The Beatles in India
In February 1968, the English rock band the Beatles travelled to Rishikesh in northern India to take part in a Transcendental Meditation (TM) training course at the ashram of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi.
The divisive influence of the Beatles' Greek friend Alexis Mardas, financial disagreements, and suspicions that their teacher was taking advantage of the band's fame have also been cited by biographers and witnesses.
The Beatles attended Maharishi Mahesh Yogi's Transcendental Meditation (TM) seminar in Bangor in Wales, but their stay was cut short on 27 August 1967 after they learned that their manager, Brian Epstein, had been found dead in his London home.
[5][6] At Paul McCartney's urging, they postponed the trip until the new year to work on their Magical Mystery Tour film project, since he was concerned that, with the loss of Epstein, the band should first focus on their career.
[13] The Maharishi received considerable media coverage in the West,[14] particularly the United States, where Life magazine devoted a cover article to the TM phenomenon[15] and declared 1968 the "Year of the Guru".
[16][17] The mainstream press remained largely suspicious of the Maharishi's motives, however;[18] the British satirical magazine Private Eye nicknamed him "Veririchi Lotsamoney Yogi Bear".
In late January, amid the publicity surrounding her separation from her husband, Frank Sinatra, Farrow accompanied the Maharishi to India in advance of the Beatles' departure from London.
[44] In his memoir The Love You Make, Brown says that he only learned of the Beatles' intention to leave for India that same month, even though he and the band were committed to launching their multimedia company Apple Corps.
"[45] Also there were Donovan, songwriter and sculptor Gyp "Gypsy Dave" Mills,[46] Mike Love,[24] jazz flautist Paul Horn, actors Tom Simcox and Jerry Stovin,[47][48] and dozens of others, all Europeans or Americans.
[69] According to Cooke de Herrera, the Maharishi obtained many "special items" from a nearby village so that the Beatles' rooms would have mirrors, wall-to-wall carpeting, wall coverings, foam mattresses and bedspreads.
[77] The press found McCartney the most willing to engage; according to author Howard Sounes, he was "the newspaperman's pet, the sensible Beatle" who gave them quotes and posed for photos on Lakshman Jhula bridge.
[88][nb 5] While TM had earned the sobriquet "the McDonald's of meditation" for its quick and simple application, and the Maharishi espoused its scientific basis over religious dogma,[89] strong Vedic and Hindu-aligned aspects remained.
[80] Menu items included chickpeas mixed with cumin seeds, whole wheat dough baked over a fire, spiced eggplant, potatoes that had been picked locally,[106] and, for breakfast, cornflakes, toast and coffee.
[109][110] Lapham recalled a conversation one evening between members of the Beatles and other students when Lennon described the band's records as "diaries of its developing consciousness" and said that this progression was also reflected in the photos and artwork used on their albums.
[144] Instructing his assistants, he oversaw the assembly of a platform of risers, the precise placement of flowers and potted plants in front of the raised stage, and the seating allocation for each of the students from his hand-drawn diagram.
[191] According to Saltzman, Evans told him that the Maharishi wanted the band to deposit up to 25 per cent of their next album's profits into his Swiss bank account as a tithe, to which Lennon replied, "Over my dead body.
[206] According to Mike Dolan, another of the TM students, when a film crew from Lutes' company Bliss Productions arrived later in April, Lennon and Harrison "were more than a little pissed" and made a point of staying out of sight.
[223][224] Many of the people at the ashram – including Harrison, Horn, Cooke de Herrera, Dolan, Cynthia Lennon and Jenny Boyd – did not believe that the Maharishi had made a pass at any woman.
[197][226][nb 18] In her autobiography, Pattie Boyd also expresses doubt regarding the truth behind Mardas' claims, but in this atmosphere of suspicion, she had a "horrid dream about Maharishi" and, the next day, told Harrison that they should leave.
[232][233] Members of the Beatles group also violated the Maharishi's "no alcohol rule" when they consumed "hooch" that Mardas, whom Cynthia thought was not an active meditator,[234] acquired from a nearby village and shared with the women.
"[194] With regard to his own position, Harrison said that he had already told the Maharishi that he would be leaving before the course relocated to Kashmir, because he was due to participate in the filming of Raga, a documentary about Ravi Shankar, in the south of India.
[262][nb 23] Lennon's outspokenness was informed by the sense of personal betrayal he felt towards the Maharishi,[257] and his 1970 Rolling Stone interview represented a purging of his past, in line with the emotional effects of his recent primal therapy treatment under Arthur Janov.
"[274] Writing for Mojo magazine in 2003, author and journalist Mark Paytress said that, for many observers, the Beatles' falling out with the Maharishi engendered a long-lasting suspicion that "they'd become faddists tipped into eccentric habits by unfathomable fame".
[276] Adding to the tense atmosphere, after Lennon had left his wife, Ono became a constant presence from the start of the sessions and was viewed by the other Beatles as an unwelcome intrusion into the group dynamic.
[279] Philip Goldberg, in his book American Veda, writes that the Beatles' trip to Rishikesh "may have been the most momentous spiritual retreat since Jesus spent those forty days in the wilderness".
Tillery writes that, while the influence of Indian gurus such as Vivekananda, Yogananda, the Maharishi and Prabhupada was well established by the late 1960s, it was the Beatles' endorsement of their respective philosophies that most contributed to yoga and meditation centres becoming ubiquitous in Western cities and towns over subsequent decades.
[283] According to author Andrew Grant Jackson: The Beats had promoted Buddhism since the 1950s, but it was George Harrison's songs espousing Hindu philosophy and featuring Indian musicians, and the Beatles' study of Transcendental Meditation, that truly kick-started the human potential movement of the 1970s (rebranded New Age in the 1980s).
"[296] In 2009, McCartney, Starr, Donovan and Horn reunited at a concert held at New York's Radio City Music Hall to benefit the David Lynch Foundation, which funds the teaching of TM in schools.
[303] Paul Saltzman's photographs from the retreat have been displayed in galleries throughout North America[304] and in a permanent exhibition above the retail units in the departure lounge of Liverpool John Lennon Airport.
[307][308] The exhibition in Liverpool was announced as featuring memorabilia, photographs by Saltzman, a sitar courtesy of the Ravi Shankar Foundation, and video contributions from Pattie and Jenny Boyd.
