. Highlights include Jantar Mantar (a collection of oversized — and fully functional — astronomical instruments dating to the 17th century) and Hawa Mahal, or Palace of the Winds, a honeycomb-shaped palace designed with tiny windows that allowed air to flow freely through its interior.

Jodhpur, Rajasthan

Dubbed the Blue City because of the cerulean-colored buildings that extend for miles through the oldest part of town, Jodhpur has long attracted travelers eager to explore the ramparts of the larger-than-life Mehrangarh Fort. It’s also home to the grandiose Umaid Bhawan Palace , which made headlines in 2018 when Priyanka Chopra and Nick Jonas tied the knot there. While Jodhpur’s beautiful, regal architecture is reason enough to visit, there’s more to the city than massive forts and grand palaces. “The area around the Toorji ka Jhalra stepwell in the old city is fun to explore,” says hotelier Sapna Bhatia, owner of Kaner Retreat and Jodhpur-area native. “For nature enthusiasts, there’s the Rao Jodha desert park near Mehrangarh Fort.”

Udaipur, Rajasthan

T+L readers' favorite city in Asia and second favorite city in the world , Udaipur very much fits the bill of a fairy tale destination. Nicknamed the City of Lakes, thanks to its seven lakes, this gorgeous destination is home to some of India's finest luxury hotels plus historic whitewashed palaces, including the magnificent City Palace, an 11-palace complex that houses hotels, a huge museum with an impressive collection of European crystal, and a royal residence. A short boat ride from the palace lies the 18th-century Taj Lake Palace, an opulent palace-turned-hotel in the middle of Lake Pichola. It’s a quick drive from The Oberoi, Udaivilas , a purpose-built palatial hotel with onion-domed cupolas and a moat-like swimming pool that directly connects to some of the rooms. 

If you’re looking for a less-frequented, but no less amazing, alternative to more touristed states such as Rajasthan, consider Gujarat. “Under-explored but culturally rich, this state in India is a tapestry of festivals, textiles, architectural heritage, communities, and landscape,” says Rudra. Gujarat was also the birthplace of Mahatma Gandhi, who led the Salt March, one of his most famous acts of peaceful protest, through the state in 1930. Rudra suggests visiting the National Salt Satyagraha Memorial , which “honors the activists through murals, installations, sculptures, art, and related film.” It's also worth checking out the Kutch district, known for its distinct metal bells , which were originally used for keeping track of livestock and are now popular as decorative wind chimes.

Kaziranga National Park, Assam

The northeast Indian state of Assam is home to a treasure for wildlife enthusiasts: Kaziranga National Park . This expansive, UNESCO-listed wildlife refuge near the borders of Bangladesh and Bhutan has the largest population of Indian one-horned rhinoceroses on the planet, providing a home to roughly 2,000 of these massive beasts. Although rhinos are the star attraction on park safaris, all sorts of animals live here, including tigers, elephants, gibbons, sloth bears, and a small number of endangered Ganges River dolphins. 

Historic, glitzy, and positively gargantuan, Mumbai (formerly known as Bombay) is easily one of India’s most cosmopolitan destinations. This city by the sea is the nation's financial and entertainment capital, and while you’re unlikely to rub shoulders with Bollywood stars here, you're sure to see a lot of impressive attractions in very little time. Take a boat out to Elephanta Island to explore fifth– and sixth–century rock-hewn cave temples, marvel at the grand Indo-Saracenic architecture at Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus , or see thousands of clothes hanging out to dry at Dhobi Ghat, the world's largest open-air laundry. Then, head to the sleek neighborhood of Bandra West, where many of Mumbai’s best restaurants and hotels are located, including Taj Lands End, voted T+L readers' favorite city hotel in India in 2023.

India’s smallest state, Goa, is arguably its top beach destination, where long days of swimming and sunbathing turn into longer nights of partying on the sand. While Goa has been known as a hippie haven since the 1960s, it's started to shed its reputation in recent decades. It’s still very much a party state, though it also draws in families and couples in search of sea and sun, sans nightlife. It’s a great place for history buffs as well, with numerous seaside forts and UNESCO-recognized churches that were built when Goa was under Portuguese rule. And while the destination has always been loved for its fiery dishes that combine traditional Konkani ingredients with Portuguese influences, it has also emerged as a culinary hot spot , where a new generation of chefs is showcasing everything from Japanese yakitori to jackfruit tamales.

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