beatles and india

7/28/2019 Beatles and India

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/beatles-and-india 1/108

i

“Get back to where you once belonged”: The Beatles, Post-Colonialism, and

Religion

A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirementfor the degree of Bachelors of Arts in Religious Studies from

The College of William and Mary

by

Corinna Hann

Accepted for ___________________________________(Honors, High Honors, Highest Honors)

________________________________________Maureen A. Fitzgerald, Director

________________________________________Kevin A. Vose

________________________________________Thomas B. Payne

Williamsburg, VAApril 25, 2008



ii

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements iii

I. Introduction 4

II. In My life: the Beatles, culture, and religion 21

III. The Messengers: the Beatles’ translators 53

IV. Writing the Words of a Sermon: Lyrical exegesis 74

V. Conclusion 88

Appendix A: Images 94

Appendix B: Lyrics 99

Bibliography 105



iii

In memory of James J. Magee

1927-2006

This is dedicated to my family and in fond memory of the years we sang along to

“Yesterday” and “Hello Goodbye” on summer drives to the Jersey Shore. Those humid

summers on the shore introduced me to a rock group whose grip on my affection will

never weaken. Through years of having the same musical preference as my friends’

parents, putting on an obnoxious Liverpudlian accent in fourth grade, plastering my

bedroom walls with posters of the Fab Four, and making my sister pretend to be half of

the Beatles when we reenacted entire albums, my parents never belittled my musical

taste. Though my favorite Beatle may change given the day, I will continue to hold onto

my favorite band with the tenacity of the four year old I once was.

I would like to extend my most sincere gratitude to my advisor, my committee members,

and my department, for believing that a thesis on the Beatles was not a crazy idea.

Special thanks to my advisor, Dr. Maureen Fitzgerald, for putting up with my Beatle

obsession fueled by 16 years of backlogged Beatle facts floating around in my head.

Lastly, I would like to thank the Interlibrary Loan Department at Swem for all of their

hard work in obtaining the materials necessary for this thesis.

“I get by with a little help from my friends”



- 4 -

Introduction

An eight-armed stone-faced goddess fades into view amid the introductory notes

of a raga. She is the goddess Kaili and bears a striking resemblance to Kali, the Hindu

goddess who emanated out the Durga’s forehead in order to sop up the blood of a self-

regenerating demon.1

This picture is the first instance the Beatles’ fan base was

confronted with an image of the Oriental ‘Other’ in relation to the Fab Four.

Unbeknownst to Ringo, his penchant for rings and abundance of fan mail has led him into

the midst of a sacrificial cult that operates at the whim of the bloodthirsty goddess.

Director Richard Lester combines Marx Brother antics and James Bond plots to urgently

usher the group from Great Britain to the continent to the Bahamas finale. The film ends

with the goddess emerging from the calm Caribbean as Ringo dislodges the ring. An

unwitting member of the Kaili cult puts the ring on, and another chase ensues; Kaili still

requires a sacrifice.2

Unbeknownst to the Beatles’ public, this absurdist plot is not the last time they

will see the Beatles involved in an Eastern oriented project. Three years later, the Fab

Four embark on a journey to master Transcendental Meditation under the tutelage of

Maharishi Mahesh Yogi in Rishikesh, India. Mixed results issue from the Indian

pilgrimage, especially from the two Beatles most eager to undergo hours of motionless

meditation. John writes a scathing criticism of Maharishi based in bad blood;3 George

continues his involvement in Hinduism until his death in 2001. What the Beatles

accomplished from 1965 to 1968 is more complicated than meditation, fake turbans, and

1 See Appendix A, Illustration A.2 See Appendix A, Illustrations B and C.3 The Beatles.“Sexy Sadie,” 1968.



- 5 -

sacrificial rings. Recent literature on the Beatles attempts to unravel the cultural

phenomenon that the Beatles represent.

At the height of their fame, the most famous Liverpudlians eliminated touring,

sequestered themselves in the studio, and began a quest for what can be broadly termed

“religion.” Biographical accounts merely glimpse the complexity of the Beatles’

involvement with Eastern religion and the Orient. Studies engage several disciplines in

order to make sense of the Beatle phenomenon. The effect the group had on sociology,

psychology, literature, and musicology is far reaching; cultural studies have examined the

Beatles in light of each of these separate disciplines.

If bookstore shelves are any indication, America and the world have yet to

recover from the aftershock of Beatlemania. By May 2007, 2813 books have been

published concerning The Beatles.4

Some provide a fresh variation on The Beatle

narrative; many rehash the familiar details from the Woolton fête to Paul McCartney’s

April 1970 interview announcing the break-up. Chronological accounts offer diary

entries of the goings on in the Beatles’ realm. Close friends, studio technicians, and

groupies rise out of the woodwork of the Sixties to furnish Beatle literature with memoirs

constructed out of nostalgia and deteriorated recollections. Biographical pieces, which

began in their heyday, recount the childish and adolescent foibles and tragedies of each

Beatle updating every few years to include the recent tragedies and marriage mistakes of

those who remain. Other Beatle literature involves music theory and particular

interviews. The most recent scholarship on the Beatles revolves around the group and

their religious endeavors. These books on the Beatles’ religion continue to rely on a

biographical format and make no great claim on behalf of the Beatles’ beliefs; they

4 http://www.my-beatles-books.com/englisch/buch/buch.htm



- 6 -

merely state the Beatles’ religious affiliations or lack thereof in addition to providing

lyrical exegesis based in part on their own beliefs.5

Perhaps the most outstanding work thus far on the Beatles’ and religion is Steve

Turner’s The Gospel according to the Beatles. Turner starts his narrative with expanding

on the Beatles’ cultural bearings and spiritual investments. The reader learns that John

Lennon participated in an Anglican boys’ choir and McCartney’s parents were divided on

religion (his father was agnostic, and his mother was Roman Catholic). The introduction

of drugs into the Beatles’ routine leads Turner to discuss the increasing transcendence of

their lyrics, “It may be significant that it was only after pot that death came into their

songs.”6

Even more familiar to Beatle literature, Turner concentrates on the Sixties as a

time of revolutionary discourse on issues ranging from religion to drugs to sex. Lyrics

from the group’s introduction to pot until 1966 relay the Beatles’ view of the latent

problems within Christianity. He cites Lennon as saying that “Girl” is a critique of the

doctrine of deferred gratification. Suffer a little, and your reward will come later. The

“Nowhere Man” is plagued with blindness and willfully turning inward. “Eleanor Rigby”

is a critique of the breakdown of Christian community illustrated by one forgotten

woman’s ministrations and a priest’s mundane daily life.7

Turner stops short of claiming the Beatles create a new orthodoxy to replace the

one that they critique. While he illustrates how the Beatles have become a “religion in

their own right,” Turner’s conclusion limits the Beatles’ agency in their own myth.

Robin Sylvan’s work on religion and popular music supports the assertion that the

5 Some of the most recent include Steve Turner’s The Gospel According to the Beatles, Joshua Greene2006, ’s Here Comes the Sun: The Spiritual and Musical Journey of George Harrison, and Dale C.Allison’s The Love There That’s Sleeping: The Art and Spirituality of George Harrison.6 Turner 2006, 104.7 See Appendix B for lyrics for all three songs.



- 7 -

Beatles became “like” a religion.8 Myths were codified into a canon (i.e., Paul is dead,

the stories behind the songs), rituals were established (concerts, play the record backward

and it says “this,” ritual garb: Beatle boots, Lennon’s national health glasses, psychedelic

paisley crud), doctrines were propagated (lyrics) and released in a timely manner, and the

Beatles gained “god men” status (the mothers bringing their sick children in to be healed,

Leary calling them Prophets).9

The reader leaves Turner’s narrative with a sense that the Beatles enhanced

contemporary religious culture. Lennon claimed that the Beatles’ message is “Be Here

Now,”

10

but analyzing Turner’s experience (as one who grew up as the Beatles grew

famous) shows that the Beatles’ message is “Get Back” (the last song on Let it Be). Put

the two together and the Beatles’ message sounds contradictory; unless read in light of

the Indian religion and spirituality which pervaded the Beatles’ realm of experience in the

mid-Sixties. Being “Here Now” is merely one focus of Eastern Religions; there is also an

emphasis on returning (“Get Back”) to the state prior to succumbing to illusion, the point

of material creation and of separation from the divine. Hinduism as an ambiguous entity

and this small portion of Hindu philosophy captures the intricacy within the Beatles’

absorption of Indian musical structure and religious technique. As Mark Oppenheimer

suggests the “Sixties” are not a coherent concept, the same could be said for the Beatles

8

Sylvan 2002, 69-70.9 Turner quotes Derek Taylor, one of the Beatles’ assistants and friends, “Cripples threw away their sticks.Sick people rushed up to the car as if a touch from one of the boys would make them well again. Oldwomen stood watching with their grandchildren and, as we’d pass by I could see the look on their faces. Iwas as if some savior had arrived and people were happy and relieved, as if things somehow were going tobe better now.” Turner 2006, 92-93. Also, a TIME article titled “The Messengers” appeared after therelease of Sgt. Pepper detailing the “new Beatles incarnate” which “snuffed out their old selves,” thereligious parallel that comes to mind is of Jesus being the second Adam. “The Messengers.” TIME

Magazine, Sept. 22, 1967. p. 1 of 11.10 Turner 2006, 21.



- 8 -

and their brand of Hinduism.11 A cross-cultural, cross-discipline analysis must be

engaged in order to give the Beatles fair treatment. To ignore the complexity of their

religious, political, and cultural background and influence is a dismissal of the most

popular band in rock ‘n’ roll’s history.

The Beatles’ interest in the Orient was sparked in 1965 via the movie Help!. As

described above, the plot consisted of a sacrificial cult in the service of the goddess Kaili.

The first frame the audience sees is of the terrifying eight armed goddess which pans out

to capture the scene below. A temple priest clothed in gold ritual garb prepares for the

ritual; within a haze of incense, a sitar begins the first notes of a raga, and the

worshippers gather around the sacrificial stone. The officiator says the right words,

places the young girl upon the stone slab, and the sacrifice is aborted in the same second

it was to commence. The sacrificial victim lacks one important piece of ritual jewelry:

the sacrificial ring. It is discovered the Ringo possesses the ring, as it was sent to him in

a fan letter by the Indian girl.

If its premise sounds familiar—it is. Twenty years later, Indiana Jones visits the

Temple of Doom and comes face to face with a Kali cult which is equally as bloodthirsty

and exotically dangerous as the Kaili cult of the Beatles’ Help!. The two films present a

textbook case of Orientalism in film. Orientalism is a component of post-colonial theory.

It presents the Oriental as “Other,” and faults the Occident with the creation of this

inferior identity to justify its past colonial hegemony.

What the Beatles did differently, as I will argue in this thesis, was to incorporate

India into the sound and worldview they disseminated. There are several different aspects

to India’s integration into Beatlemania: not the least of which is Hinduism’s hand in the

11 Oppenheimer 1-28.



- 9 -

Beatles’ disunity and break-up. But first, the theoretical framework that surrounds

India’s relationship with the West must be reassessed.

Edward Said, considered the bulwark of post-colonial theory, defines Orientalism

in the introduction of his magnum opus Orientalism as a “cultural contestant” almost of

“European invention.”12

According to Said, the Orient evokes a “place of romance,

exotic beings, haunting memories and landscapes, remarkable experiences”; attached to

this vision is a colonial bureaucracy with its assorted “supporting institutions” and

manmade geographical boundaries.13 Western views of the East are founded upon

assumptions made in order to justify the authority which colonizing forces claimed for

themselves. In a Freudian manner, Said suggests that the West projects the identity of

“the Other” onto those it colonizes in an effort to reconcile the cognitive dissonance

inherent in the colonial setup. In the case of British- Indian relations, the Empire created

an Other in the “subaltern.” The “Other” was infused with that within the Western

consciousness with which they did not feel comfortable.14 These projections mollify the

West’s moral qualms over colonial representation. This Other was reviled because of its

inferior methods of government (despotic tyranny), unjust social structure (caste), and

barbaric religion (Kali cults and Tantra).

By colonizing, the Occident was actually helping the Orient. After the indefinite

period of colonization reached an end, the Orient would have benefited from the fatherly

instruction the Occident afforded it. The scholastic authority allotted to Orientalism lies

in Said’s reliance on Michael Foucault’s definition of power, discourse, and the relation

between the two in historical representations. To Foucault, truth is relative and becomes

12 Said 1978, 35-6.13 Said 1978, 2, 12.14 Sharpe 137-55.



- 10 -

qualified depending upon the lens or perspective through which an individual views it.

The basis for power in the British-India relationship rises from positional superiority—

both in economics and military. For Said, the rulers twist this positional superiority to

justify the subjugation and racism inherent in Orientalism of any flavor. Economic

inferiority is equated with moral and cultural inferiority as the material superiority

becomes conflated with non-material aspects of the colonized culture.

The evidence for Orientalism used by Said is extant in writings that appeared

before colonization and well after the British Empire was dismantled. One criticism

leveled against Said claims that he is a literary theorist who relies primarily on novels for

evidence15

. Another criticism cites Said’s sweeping generalizations as a troubling aspect

of Orientalism in much the same way Said criticizes authors for deploying large

generalizations concerning the Orient.16

Said also fails to give the “Orient” agency, a

criticism offered by Said’s theoretical descendant Homi K. Bhabha. Bhabha states that

the Other uses the rulers’ discourse to enhance their own agency. In this way, the Other

exerts a subtle agency by reversing assumptions or repositioning texts.17

Bhabha takes Foucault’s influence on Orientalism further in his discussion of

discourse, printed matter, and writing. In relation to the Indians, the British establish

themselves as the intermediaries between the native Other and God using the Bible.18

However, Bhabha also allows for the Other’s agency. The Bible can only reach the Other

by way of the native tongue, thus a translation is necessary. With yet another translation,

the position of redactor opens up to the subaltern. This is where Bhabha’s concept of

15 Smith 2003, 93-96.16 Said 1978, 227. Said’s criticism of Rudyard Kipling.17 Bhabha gives a good example in the character of Anund Messeh in his essay “Signs Taken for Wonders:Questions of Ambivalence and Authority under a Tree outside Delhi, May 1817.” Bhabha 1985, 144-165.18 Ibid, 144-165.



- 11 -

subtle agency enters Orientalism. The Oriental is not helpless in this pursuit; rather the

Other is offered a possibility of redaction through reinterpretation of the language offered

by the Occident.19 In defining authority by quantifying difference, the representative

Occident maintains superiority, but opens himself up to resistance in the form of a mimic

or hybrid. The Oriental can resist by reinterpretation and sending mixed messages to his

superiors.

In the case of the Beatles, Said and Bhabha’s Orientalist model may not fit the

1960s India fad as snuggly as it does the post-colonial fictions offered by Kipling and

Flaubert. A more recent article on the subject by Tessa Bartholomeusz defines post-

World War II attitudes towards the Orient as neo-Orientalism.20

Bartholomeusz views

the interaction between the West and East as a neo-colonial relationship, wherein the

West views the East as an avenue of self-discovery.21

“ Like Orientalism,”

Bartholomeusz writes, “ neo-Orientalism continues to shape actual knowledge of the

‘Orient’ into a collection of fragments about the ‘East’ in order to tame it; once tamed, it

is the West’s to excavate for its ‘gems’.”22 Her examples come from modern “minings”

of Eastern religion for “spiritual gems.” This mining tendency of the West concerning

Eastern philosophy does not necessarily entail conversion, Bartholomeusz writes, it may

only involve (and mainly involves) appropriation of certain cultural aspects.

More recently, scholars such as Homi K. Bhabha and Jenny Sharpe further post-

colonial theory. Although Said’s Orientalism employs Michel Foucault’s scholarship on

power and knowledge, Bhabha and Sharpe more concisely exercise Foucault’s discourse.

19 Bhabha’s mimic man, Anund Messeh, refuses to take the sacrament because if the host is really the bodyof Christ, that would be to eat meat. And Anund is a vegetarian.20 Bartholomeusz 1998, 19-33.21 Ibid., 1.22 Ibid.



- 12 -

Bhabha in particular draws on Foucault and Said equally in his pieces on the Indian post-

colonial period.23

Traditional Orientalist dialogue illustrates the antagonism between the Occident

and the Orient. The Occident, as the hero, conquers the backwards Orient in hopes of

reforming it and ridding it of its barbarism. The Oriental person conformed to an unjust

social hierarchy, bowed to several gods, and believed in a life after death—only it was

lived on earth. They lived and believed contrary to reason, according to Western

individuals, and their religion was fixed at the polytheistic stage. The West could correct

the East—science could inform heretical, polytheistic beliefs.

In the post WWII period, othering as a form of racism mutated as political

correctness became vogue. In general, the Occident no longer claimed the Orient as a

lesser Other, but a different Other. This shift is reflected in a new variety of Orientalism,

named neo-Orientalism by Tessa Bartholomeusz.24 Bartholomeusz defines neo-

Orientalism as the post World War II approach to the East.25 The Orient no longer

represents the barbaric, but the exotically attractive. This time, the East can save the

West; the East can direct the West out of its materialistic stupor via spiritual guidance.26

In reaction, the West appropriates facets of Eastern culture in order to improve the

Western culture.27 Examples include Tantra, the Kama Sutra, meditation, and koans.

The Beatles, beginning with Help!, continue in this neo-colonialism.28

23 Bhabha 2004.24 Bartholomeusz 1998, 1 of 12.25 Ibid.26 Ibid. 3 of 12.27 Ibid. 5 of 12.28 The Beatles 1965.



- 13 -

The new era of cultural imperialism and American influence on the successes of

different pop and counter culture phenomena are the focus of Agenananda Bharati’s

article “The Hindu Renaissance and its Apologetics.”29 Bharati coined the phrase “pizza-

effect” for the process of re-enculturation which he viewed as pervading the relationship

between the East and the West. Just as the pizza came to America as Italian plain bread,

returned to post-World War I Italy as an elaborate dish, and the idea and nature of pizza

has become reinvented even in its native land.30

For India and her religions in the experimental atmosphere of the 1960s, the

encounter between pop culture and gentrified guru

31

spawned a modern phase in modern

Hinduism. Maharishi’s Transcendental Meditation program benefited from Western

appropriation and the subsequent pizza-effect—his TM technique became an empire and

spawned the international self-help guru enterprise. In much the same way,

Vivekananda’s inclusive Hinduism benefited from the British appropriation of Hinduism

as barbaric and entrenched in the magical. These examples illumine the differences

between Orientalisms—TM grew in popularity because the West romanticized the East’s

spiritual wealth, whereas Vivekananda’s unified Hinduism gained steam because

Hinduism and its adherents were vilified and Othered by the colonizer.32

From 1965-1968, the Beatles’ story shows the former colonizers seeking religious

guidance from the formerly colonized. The group sought translation of India from

authentic Indian sources: the Maharishi and Ravi Shankar. In turn, The Beatles became

29 Bharati 1970, 267-287.30 Ibid. 273.31 In the sense that they moved toward and catered to the Western.32 I use the word vilified concerning how the British viewed the Indian social hierarchy—caste— as well aspractices such as sati—widow burning. Their religion, majority Hinduism, was vilified as Christianity waselevated. The British viewed Hinduism as without true social justice and moral ground—their reasoning: areligion that confines humans to a social class and degraded purity, as well as forces widows to commitsuicide upon their husband’s death, is both bad and in need of correction.



- 14 -

translators of India for a larger audience. The group appropriated the sounds, sights, and

philosophies of India in their songs and actions. The spiritual authority gathered by the

Beatles from their gurus gave them a spiritual authority in the West that was

unprecedented in a rock group. The gurus in turn became more famous in the West

through the Beatles’ influential patronage. In the East, the methods and philosophies of

the Beatles’ gurus were given greater credence as the exclusive nature of each movement

transcended the movement’s particularities to become a more universal and nationalized

Hinduism.

In this way, Foucault’s power relationship concerning knowledge becomes

complicated as the Beatles and their translators33

transmit authority between each other.

Unlike Bhabha’s mimic man, the gurus who came west and encountered the pop idols

possessed even more agency. Instead of reinterpreting a Western text as Bhabha’s mimic

man uses the Bible in “Signs taken as Wonders,” the gurus were interpreting Eastern

philosophy for the West with creative licensing. Until movements were established in the

West, particularly Maharishi’s TM Empire, the East did not consider the movement to be

as authentic as traditional Vaishnavism or Saivism. The relationship and authority

transfer began when Maharishi enveloped the four into his TM entourage, and Sri

Paramahansa Yogananda34 “belonged” to their lonely hearts club. The Beatles came to

Hinduism through a movie set, and came away from it entangled in a post-colonial circle

of authority and knowledge.

33 Or gurus.34 The founder of ISKCON, the Hare Krishna movement in the West. He appeared on the cover of Sgt.Pepper (1967), and became close with George Harrison. See Appendix A, Illustration D.



- 15 -

The various gurus35 and translators whom the Beatles acquired represented the

variety and syncretism available to the culture of the 1960s. Even though gurus

prohibited their followers in engaging in “guru-shopping”36—an activity similar to

“church shopping”—their most popular followers were poster boys for religious

syncretism. The dogmas of the Church, the intolerance of other paths to salvation, and

the “thick and ordinariness”37 of Jesus’ disciples brought them in conflict with the

average Western Christian context. Their disenchantment was affirmed in Swami

Vivekananda’s metaphor—“The Lord has declared to the Hindus in His carnation as

Krishna, ‘I am in every religion as the thread through a pearl of strings. Wherever thou

seest extraordinary holiness and extraordinary power raising and purifying humanity,

know thou that I am there.’” Thus, the Beatles became the most famous of religion

“shoppers” in the Sixties, delving into Hindu musical and religious traditions and using

Buddhist and Taoist texts in their lyrics. Bartholomeusz would characterize the Beatles’

spiritual exploration as contextualized conversion; they took (“excavated”) what they

related to within Hinduism and integrated it into their context—that of disillusioned

popular idols, lavished with fortune and fame yet still aware of a void in their lives.

Seemingly putting aside exclusivity, a mainstay of all other world religions,

Vivekananda opens a door of acceptance to all forms of belief and practice. Religious

shopping then is justified by an individual with a “birthright.”38 An individual is merely

35 The most basic definition of a guru in India is a spiritual teacher of any discipline. “The guru is adept, theskilled one, the preceptor, the saint, the destroyer of karma, the embodiment of god.” Forsthoefel andHumes 2005, 3.36 Especially in the case of Maharishi and ISKCON. Ibid. 67.37 “Jesus was all right but his disciples were thick and ordinary. It’s them twisting it that ruins it for me.”This quote was included in John’s interview with Maureen Cleave. “How does a Beatle live?” Evening

Standard (London). March 9, 1966.38 A distinction which Harrison lacks, and thus his “Orientalism,” though it may be sincere, will never beauthentic to Rorem.



- 16 -

trying to find a coat that fits—not through coercion, but through choice.39 However, this

“guru-shopping” illustrates how the gurus’ inclusive façade succeeded and their

underlying particulars failed. Even though some gurus upheld their techniques and

philosophies as user-friendly in the West, they defied their followers’ impulse to concoct

their own path of self-realization. Through figures such as Vivekananda, Ravi Shankar,

Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, and Swami Prabhupada, the Beatles (especially Harrison)

forged their own religious alternative. One alternative would not do, and Harrison’s

Hinduism included Advaita Vedanta, classical Hindustani music, and bhakti devotionals.

Following Vivekananda’s vision of modern neo-Vedantic Hinduism, the Beatles found

Hinduism compatible with other Eastern traditions such as Buddhism and Taoism as well

as with diverse forms of Hindu traditions.

The theme that Orientalists of the Romantic persuasion tend to see the East as the

West’s salvation and impetus for a Western renaissance recurs in Bartholomeusz’s

article. Continually, neo-Orientalists cling to the notion that the West can be restored by

“looking to the ‘East’.”40 A belief in the East’s power to restore the West and cleanse it

of its material trespasses is apparent in the various resurgences of Indian philosophy and

practices can be seen throughout Western culture—in the New England

Transcendentalists, the Theosophists, the Beatnik’s obsession with Buddhism, yoga in the

United States, and Tantric practices appropriated by sex therapists.41 Bartholomeusz

differentiates neo-Orientalists from Said’s Orientalism: “the Orient is not radically ‘other’

39 Vivekananda 1970, 6. In his “Paper on Hinduism,” Vivekananda says in the same paper that:” everyother religion lays down certain fixed dogmas and ties to force society to adopt them. It places beforesociety only one coat that must fit Jack, John, and Henry, all alike. It it does not fit John or Henry, he mustgo without a coat to cover his body.”40 Bartholomeusz 1998, 3 of 12.41 Structural appropriations are also recurrent in the history of Western culture in masterpieces such asPuccini’s Madame Butterfly, Rodger’s and Hammerstein’s The King and I, the Beatles’ foray into anIndian sound using sitars, etc., and the feature film Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. Reck 1985.



- 17 -

or dangerous” it is the reminder of “what we have forgotten and should reclaim” and the

salvation available for the taking.42

Not only does the East serve as a reminder of what

the West could have “if only” the West were to take advantage of it, but the East provides

a vehicle of personal growth which is stripped of its religious and philosophical

trappings.43

The East supplies the Western individual with a “vehicle of instant

gratification.”44

The East becomes a way to escape the dogmatic constraints of Western

religions by “reinterpreting Eastern religions” and ridding them of religious significance.

Tantra becomes a way to reawake the sexual drive, meditation a way to fall asleep, and

yoga a noontime exercise class for soccer moms. Bartholomeusz offers Alan Watts45

and

the Beatles as two contributors to neo-Orientalism in America. Watts recognizes Eastern

religion’s the cultural entanglements and the difficulty in exportation. Nonetheless, he

lauds its usefulness for an individual’s “spiritual transformation,”46 which provides the

Westerner with an opportunity to apply the East to their own context.

Their lyrics exhibit this guru-shopping syncretism to its greatest extent. The group

used the most basic of Hindu concepts to promote what they learned while in India and in

their interaction with gurus in America. Hinduism is too large and diverse a religion to

explain in a few key concepts. Yet, as the Beatles as a group did not enter into any sort

of discipleship until 1968, these few concepts inform their lyrics and philosophy.

Harrison, who became a Hindu chameleon through his contact with Hare Krishnas,

42 Bartholomeusz 1998, 5 of 12.43 Bartholomeusz 1998, 6 of 12.44 Ibid.45 Watts was an ordained minister and dean of the American Academy of Asian Studies in San Francisco.He was an ardent supporter of Zen Buddhism and wrote Beat Zen, Square Zen, and Zen (1958) in which hecompared Buddhism to European existentialism. Turner 2006, 159-160.46 Bartholomeusz 1998, 1 of 12.



- 18 -

Advaita Vedanta, and Transcendental Meditation, investigated Hindu themes more

thoroughly throughout his solo career. Nevertheless, his lyrics never strayed far from the

concepts of maya, bhakti, and samsara.47 Two general speculations inform this

observation: either Harrison never moved beyond the above concepts, or he did not

foresee how intricate Hindu philosophy would benefit the “gospel” he wished to

propagate.

To this day, the most familiar faces of Hinduism in the West are those of the

Hindu pantheon of gods and goddesses and the “Giggling Gurus.”48 The most contact

some Westerners enjoy with Hinduism consists of a paperback copy of the Bhagavad

Gita49 distributed by the Hare Krishnas in airport terminals.

50As the Gideons of

Hinduism, the Hare Krishnas promote worship of Krishna—one of the 10 avatars of

Vishnu. The International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) provides a

home for the Hare Krishna movement with which George Harrison became connected.

A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada founded the movement in the same year the

47 The karmic concept, that all actions have effects, enjoys popularity in the West47 and determines thecycle of rebirth—samsara in the Sanskrit. Maya is illusion, that which imprisons humanity in the cycle of rebirth. This illusion is manifest in the distinction between objects in the material world, at the center of alldistinctions is selfhood. Hindu soteriology diverges along many different theological and philosophicalpaths to overcome the illusion and to gain liberation—or moksha in Sanskrit. The bhakti tradition is apopular movement, especially among Vaishnavites (those who worship the god Vishnu and his avatars ormanifestations). ISKCON—the Hare Krishna movement devoted to Vishnu’s avatar Krishna—is the mostpopular bhakti movement in the West and the one to which George Harrison devoted himself. Flood 2004,11, 85-85, 141, 241.48

Koppel, Lisa. “Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, Spiritual Leader, Dies.” The New York Times. 6 February 2008.49 See Appendix A, Illustration E for a traditional portrayal of Krishna and Arjuna from the Bhagavad Gita.50 Another Hindu deity who has left an indelible mark on Western consciousness is the goddess Kali. Inone account, she is the goddess who is the manifestation of Durga’s anger; she is a formidable presence.Orientalism has insured that the West is primarily acquainted with the fierce, bloodthirsty Kali, and notwith her maternal qualities. The Beatles’ Help! is the epitome of the West’s views of Kali, whichoriginated with the British colonists in Bengal and North India. Typical iconography presents Kali as amenacing figure with a lolling tongue, her four-armed figure wild, black, and emaciated. Her belt isconstructed out of severed demon heads, and she holds a series of weapons ranging from a trident to asword.



- 19 -

Beatles discontinued touring and released “Revolver”—1966. The 1970 KRSNA Book

contains a preface by Harrison, who helped to publish the book.51

Gurus in America sought to separate themselves from these common conceptions

of Hinduism. To counteract the Orientalism in Western arts and media, these translators

endorsed their methods of self-realization as a science. Both Swami Prabhupada and

Maharishi Mahesh Yogi studied the hard sciences in higher education and shaped the

language of their missions appeal to their audiences.52

Even though the West sought a

cure to the culture of materialism, the packaging of such a cure informed their

acceptance—science of the soul was better than organic spirituality. It was also important

to Western disciples that they could act within the predominant Christian culture, and

perhaps never leave their faith community, while practicing Eastern methods.53 Their

appropriation was to never compromise their own cultural background, even as it stripped

Eastern philosophy of its inherent cultural markers.

George Harrison presented a different sort of disciple as shown through his

method of appropriation—his lyrics and musical career. Hinduism did not supplement

the Catholicism of his youth, he claimed it replaced Christianity.54 To a lesser extent, the

Beatles can also be identified with a different sort of disciple. As a group, they were not

faithful to one guru—within the span of three years they had moved from Bob Dylan and

marijuana to Timothy Leary and LSD, to Ravi Shankar, and ended with Maharishi and

ISKCON. This “guru shopping” ties to Vivekananda’s earlier grasping at the universality

51 Greene 2006, 158-9.52 Forsthoefel and Humes 2005, 61. Maharishi “invoked a ‘science of the soul.’” And Swami Prabhupadawrote a book called The Science of Self-Realization.53 Bartholomeusz 1998, 5 of 12. The Eastern religious practices are “made a commodity and stripped of itsreligious orientation is a vehicle for our personal growth.”54 Turner 2006, 40.



- 20 -

of all religions. The Beatles were only responding to this universal claim in their search

for self-realization and liberation. Through lyrics, interviews, and Harrison’s solo efforts

(including the Concert for Bangladesh), the Beatles expanded their intellectual horizons

by accepting what the East had to offer. The syncretism, counted as insincere and

faddish by critics and prohibited by their respective gurus, informed a whole generation

of followers of Eastern philosophy and its place in the West’s cadre of religious

experience.



- 21 -

Chapter One

In My Life: the Beatles, culture, and religion

Sewn into the fiber of public memory, John Lennon’s controversial sound bite

concerning the Beatles’ popularity versus that of Jesus among British youth is commonly

perceived as the Beatles’ most significant statement on religion. “Christianity will go. It

will vanish and shrink. I needn’t argue about that; I’m right and I will be proved right.

We’re more popular than Jesus now; I don’t know which will go first—rock ‘n’ roll or

Christianity,” Lennon said to Maureen Cleave for an Evening Standard interview.55 In

the annals of history, the quote represents the youthful rebellion against the older

generation. Sex, drugs, and rock n’ roll all posed a threat to the “establishment” and its

religion. Never before had such a blatant attack on Christianity come from someone who

commanded both the ears and the pocketbooks of the youth consumer culture.

As of 1966, when the contents of the March 4, 1966 Evening Standard interview

was published in the American magazine Datebook , the older generation had embraced

the Beatles insofar as they allowed their children to play their records, join their fan

clubs, buy Beatle paraphernalia and grow their hair passed the socially appropriate

length. The “establishment” had effectively endorsed the Beatles as the rock band of

choice—at least they were not the hedonistic rebels the Rolling Stones appeared to be.56

The length of the group’s hair, their Cuban heeled boots, and their surprising harmonies

disarmed the public. When the Beatles arrived in America, their appearance and sound

55 Turner 2006, 20 .56 Although during and after the Beatles’ career, music critics would write more favorably about theRolling Stones and harder rock n’ roll sounds.



- 22 -

were unlike any other popular American or British phenomenon.57 Within the group’s

makeup, the Beatles possessed a charismatic authority that reached a cross section of the

public. As Jonathan Gould 2007, writes in, Can’t Buy Me Love: The Beatles, Britain,

and America, the group’s appeal “was unprecedented.”58

Several sociological and

psychological factors precipitated their unprecedented and unrivaled success. Along with

their charisma, the Beatles’ exhibited an endearing self-deprecation, cohesive group

identity, and the right dose of rebellion.

The story of the Beatles has been recounted so many times, it takes on mythic

forms. By the time they were introduced to the American audience in 1964, the final

lineup had been in the making for seven years. Little did the world know that two young

Liverpudlians meeting at a village fete would create a pop phenomenon that became a

religion in its own right. The Fab Four became the focus of a coherent set of beliefs as

they became godmen of the rock music scene, and they even provided their constituency

with a creation myth.59 John Lennon met Paul McCartney while he was performing with

his skiffle band at the Woolton fete in 1957. McCartney’s schoolmate, George Harrison,

proved to possess some guitar skills and was allowed to join the group. By 1962, the

core group of John, Paul, and George made their last addition: Ringo Starr.60

Bypassing

the specifics of lineup changes and their Hamburg days, the creation myth solidified into

57

As early as 1968, they were considered an American phenomenon, and as such were part of a largerAmerican (read Western) phenomenon (according to Ned Rorem’s article). And see Gould 2007, , David.Can’t Buy Me Love, 36-43 about the American sensibilities of Liverpool.58 Gould 2007, 170.59 Lennon, being the witty Beatle, gave an interview to Mersey Beat in 1961 in which he explained thereason for the spelling of “Beatle.” “It came in a vision—a man appeared on a flaming pie and Said 1978,unto them, ‘From this day on you are the Beatles with an ‘A.’ Thank you, Mister Man, they Said 1978, ,thanking him.” Steve Turner 2006, relates this to Peter’s vision in the Acts of the Apostles chapter 10.Turner 2006, 17.60 Pete Best was let go when the Beatles signed onto record with George Martin.



- 23 -

a tale of four lads from the working classes of Liverpool hitting the big time in their own

land.61

“Sitting in an English garden”62

: The Beatles phenomenon in cultural history

The Beatles benefited from the revival of American Anglophilia following the

Broadway and Hollywood productions of My Fair Lady.63 By February of 1964,

America had already experienced a “new strain of Anglophilic sentiment” which

reflected “the historic changes in the Anglo-American relationship that dated from World

War II.”64 Gould 2007, describes this cultural reflection of historical transformations as

America no longer viewing Britain as “an arrogant, aristocratic, and imperialistic rival”

of Revolutionary imagination, but as a defiant democracy and ally against fascist

Europe.65 Eliza Doolittle’s ascendancy from flower seller to a lady with perfect diction

reflected the position of America from fledging nation to superpower.

This reversal of roles in the international arena allowed America to engage in neo-

colonialism—assumed under the auspices of culture and in the name of democracy. To

become popular, groups had to “make it” with the American public. England, cast as the

Henry Higgins of the world, had aided America’s rise in status. The British became

another source of entertainment for America. Their plays were considered more

sophisticated, their comedy of a sharper wit, and their manner more refined. The

American national psyche did not bestow these attributes upon Britain merely because of

the nation’s long and important history. It was much simpler than that. American

61 After several jaunts abroad (Hamburg and Scotland), years of hard work, and some adolescent tragedies,the group became famous in Britain, even playing for the Queen and other members of the nobility.62 The Beatles. “I am the Walrus,” 1967.63 Gould 2007, 200-201.64 Gould 2007, 200.65 Ibid.



- 24 -

Anglophilia arose from the admiration of the British accent.66 The ears of the American

public could not differentiate between the regional dialects and accents of Standard

English. A Yorkshire accent was thus conflated with the Queen’s English. The British

accent became classless, and the Beatles embodied this classlessness. John, Paul,

George, and Ringo hailed from working-class Liverpudlian families. Putting the nature

of the city of Liverpool aside for a moment, the Fab Four’s accents did not evoke the

same response in England as it did Britain. The Beatles’ accents rendered them

cosmopolitan in American eyes.67

These lower middle-class and upper working-class Liverpudlians cum cultural

connoisseurs transformed their role as rock ‘n’ roll idols. Issues such as religion and the

drug lifestyle lay open to their commentary. In his PhD dissertation “Burning Matches,

Lifting Latches,” Anthony Ian Inglis states that John’s Jesus quote “invoked a subject

previously rendered invisible.”68 The pseudo-intellectual prestige awarded to them by the

American public—the judge and jury on a group’s popularity and longevity—motivated

the Beatles’ departure from what was expected of a music icon. Innovation in their

public and private lives allowed for multiple variances from traditional society: in class,

style, politics, and religion. Rock ‘n’ roll and their fame enabled them to throw off the

religion and class restrictions of their youth. By doing so, they transcended the

traditional and embraced the alternatives in addition to creating alternatives. This

transcendence, which put them above the rock icons that preceded them and changed the

66 It could be said that for America, the British accent embodied the history, sophistication, wit, andrefinement. It was the symbol of Britannia—no matter what regional dialect tainted the Queen’s English—it was all the same to the American ear.67 Greene cites Billy Harry as saying “Here [in Britain], everything was concentrated and controlled byLondon, and London never let anyone get in if they had a Liverpool accent… You couldn’t get a decent job… The Beatles’ success for us was Liverpool’s success.” Greene 2006, 43.68 Inglis 2003, 52.



- 25 -

image of all rock stars to follow, allowed the Fab Four to abandon patterns they

established in exchange for more innovative paths. Examples of this transcendence

abound starting in 1965 and continuing through the breakup of 1970 into the Beatles’

solo careers.

The Beatles accomplished a coup of the American musical imagination by 1963,

and only a year before they had seized their homeland’s attention. By the time they were

popular in America, the group had already undergone three stages of small group

development: group formation, group integration, and the work group stage.69 The Fab

Four presented itself as a commercially viable entity, capable of organically composed

love songs to rival Elvis and any British competition at the time. The final stage before

group differentiation, work group stage, ended around the time John Lennon published

his first book— In His Own Write. During the same period, George became involved with

model Pattie Boyd and Paul immersed himself in London’s avant-garde circles.

Penny Lane70

: The Beatles’ religious history and early Beatle mythology

It was on the set of Help!, the Beatles’ second feature film, that the group became

acquainted with a religion of their imperial past. However, in order to examine the

Beatles’ influence on contemporary intellectual and cultural issues of the 1960s, it is

important to review that which shaped their early years. Steve Turner’s The Gospel

According to the Beatles provides a thorough treatment of the Beatles’ religious

upbringing and the clarity it brings to the religious issues they engaged in during the

height of their fame. The Liverpool of the Fab Four’s childhoods reflected a population

as diverse as any port city boasts. Unlike the provincial hamlets of the South, Liverpool

69 Ibid 16, using Heinonen (1998).70The Beatles1967.



- 26 -

possessed a “cosmopolitan character”71 and an ethnically mixed demographic matched

only by that of London.72

Though the Beatles hailed from a city “like no other in Britain,”73 their religious

backgrounds were not so distinguished. John and Ringo were confirmed in the Anglican

Communion, singing in church choir and attending day camps. Paul and George were

both baptized Roman Catholic, but raised in homes where religion carried little to no

significance in their daily lives. Turner writes, “Paul and George were born to Catholics

who had married Protestant agnostics.”74 All four became disenchanted with religion as

early as their mid-teens, although their disinterest sprung from different grievances with

the church to which they “belonged.”75

Their religious past influenced their future

religious experiences and perceptions of organized religion. George’s involvement in

Hinduism moved him to define his experience as a complete break with his Catholic past.

John—an outspoken cynic concerning religion—became a religious jack-of-all-trades.

While George remained within Hindu disciplines, John dabbled in the religious interests

of his avant-garde muse (Yoko Ono), narcissism, cynicism, and Eastern religions outside

of Hinduism. Paul and Ringo, perhaps less outspoken about their religious past because

they had less experience and thus a smaller pile of grievances, were relatively mainstream

in their views. Many of their opinions expressed in song or in interviews were common

for the period. After all, the 1960s saw the rise of the Death of God movement and

Bishop Robinson’s seminal work Honest to God .76

71 Gould 2007, 40.72 Gould 2007, 39.73 Gould 2007, 36.74 Turner 2006, 38.75 Ibid.76 Robinson, John A.T. Honest to God. Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1963. Bishop Robinson’s book deals with de-personalizing God. He takes from existentialism and the writings of Paul Tillich and Dietrich



- 27 -

However, as Mark Oppenheimer discusses in his book Knocking on Heaven’s

Door , the religious culture of the 1960s did not canonize the anti-God sentiment or

integrate the principles of Eastern religions as much as popular historians like to believe.

The mainstream religion still gathered congregations, and some even grew during the

1960s-70s. Changes took place, according to Oppenheimer, but they occurred within

America’s major monotheistic religions. Nevertheless, the religious culture of the Sixties

benefited from idols cum innovators such as the Beatles. Music, which has always played

a significant role in religion, became religion. For the people for whom traditional

religion is no longer relevant, popular culture and musical subcultures enable generation

after generation to experience the “numinous” within the world. Music and religion (or

God) are closely linked in every religion in one form or another, either in chants of in

hymns, ragas, or drum beats.77

As Robin Sylvan outlines the seven levels of musical

experience which parallel the levels of religious experience in Traces of the Spirit “it

becomes clear that there is an almost universal connection between music and religion.”78

The Beatles and others like them were influential in this change within

mainstream religion by embracing what the East had to offer: a spiritual antidote. Just as

the Beatles returned from the Rishikesh pilgrimage in 1968 with songs rooted in the

structures of their musical roots, the introduction of Eastern religious principles refreshed

Western religion. The Beatles unknowingly engaged in a complex process of

Bonhoeffer in his pursuit of an ethical code and religion-less Christianity over a highly religiousChristianity.77 Sylvan quotes ethnomusicologist David McAllester concerning the religious nature of music, “’Music isalways out of the ordinary and by its presence creates an atmosphere of the special. Experience istransformed from the humdrum, the everyday, into something else. Music may heighten excitement or itmay soothe tension, but in either case it takes one away into another state of being. .. We are not allpracticing mystics and most of us do no experience God easily. But when we hear music, something likethat is happening to us. We are lifted out of ourselves.’” Sylvan 2002, 19.78 Ibid.



- 28 -

Orientalism, power/knowledge discourse, and the guru/disciple paradigm as part of an

organic reaction to their religious roots and the contemporary religious discussions of the

Sixties.

As of 1965, the West still encountered the East through the Orientalism of Said’s

model—it was a faddish, racialized, exotic “Other” presented on the West’s terms and

home turf. Gurus arrived on Western soil to disseminate the Hindu gospel, and their

method conformed to Western rhetoric and glossed over key religious concepts of the

East. In Help!, filmed in 1965, the Beatles met with a script one part musical James Bond

and two parts exotic, backwards India—a land of widow burning, marriage brokers,

cerulean colored gods, and a confusing caste system. This portrayal of India was

subordinate to the commercial goals of the Beatles’ second feature film. Their first film,

A Hard Day’s Night , revealed a day in the life of the Fab Four—rushing crowds, witty

quips, and exasperated road managers included. In their second film, Director Richard

Lester sought to present the Beatles individually.79 He captured their stereotypical public

personas with visuals such as their connected row homes, costuming choices, and

dialogue. In this way, the film arrests the beginning of the process of group

differentiation.

By the latter half of 1965, touring became a chore and the Beatles were at a loss .

They spent their time off in circles that were not directly associated with the musical

world. This new variation of interests and investments provided more abstract fodder for

music and lyrics. The Sixties generation elevated the Beatles to spokesmen status as their

lyrics took a turn towards the abstract, philosophical, and cynical. By breaking the

barriers between the intellectual and the popular, the group established themselves as

79 A Hard Day’s Night was filmed and released in 1964.



- 29 -

cultural connoisseurs. They were the sommeliers of intellectual discourse and popular

music—pairing this philosophy with that chord. The public expected value judgments on

various fads and art with the Beatles as their guides to the counter-culture.80 These

expectations went beyond literature and art, however, and quickly moved to include the

drug culture.

Early on, drugs were a part of the emerging Sixties music culture. On August 28,

1964, the Beatles met Bob Dylan. Al Aronowitz, the journalist who introduced them,

succeeded in bringing together two of the most innovative forces in the rock n roll

culture. “The Beatles’ magic was in their sound. Bob’s magic was in his words. After

they met, the Beatles’ words got grittier and Bob invented folk-rock,” Aronowitz said of

the New York meeting. Not only did the Beatles’ acquaintance with Bob Dylan change

their lyrical output, but it also introduced them to a wider drug scene that enhanced their

musical structure as well as lyrics. Barry Miles, author of Many Years from Now, quotes

McCartney, “It was Bob Dylan that turned us on to pot in America and it opened a

different kind of sensibility really.”81 Before Dylan, the drugs the Beatles were familiar

with consisted of an assortment of amphetamines to keep them awake.82 The world of

drugs via Dylan and its proponents sought to transcend the dull, inhibited society of the

stuffed shirts and workaholics. In many ways, the drug culture resembled a religion with

its own rituals, congregants, and tools of worship, and search for the transcendence of the

mundane.83

80 Inglis 2000, 13.81 Miles 1997, 185.82 Miles 1997, 186. Specifically Drinamyl, Miles 1997, 187.83 There was even an elite, priestly caste—including people like Timothy Leary who provided maps fortrips and a coherent ideology behind drug use.



- 30 -

The same people who elevated the Beatles to prophetic status experienced the

drug culture through their music. Teenagers, who may have experimented with softer

drugs in the comfort of their suburban cloister, looked to the Beatles not only for value

judgments on the drug culture, but also for a vicarious experience. “The Beatles’ use of

drugs in the mid-sixties caused an enormous change in their music and attitudes.

Smoking pot was something at that time largely confined to musicians and students,”

McCartney biographer, Barry Miles wrote in Many Years from Now. 84

After the meeting

with Dylan and their exposure to marijuana, the Beatles’ lyrics transformed from the

simple boy and girl love songs to more introspective and cynical lyrics. “And I Love

Her” disappeared into “You’ve Got to Hide Your Love Away,”85

love became more

cynical and tormented. Without McCartney’s influence, who maintained the traditional

focus and morale of love songs—the effervescent “she”—would have completely

vanished.

Each Beatle reacted differently to the introduction to drugs.86 Overall, their use

of the drug could be equated with a spiritual experience. The goal was transcendence. As

Turner succinctly puts it, “Apart from the fleeting rhapsody John and George had

experienced as children, the drug had given the Beatles the closest thing any of them had

had to a mystical experience.”87 Lennon and Harrison took to the drug culture

84

Miles 1997, 184. 85 While both songs are credited to Lennon-McCartney, “And I love her” is traditionally attributed to Paul,and “You’ve Got to Hide Your Love Away” to Lennon. In most biographies and lyrical analyses, the mainvocalist is most often the dominant writer. About a dozen or so songs are disputed through interviews withLennon and McCartney86 Similarly Turner. Quoting Victor Maymudes:” Ringo asked me about pot in depth… Paul talked abouthow he’d never be the same again. Each one of them had a different approach to the subject.” Turner2006,102.87 Turner 2006, 101. After using marijuana for the first time, McCartney recalls having discovered theMeaning of Life and writing it down—and he came up with seven levels. “But looking back, it’s actually a



- 31 -

wholeheartedly: they were the first of the group to drop acid.88 Lyrical legend has it that

McCartney wrote “Got to Get you into my Life” about marijuana.89

Lennon’s “She Said

She Said” was taken from a party scene during which Lennon was told by Peter Fonda

that he knew what it was like to be dead.90

Drugs were a status symbol, a tool of the culturally elite—“musicians and students.”91

Paul summed up this general feeling, “We were kind of proud to have been introduced to

pot by Dylan, that was rather a coup. It was like being introduced to meditation and given

your mantra by Maharishi. There was a certain status to it.”92 In Dylan, the Beatles found

their first translator. The drug culture was opened to them. In turn, they legitimized it

through citing pot and their translator as the source of the deeper, more abstract lyrics and

avant-garde influenced sounds. The pot user’s physical experience directly influences the

way sound is processed—both when receiving and creating sound. “Time appears to

slow, allowing more attention to details that otherwise would have been overlooked.

These details then tend to be imbued with extraordinary significance,” Turner writes

about musicians and marijuana. It is notable that McCartney used the bass guitar to make

a heavier sound and as a lead instrument in post-1965 tracks.93

It was after the Beatles became regular pot smokers that their albums included

less traditional musical instruments—foreign and antiquated sounds appeared on Rubber

pretty succinct comment; it ties in with a lot of major religions but I didn’t know that then.” Miles 1997,189.88

See Turner 2006, 124 for details on the story behind “Dr. Robert” on the 1966 album Revolver .89 Which appeared at the end of the 1966 Revolver album. Turner calls it McCartney’s “hymn to pot.”Turner 2006, 102.90 Turner 2006, 165; In the latter part of his life, Lennon sat down to interviews with Rolling Stone whichwere later compiled in a book called Lennon Remembers. Pertaining to their early pot use, John says, “ I’vealways needed a drug to survive. The others too, but I always had more, I always took more pills and moreof everything, cause I’m more crazy.” Wenner 2000, 57.91 Miles 1997, 184.92 Miles 1997, 189. Another testament to the drug culture filling a religious function.93 Turner 2006, 103 notes specifically “Ticket to Ride” and “Drive My Car.”



- 32 -

Soul.94 Turner also cites the Rubber Soul’s album cover as important to the change

affected by the Beatles’ drug use.95

It was the first cover on which the Beatles had

creative input. The detail oriented fans would notice that the Beatles no longer gazed at

them from a familiar lineup, but they appeared be distorted in both words and image.96

“They were above us,” Turner notes,97

and both the album cover and the music within it

indicated this change.

It was for Rubber Soul that Lennon wrote his first song “about love in the

universal, spiritual sense, rather than the personal, erotic sense”98 Later Lennon denied

the growing solemnity of subjects and musical growth: “…we were just getting better

technically and musically, that’s all. We finally took over the studio. In the early days we

had to take what we were given. With Rubber Soul, we were more precise about making

the album—that’s all. We took over the cover and everything.”99

However the transition

is explained, whether through the integration of drugs into the Beatles’ daily life or a

growing self confidence in their technical ability, Rubber Soul and its successor Revolver

“completed [the] transition from a singles band to studio band.”100 The Beatles

approached rock music differently in this album than they had previously. “The

simplistic love songs begin to wane, replaced with a dazzling spectrum of subjects and

curios, from the banal to the ephemeral. The very sound of the music was strikingly

94 Baroque piano on “In My Life,” sitar on “Norwegian Wood,” and a guitar imitating a Greek bazouki on

“Girl”95 See Appendix A, Illustration F.96 Turner 2006, 106.97 Ibid.98 Turner 2006, 107. In the Rolling Stone interviews, Lennon answers a question about the song’s messagesgetting more serious after drug use. More serious songs were composed “Probably after Dylan… I supposeit was pot then. I don’t really know… I don’t remember any changeover, other than when you take pot,you’re a little less aggressive than when you take alcohol.” Wenner 2000, 58.99 Wenner 2000, 2000, 59.100 Miles 1997, 268.



- 33 -

different; richer, more melodious, haunting,” Peter Brown summed up.101 Coupled with

the attention to musical detail, the Beatles’ lyrics were the edgiest yet. Harrison’s “Think

for Yourself” rivaled “You Won’t See Me,” “Run for Your Life,” “Norwegian Wood,”

and “I’m Looking Through You” in lyrical cynicism. The Beatles were growing up—in

relationships, group dynamics, musically, and philosophically.

Act Naturally: Encountering Hinduism, escaping touring, and turning on

One scene in Help! captures this new direction perfectly. The Beatles are on the

run from the bloodthirsty Kaili cult and its conniving priests. In search of a way to

remove the sacrificial ring from Ringo’s finger, the four have become targets for a mad

scientist and his sidekick. The group enters an Indian restaurant with a maitre d dressed

as a maharaja. After chatting with the chefs, taking a peek at the soup (complete with the

cook’s glasses), and meeting an authentic yogic master relaxing on a bed of nails, the

Beatles are seated at a table close to the dance floor. Eleanor Bron’s character, a

sympathetic agent of the goddess Kaili, poses as a belly dancer to warn Paul of the

danger. While the boys are being serenaded with belabored sitar renditions of their 1964

album A Hard Day’s Night, dark forces are afoot. The waiter is actually the high priest,

smarting from the humiliation of finding the sacrificial ring on the finger of one of the

four most popular men in the world. Although the Beatles shot Help! while high on pot,

they were engaging a much larger discipline than the drug culture. The film smacked of

Orientalism with such elements as murderous cults, sacrificial virgins, fanatical priests,

and poison darts. All the film lacked were trained elephants and precocious monkeys,

raiding pantries and stealing bananas. As McCartney cynically summarized the plot, “The

101 Everett 2001, 308.



- 34 -

ring must be found! Kali must be appeased!.”102 At the end of the day, Help! was “a

vehicle for the Beatles to perform in exotic locations; a glorified pop video.”103

However, this film did more than create another image of the Orient for the West

to ogle. Help! introduced the Beatles to Hinduism—however tainted or grotesquely

magnified. In addition to pot and Bob Dylan, this introduction affected the future musical

and lyrical projections of the Beatles. Paul recalls that the group was approached by a

Hindu man while filming in the Caribbean and that he handed them copies of the

Bhagavad Gita. It is also significant that within the year, the Beatles would feature a

song on which Harrison played the sitar. “Norwegian Wood” was Lennon’s veiled

confession of an affair and decided to put a sitar on it when he was at the studio.104

Ringo recalls, “We were open to anything when George introduced the sitar.”105 The

entire song showed the change occurring within the Beatles’ musical imagination.

Harrison’s sitar presented the most blatant transition, from Western instruments to

Eastern. The subject of the song, an explicit affair and a revenge crime, did not follow

the chaste storyline of boy meets girl, falls for girl, and pursues her to the end of the

earth. Both the lyrical progression and the musical structure of the piece signaled that the

Beatles were doing something different. The verse has an “unusually repetitive phrase

scheme” and the overall effect is an exotic blend of the static and drone-like.106 There is

no fixed climax, and the listener is left with conflicting emotions—what happened, did he

really burn her house down? Perhaps the narrator’s unrelieved frustration is the cause for

the song’s static effect, which lies midway between the slow harmonic rhythm of “Ticket

102 Miles 1997, 196.103 Miles 1997, 197.104 Wenner 2000, 84.105 Greene 2006, 60.106 Everett 2001, 313.



- 35 -

to Ride” and the total lack of harmonic rhythm in “Tomorrow Never Knows.” Even with

Harrison’s limited knowledge on the subject of Indian musical structure, his sitar drives

the static nature of the piece, a sound reminiscent of the Indian quartet in the Help!

restaurant scene.

In “Beatles Orientalis,” David Reck illustrates the waves of Orientalism that

swept through Western intellectual sub-cultures and popular cultures. Eastern musical

elements were often subdued to be palatable to the Western ear. For instance, Rodgers

and Hammerstein’s The King and I attempted to integrate traditional Thai music most

notably into the ballet scenes.

107

“It seems certain that a too-accurate reproduction of the

sound of 1860 Siam would give less than small pleasure to the Occidental ear,” Rodgers

explained his approach, “and an evening of it would drive an American audience into the

streets.”108

Musical and theatrical productions such as a Rodgers and Hammerstein most

often were set in an exotic location and involved a love object from the Orient and used

the Orient to make the title more evocative.109 Oriental sounds and motifs never

translated into the Tin Pan Alley or jazz genres, but rock approached the Orient in the

way it approached Western forms of sound—in innovative and sometimes outlandish

ways.110

Reck outlines the counterculture’s predisposition to the Orient and its

appropriation of the Orient as a starting point for how rock n’ roll would use the East.

Crucial to the approach the sub-cultures have taken in regards to the East is music.111

The

1950s Beat poets and philosophers who preceded the 1960s subcultures engaged in a

107 Reck 1985, 88.108 Reck 1985, 88.109 Reck 1985, 89.110 Reck 1985, 90.111 Reck 1985, 91.



- 36 -

“tribalism” in underground coffee houses and jazz clubs. Music as a by-product of man’s

ritualistic impulse is best explained by Robin Sylvan’s Traces of the Spirit: the religious

dimensions of popular music.112 Through studying several modern sub-cultures, Sylvan

found that music is a “good medium for expression of the religious impulse” as it

functions at multiple levels. The religiosity of popular culture and music centers on the

physical experience of the spiritual world. In this sensory centered experience, music

becomes an expression and experience of Rudolph Otto’s “numinous.” The

hierophany113 occurs within the popular musical realm, therefore, and is mediated

through humans. Further, there exists within popular music subcultures an element of

ritual, as well as spirituality, a worldview, community, and a social identity and structure.

For the people for whom traditional religion is no longer relevant, popular culture

and musical subcultures enable generation after generation to experience the “numinous”

within the world.114 The purveyors of this musical numinous transform into demi-gods.

Sylvan cites The Beatles as the first band to endure the heavy cultural significance placed

upon every small word or action. The Summer of Love was consummated on the set of

the “All You Need is Love” broadcast115 and their method of transmission led the way for

the “Great Awakening” of the late 1960s—Woodstock. The subculture that was created

via the Beatles would never again be quite as general or large.116 The Beatles’ demi-god

status led the sub-culture’s elite to laud the group as the prophets of the new generation.

Even before taking up Eastern philosophy and Indian musical structures, the Beatles were

112 Sylvan 2002.113 A Hierophany, as defined by Mircea Eliade, is a breakthrough of the sacred or divine into the humanrealm. Eliade 1959.114 And the ecclesiastical hierarchy that accompanies most religions115 The broadcast was the first live international satellite linkup anyone had ever attempted. Lennon wrotethe song and it became a sort of hymn for the Summer of Love. The public was able to see a cast of theirmusical heroes—the Beatles were surrounded by the Rolling Stones and other rock royalty.116 Turner 2006, 93.



- 37 -

bombarded with anxious mothers who pushed their crippled children into the dressing

room in order to be healed. If the mainstream thought a mere touch from a Beatle

contained healing powers of Biblical proportions, it is easy to understand why the sub-

cultures of the time embraced the Beatles as intellectual and musical elite. Their

background, intellectually and musically, did not recommend the group to this demi-god

status. The Fab Four’s shot gun ascendancy in the American popular culture, status as

pseudo-intellectuals, and the ways in which they revitalized public excitement ushered

the Beatles into a position no other popular figure had ever enjoyed—willingly or not,

they became prophets.

Personal contact with fans and the public dwindled as the Beatles stopped touring

in the summer of 1966. A number of factors informed their decision to keep to the

studio—apathy being one of them. An incident in Manila, where the Beatles

unintentionally snubbed First Lady Imelda Marcos represented the climax of the Beatles

antipathy toward the duties of their job. Adulation from the upper-crust, noble, and

diplomatic was an unpleasant task for the Beatles. It went against their working/middle-

class grain, just as the matching suits and deep bows at the end of sets were not natural to

them.117

America, specifically the Bible Belt, was still reeling from what were deemed

the “bigger than God” remarks of March 1966. John issued a public apology at a press

conference in Chicago, but the taint remained. Anti-Beatle sentiment manifested in album

burnings and radio bans. Never before had a popular musical act tackled the issue of

religion in such a controversial way. As a group, the Beatles were far from producing a

117 Brian Epstein insisted the Fab Four develop a modicum of decency on the stage—no more sets wherethe Beatles smoked on stage and wore toilet seats around their necks (John at the Cavern).



- 38 -

gospel album as Elvis and Johnny Cash did. Disenchanted and adorned with MBEs118,

the Beatles performed their last concert in San Francisco’s Candlestick Park, performing

for all of 35 minutes. From then on, they were a studio band and only performed in

public for the international broadcast of “All You Need Is Love” and the rooftop concert

at the end of Let it Be.

Their studio years provided a much needed break from public scrutiny. Yet at the

same time, it brought the Beatles under even more scrutiny. No longer available to the

public via television broadcast or concerts, the Beatles’ daily life entered the public

consciousness. ‘If they aren’t with us,’ the public seemed to think, ‘then we should know

what they are up to.’ With touring out of the way, the Beatles were free to individually

explore their options outside of the group. George went to India with his wife, model

Pattie Boyd, and sitarist Ravi Shankar. John acted in a feature film directed by Richard

Lester called How I Won the War. Paul explored avant-garde London with his girlfriend,

stage actress Jane Asher. Ringo set up house with his new wife, Liverpudlian hairdresser

Maureen Cox-Starkey. Bachelor pads and droves of screaming fans in line at box offices

were things of the past. The most significant by-product of a tour-less Beatles was the

competition of interests and creative methods. George, relieved to no longer be touring

the world, expanded upon his knowledge of the sitar and Hindu philosophy on a

houseboat in Kashmir. This study was vital to George’s creative output for the rest of his

career and his life. Not only did it break down the material constructs which held the

Beatles together—fans, fame, fortune, reputation, and society—but the Hindu

118 The Beatles were awarded MBEs in 1965 to acknowledge their achievements. MBE stands for Memberof the Order of the British Empire, a British order of chivalry.



- 39 -

philosophical narrative and saint-like personages with which he became acquainted were

introduced to the Western public.

“I’d love to turn you on”119

: Revolver, LSD, and sitar lessons

The Beatles’ next album, 1966’s Revolver, “is an often mystifying blend of more

new sounds from guitar and unusual instruments, sound effects, and non-Western

materials, all engineered with creative wizardry” and has always occupied a spot high on

the list of Beatle fans’ favorite albums. The album incorporated more references to drugs

and religion than ever before. Revolver contains the culmination of thematic elements of

Lennon-McCartney’s insight into what are considered to be some of Christianity’s latent

problems. However, I would argue that once the Beatles were turned onto LSD, the

spiritually motivated lyrics were less of an overt criticism of the Church and more of an

exploration as to what non-Western non-traditional religions meant to them. As assumed

members of the “enlightened elite,” the Beatles took up the cause of that which lies

beyond the façade. No longer do they merely criticize the thin veneer of Christianity

covering modern culture, they offer alternatives to orthodoxy—they create a new

orthodoxy.

The Beatles’ religious notions quickly transformed from criticism of Christianity

to an offering of valid religious alternatives. Some critics and fans claim that the Beatles

offered themselves up as an alternative, becoming a religion in their own right. This

distinction is further evidence of how the rock star image mutated and how the Beatles’

image in particular was enmeshed with intellectual brands of music. Starting with

Revolver , the Beatles publicly struggled with inner autonomy just as they had dealt with

119Beatles. “A Day in the Life,” 1967.



- 40 -

outer freedom in the beginning.120 Whereas the introduction of pot influenced the

Beatles’ thoughts on love and death, the introduction of LSD started the “God-talk”

within the group.121 Turner states that without LSD, these “skeptical, worldly Liverpool

boys who only believed what their eyes could see” would never have listened to “peace-

loving mystics speaking of karma, nirvana, and the coming golden age.”122

This post-

Christian, pragmatic realist123 group of northern lads only understood the Christian

mystical experience of being caught up into the heavens when LSD was on hand.

Several prominent intellectuals of the time were inducted into the hallucinogenic

drug and used it to increase their spiritual awareness. Alan Watts and Aldous Huxley

were among this group of intellectuals who became interested not only in what the drug

could do for them, but also in searching out how other cultures encountered the intensely

spiritual world opened for them through use of LSD. The Beatles joined them,

unexpectedly and hesitantly at first, in this quest for spiritual mastery. John and George,

accompanied by their wives (Cynthia and Pattie), involuntarily embarked on their first

trip via George’s dentist. It was at the end of a dinner party that the four were offered tea

spiked with LSD-soaked sugar lumps by dentist, John Riley and his girlfriend. The

subsequent hallucination lasted until the dawn of the next day. George and John fell in

love with the drug and its ability to shift the consciousness of the user. “Colors gain in

intensity, concepts such as ‘past’ and ‘future’ seem irrelevant,” George spoke of the drug

in 1967.124

John claimed that Paul “felt very out of it because we were all a bit cruel. It’s

120 With a different sound, look, and image. Similarly Turner 2006, 110.121 Similarly Turner 2006, 111.122 Ibid.123 As Newsweek said of them, Ibid.124 Turner 2006, 117.



- 41 -

like ‘we’re taking it and you’re not’.”125 LSD users felt salvation had been bequeathed

unto them as trips became more frequent and more familiar.

Trips deconstructed reality and showed the lives of the unenlightened to be

illusory. In this way, the enlightened elite separated. This separation appears in the

Beatles group life. George and John initiated themselves into the upper echelons of the

enlightened elite, while Paul was relegated to square-dom. John said of Paul, “I think

Paul’s a bit more stable than George and I” and “I think LSD profoundly shocked

him.”126 These statements show Lennon’s perception of the enlightened versus the

unenlightened dichotomy. The authentic tripper, the truly enlightened, must possess one

precondition—to be “cracked.”127

Salvation necessitates fallenness and brokenness for

the sake of insight.

For some reason, John thought that he and George possessed this “cracked-

ness”—either due to their childhoods, their dissatisfaction with the Beatle life, or a

projection of both.128 Paul’s reluctance to trip emphasized his role as the least reckless of

the Fab Four. This position, as the bulwark of the mainstream with the group, is obvious

when the listener compares the musical output of the three songwriters. Lennon was

writing the “freaky tracks” like “I’m Only Sleeping” and “Tomorrow Never Knows”129

and Harrison was integrating his growing knowledge of Indian music into “Love You

To.”130 The divisions in the group caused by drugs faded when tragedy struck with their

manager, Brian Epstein’s death and the pseudo-asceticism of the Beatles’ introduction to

125 Wenner 2000, 53.126 Ibid.127 What John says of himself and George in comparison to Paul concerning LSD.128 This “Cracked-ness” was a Western ailment that Eastern gurus wanted to address through Easternspiritual superiority.129

However, Paul introduced the “tape loops and backwards recordings” to what is considered a primarilyLennon offering. Paul speaks of it in Miles’ biography. Miles 1997, 291-2. 130 Turner 2006, 118.



- 42 -

Transcendental Meditation.131 As of 1970, though, John reflects on his experiences with

LSD and the experiments in Transcendental Meditation: “It was only another mirror—it

wasn’t another miracle. It was more of a visual thing, and the therapy, that ‘looking at

yourself’ bit, it did all that.”132

By contrast, George experienced the “overwhelming feeling of well being, that

there was a God, and I could see him in every blade of grass” upon using LSD.133 From

the moment of his first trip, George “wanted to have that depth and clarity of perception”

all of the time.134 The drug struck him as a spiritual tool, an avenue to enlightenment.

Spiritual biographer Joshua Greene writes on George’s spiritual quandary—“where, then,

should he turn to decipher his intuitions about deeper truths” if those who also used

hallucinogens “were just as stupid as they’d been before”? Who shared George’s

disenchantment and lack of direction about what to do after one conquered the world?

Greene follows the narrative to the Beatles’ introduction to Elvis. If meeting Bob Dylan,

messiah of the folk world, had challenged and changed their music to such a great degree,

then meeting the King of rock and roll was assumed to be equally as momentous.

However, George came away from the experience with an even more overwhelming

sense of misdirection. This was not what he was looking for. Elvis, the pinnacle of what

it means to be famous and talented, merely sat upon a grander, “more garish,” sort of

throne than did the Beatles.135 Larry Geller, Elvis’ stylist and friend, spoke with George

during this historical meeting. “When the Beatles came on the scene in 1964, it was the

131 Epstein was their manager from their Liverpool days, with touring at an end, the Beatles had little needfor him in the planning of their daily lives and activities.132 Wenner 2000, 54.133 Greene 2006, 54.134 Ibid.135 Greene 2006, 58.



- 43 -

middle of a cultural explosion, not a spiritual one. It seemed to me he [George] was

distancing himself from the fame and adulation. This was in 1965, just as his career was

spiking, and I remember thinking. ‘Interesting. This guy’s an ascetic’.” 136

The Beatles were introduced to Indian philosophy later than Dylan brought

marijuana into their circle, and their interests expanded to alternative philosophies and

worldviews. It was in the same period that Paul began to frequent the Indica bookstore,

and John’s first visit to Indica followed soon after.137

There, the Beatles became

entrenched in the “alternative” and “spiritual.” Indica’s shelves featured Beat poets,

radicals, occult, and Eastern religious sections.

138

In March 1966, Barry Miles (manager

of Indica) showed John a copy of Timothy Leary’s The Psychedelic Experience. In The

Psychedelic Experience, Leary used the Tibetan Book of the Dead as a tour guide for

LSD trips. This guide book was derived from an ancient Buddhist text used to help the

dying reach nirvana and escape rebirth. Leary’s book was a tool for trippers in need of

“banisters” for their hallucinogenic journey. These “banisters” were musical or spoken

phrases that provided a stable entity for the tripper to cling to when tripping so as not to

“freak out.” 139 By using such a text, Leary was making a statement about the drug

culture and hallucinogenics in particular. As Turner states, “Leary was equating the

savage restructuring of the senses on a trip with actual physical death.”140 The text

appropriates Tibetan Buddhism within Western culture, but the entirety of Buddhism is

not explored in daily life.

136 Ibid.137 See Miles 1997, 223ff. Paul actually helped to get the bookstore running. It was Peter Asher’senterprise, brother of Jane Asher.138 Turner 2006, 119.139 Turner 2006, 120.140 Turner 2006, 121.



- 44 -

However, not every tripper reacted to the spiritual impulse in the same manner the

Beatles did. As early as 1967, George became disenchanted with the drug and hippie

cultures of which he and the group were heralded as the leaders. Harrison found an outlet

in for his growing spiritual need in the music and tutelage of Ravi Shankar. The two

musicians met in June of 1966 and Shankar offered to give the younger man lessons.

George’s use of the sitar on “Norwegian Wood” surprised Shankar: he “thought it was a

strange sound that had been produced on the sitar.”141

Shankar recognized that this

“strange sound” had fascinated many fans—these fans represented the exact Western

audience he eventually hoped to capture and enlighten. With Shankar, Harrison found

what he was searching for—a person who impressed him “in a way that was beyond just

being a famous celebrity.” Ravi Shankar embodied both musical celebrity and a source

of truth concerning the whole of reality. As George succinctly stated, it was impossible

and futile to “go round” to Elvis and say, “What’s happening in the universe?”142

The first of Harrison’s lessons established the basics of the sitar and defined the

fundamentals of classical Indian music, including the raga. A raga is defined as

“Aesthetically pleasing (Literal). The basis of Indian Classical Music, raga is a musical

structure of five or more notes with an identity and mood.”143

Shankar and Harrison also

planned for a holiday in India for George and Pattie. After the disastrous run in with the

Imelda Marcos and the Fillipino officials, George detoured through Delhi to purchase a

better sitar. Following the last American tour, George and Pattie flew to Bombay and

141 Shankar 1999, 190.142 Ibid.143 Retrieved from the ITC Sangeet Research Academy http://www.itcsra.org/sra_glossary_index2.html.Ravi Shankar defines raga at the end of his autobiography Raga Mala: “The melodic form at the centre of Hindustani and Carnatic classical music; the basis on which the vocalist or instrumentalist improvises inslow, medium or fast phases. A raga has five, six, or seven notes in separate ascending and descendingstructures, and its own recognizable feature or theme. Each raga is associated with the particular time of theday or night, and has its principal rasa or mood.” Shankar 1999, 321.



- 45 -

stayed in India for six weeks. George and Pattie, traveling under assumed identities, were

unable to escape Beatlemania—somehow, even the land of ascetics was susceptible to

crazed fandom.

In an interview given to the BBC during the first part of Harrison’s stay, he

remarked on the Indian’s religion, “I believe much more in the religions of India than in

anything I ever learned from Christianity. The difference here is that their religion is

every second and every minute of their lives—and it is them, how they act, how they

conduct themselves, and how they think.”144 To escape the chorus of “We love you,

Beatles,” they traveled to Srinigar in the state of Kashmir and stayed on a houseboat.

Aboard the houseboat, George continued his sitar lessons and began to read modern

Hinduism’s finest. Shankar introduced George to Swami Vivekananda’s Raja-Yoga,

Paramahansa Yogananda’s Autobiography of a Yogi, and the Yoga Sutras of Sage

Patanjali. His days and nights were filled with talk of ragas, levitating saints, universal

truths, and mystical visions. Much of what Harrison was learning reminded him of LSD.

Key words like “cosmic consciousness” and “transcendence” were common threads to

both the drug and mystical cultures he encountered.

Upon leaving Kashmir, George and Pattie paid homage at Benares, an ancient city

on the sacred river Ganges. There they experienced the Indian pilgrimage full throttle for

thousands of Hindu pilgrims had descended upon the city in order to hear the month-long

recitation of the Ramayana—Rama’s story who walked the earth around 3500 B.C.E.145

The Harrisons’ return marked a new attitude towards LSD. The group soon became

144 Greene 2006, 68.145 Greene 2006, 145-6.



- 46 -

convinced that LSD was not their destination, the ultimate transcendence, but a “step on

the pilgrimage.”146

Without implementation, the vision and knowledge was useless.147

The group offers a subtle criticism of the “Turn On, Tune In, Drop Out” lifestyle

in the song “Baby You’re a Rich Man.” “Now that you know who you are, what do you

want to be?” John asks and later, “Now that you’ve found another key, what are you

going to play?” Having come this far, the Beatles were accustomed to acting as the

guinea pigs of a generation. They had risen above the other skiffle and rock groups of

Northern England, became the innovators and conquerors of the American cultural scene,

and initiated their fans into the drug culture. If any one group was to tell the public the

time to move on was now, it was the Beatles. George’s growing fascination with Eastern

sounds and philosophy slowly instilled this into his musical output, acclimating the ears

of the Beatles’ public to the exotic twang of the sitar and the ego-shattering monism. In

this way, “Within You Without You” surprised no one. The public understood that the

quiet Beatle had transformed himself into the philosophical, mystical Beatle with a little

help from his guru friends.

George soon realized he harbored an obsession with India, especially when

confronted with the materially conscious London set. At the same time, Sgt. Pepper kept

the Beatles in the studio and created yet another band for Harrison to be a part of.148 As

unhappy as George was in his situation, he “could still be made to do as he was told.” 149

In August of 1967, his wife Pattie encouraged him to join her at a lecture given in

London on the topic of Transcendental Meditation. The smiling figure at the front of the

146 Turner 2006, 131.147 Similarly Ibid.148 Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. As if George could not get enough of being a fourth of themost popular group in the world, he had to pretend to be in Sgt. Pepper’s band for the concept album.149 Biographer Alan Clayson as quoted by Greene 2006, 76.



- 47 -

wood was Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. The first account of the Beatles and the Maharishi

has been romanticized in Beatle lore. The giggling guru offered a simple plan of

meditation, and a mantra for no small price. He was as authentic as some Western

seekers needed—he smelled of sandalwood, wore flowing robes, preached asceticism,

and held the key to drug-less transcendence. John and Paul accompanied George and

Pattie to the London lecture, and Ringo joined the group for the ten-day retreat in Bangor,

Wales that followed. In Wales, the Maharishi explained meditation without pretense and

complication. He compared his brand of meditation to withdrawing funds from a bank,

“You don’t have to carry money around with you; just make a withdrawal when

needed.”150

The Beatles were bequeathed a full mantra151

while in Wales, unlike the

Maharishi’s other students who worked up to a full mantra by syllables and words.152

That same day, Paul answered one of the University phones to the news of Brian

Epstein’s death.153 The loss of their manager created a vacuum within the group: “It’s

like going somewhere without your trousers on,” Lennon said of Epstein. As the Beatles

were still a cohesive entity, one of them had to assume leadership. Epstein or one of his

appointed emissaries had always looked after their actions and schedules, now the job

was left up to the boys. Paul and George juggled the responsibility as their divergent

interests occupied the group during 1967 and 1968. In late 1967, the Beatles put off their

150 Greene 2006, 87.151 A very difficult word to define, scholars of Eastern religions broadly refer to a mantra as “sentences,phrases, or words, mostly though not exclusively in Sanskrit, in verse and in prose, which are recited or

chanted for ritual and soteriological purposes.” Flood 2004, 221.In a television interview with David Frost, Maharishi was visibly “uneasy.” When Frost asked

him to describe the techniques of Transcendental Meditation and more specifically about the mantras, andthe number of mantras available to TM practitioners. Maharishi answered that there were thousands, andthe mantras were chosen “’ to accord with the rhythms or impulses of the individual,” repeating thesesounds and phrases led to ‘fulfillment.’ Mason 1994, 119-120.152 Singer-songwriter Donovan explained that the Maharishi broke the mantras down for his regularstudents to make the repetition easier and “more acceptable to students with no interest in religion.” Greene2006, 88.153 27 August 1967



- 48 -

trip to India to visit the Maharishi’s ashram and boarded a bus for The Magical Mystery

Tour . The film, a pop-video with several music videos to separate the meandering

dialogue and plot-less journey of The Magical Mystery Tour , was a commercial flop. The

project was Paul’s from start to finish; he picked the actors, the locations, the

instrumentals, and edited it. “It was very spontaneous,” Paul told biographer Barry Miles

of “The Fool on the Hill” sequence, and the same could be said of the rest of the film. It

aired on BBC, insuring the film had nationwide coverage. The Beatles provided their

detractors with fodder for criticism.

Scared of a cultural revolution with the Beatles at the helm, the critics in

Parliament saw Magical Mystery Tour as the perfect scapegoat through which to unleash

their anxieties about LSD, pot legalization, and the hippie culture.154 The establishment

believed their order was being called into question. The drug culture sought to

undermine the traditional lifestyle, even though tradition remained the refuge of the

majority. However, their fears could be smoothed over with new regulations and

ordinances. They could ban pot and LSD, making the basis of that particular sub-culture

illegal and its use punishable by law. Nevertheless, the Beatles were moving onto higher

ground. Under George’s influence, the group traveled to Britain’s former colonial jewel.

They were about to embark on a journey which no member of the House of Commons

could regulate—that of the metaphysical.

If I Needed Someone155

: Searching for direction at the guru’s feet

On February 15, 1968, the Beatles landed in India for a course at the Maharishi’s

Rishikesh ashram. The ashram, nestled in the foothills of the Himalayas, was close

154 Miles 1997, 393. Also Evening Standard Parliamentary Reporter. “Drugs: Minister Slams PaulMcCartney.” Evening Standard. 28 July 1967, pp.1, 15.155 Beatles 1965.



- 49 -

enough to the Ganges for the Beatles and their fellow disciples to visit daily. The summer

in India was the first non-Beatle activity the boys had undertaken as a group. India had

been George’s thing—he liked their music, their philosophy, and their gurus more than

anyone the Fab Four knew. “In some ways I envy George because he now has a great

faith. He seems to have found what he’s been searching for,” Paul said of his band mate

in an August 1967 interview. The Beatles as individuals are illustrated in their approach

to this pilgrimage. George and John viewed their stay at the ashram with a convert’s

zest—they were going to escape the cycle of rebirth by the end of the proposed two

months, or extend their stay until they had. Paul was more pragmatic. “I’ll give it a

month,” he thought, “then if I really really like it, I’ll come back and organize to go out

there for good.”156 Ringo, as many biographers state at many points in their narratives,

was just along for the ride. For the duration of their joint stays, the group ate vegetarian

meals, attended two ninety-minute lectures a day, extra lectures to catch up on what

they’d missed, and dialogues with the Maharishi which contained Anglicized Vedic

sound bites and practical advice.

There were moments of tension and of friendly competition. The Beatles and

their partners competed over how long they meditated, with a different winner every

time. Paul, less serious about Hinduism and the trip in general, began to think about their

next album. He recalls George was displeased that he was working on songs while they

were in Rishikesh, “It was like, ‘Ohh, excuse me for breathing!’ You know. George was

quite strict about that, George can still be a little that way, and it’s like, ‘Oh, come on,

George, you don’t have a monopoly on thought in this area. I’m allowed to have my own

156 Miles 1997, 409.



- 50 -

views on the matter.’”157 The period the Beatles spent at Rishikesh proved to be a very

productive time for the group. The Beatles’ next album, self-titled with a plain white

cover, was at least half composed while in Rishikesh. None of the songs on The White

Album, as it is called, showed any overt Indian influence on the group’s instrumental

choices. Instead, it seemed as though the summer meditation in the shadows of the

Himalayas had brought the Beatles back to their roots.158 The songs were less

experimental and purer rock and roll than their previous four albums.

Paul and Ringo left the ashram early, not so much disenchanted with Hinduism or

meditation as never really won over by it. George and John left under less auspicious and

ambivalent circumstances. A female devotee of the Maharishi claimed the guru had

made sexual advances towards her, and her claim was propagated by a Beatle groupie

named Magic Alex. This accusation appeared to be what severed John from the

enlightenment he sought. George also gave credence to the accusation, and his belief

influenced John’s decision: “And when George started thinking it might be true, I

thought, ‘Well it must be true, cause if George is doubting it, there must be something in

it.”159 John was forced to be the leader “when the dirty work came,”160 and confronted

their guru. When Maharishi offered no confession and implied he did not know what

John was talking about, the remaining Beatle entourage followed John and George back

to England. John forever immortalized his disenchantment with the stinging critique

“Sexy Sadie.”161

For everyone except for George, the Hindu honeymoon was over. John

would season “Across the Universe” and a few of his solo albums with a dash of religion,

157 Miles 1997, 421.158

Although Revolution #9, the Beatles’ most avant-garde piece, is on The White Album.159 Wenner 2000, 27.160 Ibid.161 See lyrics in Appendix B



- 51 -

but he was more than often offering a critique of organized religions—both Eastern and

Western—than promoting a sacred or canonized truth. He also helped George’s pet

organization on occasion, specifically when he lodged the British Hare Krishna group at

his estate.162

George’s devotion became more focused as the years progressed and after the

Beatles disbanded. After several years of pursuit, according to Joshua Greene, ISKCON

and its founder A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada finally made direct and long

lasting contact with the Beatle. George started to chant the Hare Krishna mantra and

even wrote the preface to the ISKCON book KRSNA. His post-Beatles solo recording,

All Things Must Pass, was a three record set overflowing with songs sung to his Lord and

disseminating the truths of the Bhagavad Gita.163 His friendship with Ravi Shankar

flourished even though he discontinued his study of the sitar.164

When George heard of

the crisis in Bangladesh, he rushed to promote a benefit concert that took place in

Madison Square Garden. The grandfather of all benefit concerts, George called up all of

his friends in the music industry, and the stage glittered with talent.165

His display of devotion did not stop there. George’s 1974 Dark Horse Tour was

replete with praises to Krishna and songs of love for his Lord. Needless to say, the

audience soon tired of it. Although the Beatles had introduced Eastern concepts to the

162 Beginning in 1969, George became increasingly involved with the Hare Krishna organization called

ISKCON in the West. A London-based devotee arrived at the Apple Building after George saw a feature onthe group in a London paper. George would go on to produce the Hare Krishna mantra, which made it tothe Top of the Pops, and provide funds for ISKCON publications and establishments.163

One disc is a collection of jam sessions. 164 He knew that true sitarists devoted their lives to the instrument and its service to God, but he had startedtoo late and left serious study of it too early and too often to make any good come of his playing. It wasbest that he praised Lord Krishna as he was given the talent to—if was through rock music, then so be it.165 The lineup included Eric Clapton, Billy Preston, Badfinger, Bob Dylan, Leon Russell, and KlausVoorman (who designed the Revolver album cover, and whose acquaintance with George dated back to theBeatles’ Hamburg days)



- 52 -

West in the most efficient way—popular music—in 60 years, the public had not

undergone a mass conversion. Being a devout Hindu was just as passé as being a devout

Catholic. George was ostracized by both the mainstream for insincere166 belief and by the

counter-culture, who expected more out of the former Beatle than changing the name of

God from Christ to Krishna—at least Christ was considered normal, if still square. The

American South, in particular, did not receive his proselytizing well. “Ask a bunch of

Georgia crackers to start chanting? The crowd just tuned him out,” one of Harrison’s

friends reminisced.167 Until his death in 2001, Harrison continued to learn about his

adopted faith and put what he learned into his recordings.

168

His ashes were reportedly

spread scattered over the Ganges, but the estate has never disclosed the exact location of

his remains.

166 See comments on Ned Rorem’s 1968 article.167 Greene 2006, 276.168 See “Brainwashed” in lyrical exegesis chapter.



- 53 -

Chapter 2

The Messengers: Guru/Translator Biographies

Hinduism in the West circa the 1960s was comprised of many different

movements and sects that had been lumped under the blanket category of Indian religion.

Just as Christianity encompasses many different denominations, orders, and practices,

there are many Hinduisms. However, the Protestant population in America—having

recently made an ecumenical leap by electing a Catholic President—compounded the

disparate philosophical systems under the umbrella of Eastern spirituality. The Zen

Buddhism of the Beat poets and the Ramakrishna Missions were covered by the umbrella

of Eastern spirituality—something to be appropriated and applied to Western life as

needed. In the eyes of the older generations, this Eastern spiritual antidote was part and

parcel of the rebellious stage from which they expected their children to mature.

What the West, and America in particular, failed to grasp was the way in which

the Eastern individual exerted their agency.169 The West, entrenched in material wealth

and concerned with a religion which facilitated material gain, sought to appropriate the

East as a spiritual cure. To the extent that the West appropriated Eastern wisdom and

philosophy to compensate for their material obsession,170

the East marketed itself as a

tool for spiritual improvement and entered willingly into a neo-colonial model. India and

her intellectual elite, having learned from British colonization how to transform the

subaltern into a mimic man, denied the divisiveness of diverse practices and transmitted

an image of an inclusive religion. By marketing universality and downplaying sect,

169 Bartholomeusz 1998 argues in her article on neo-Orientalism that appropriation of the East’s spiritualityis only another form of domination. However, just as Bhabha argued that the subaltern was not withoutagency as Said put forth, the Spiritual Orient is not without agency.170 Especially Protestantism and capitalism, a marriage espoused by Max Weber.



- 54 -

caste, and practical divisions, the gurus and swamis that traveled west were able to

capture the imagination of Western society. Not only did stressing the universal nature of

Hinduism and religion in general work in the East’s favor, but the elevation of key sacred

texts and the dismissal of traditional guru-disciple relationships placed Indian philosophy

at the feet of popular culture. Due to the transformation of Hinduism, which began in the

nineteenth century, figures like the Beatles were able to exact a spiritual and cultural

change in the West and in the East. In this section, I will discuss the gurus and translators

shaped the Hinduism which attracted and influenced the Beatles and subsequently the

West.

Swami Vivekananda has already been discussed in this thesis, but a short

biography of the man called the “Saint Paul” of Vedanta will enrich any discourse on the

philosophy he promoted. Born in Calcutta, India in 1863, Vivekananda grew up not far

from the temple complex where his future guru held court. Vivekananda, born

Narendranath Dutta,171 was a bright boy and went on to college to study philosophy,

Western logic and history before taking up studies with Ramakrishna.172 During his time

as Ramakrishna’s disciple, Vivekananda was instructed in Advaita Vedanta—non-

dualistic philosophy—and spent time as a wandering monk. His intellectual prowess and

his place in the heart of Ramakrishna initiated his elevation to Sage of the East, a position

which culminated in his speeches at the 1893 World Parliament of Religions in Chicago.

Vivekananda’s motive for going West with Vedanta sprang from his proposed

171 Flood 2004, 257.172 Ramakrishna was a Bengali who practiced in the bhakti tradition. He received trances and visions froman young age. In 1855, he became a priest in a temple dedicated to Kali outside of Calcutta. He wasinitiated into Tantra and Advaita Vedanta, and eventually devoted himself to Rama. His devotion to Ramaled him to imitate Hanuman, the monkey god who is Rama’s faithful servant and companion. His sainthoodwas not only promoted by his most famous disciple, Vivekananda, but also by Western scholars such asMax Muller. Smith 2003, 173-174. .



- 55 -

humanitarian efforts in the name of Ramakrishna. He had succeeded in uniting his guru’s

younger disciples upon Ramakrishna’s death and formed the Ramakrishna Order.173

His

proposed efforts to “uplift” India required funding, and Vivekananda was unable to find a

willing raja to finance his venture. The Parliament of Religions provided Vivekananda

with the opportunity to seek out Western financial sponsors and the Vedanta Societies in

the West were a byproduct of this venture.

Vivekananda’s Western experience included an introduction to the native

intellectual elite. Annie Besant, a leader in the Theosophical Society, described her

impression of Vivekananda as a “warrior-monk.”

174

His appearance was that of an

unconventional holy man. The swami was neither an emaciated visionary nor a mystical

fakir, his solid physical build and Western tinged discourse was a far cry from the

stereotypical Eastern spiritual man. However, the financial help Vivekananda drummed

up in the West enabled the set up of the Ramakrishna Mission. The group took up their

two tasks: to promote the divinity of Ramakrishna and to disseminate the philosophy of

Vedanta.175

Vedanta literally means what comes at the end of the Vedas. The Vedas are a

sacred text of the Hindu canon. They are regarded by some Hindus as “a timeless

revelation”176 passed down through the generations of Hindus beginning with the ancient

seers. The priestly caste, Brahmans, preserve the tradition of the Vedas through oral

recitation and rituals. The Vedic narrative provides the basis for a majority of Hindu

traditions and movements existent in modern Hindu culture. Interpretations of Vedic

173 Jackson 1994, 24.174 Jackson 1994, 34.175 Smith 2003, 175.176 Flood 2004, 35.



- 56 -

literature and ritual arose in the Upanishads. The texts “define themselves centrally

within the Vedic tradition as reinterpretations of the ritual process and an elucidation of

its inner meanings.”177 The Upanishads, thematically heterogeneous texts which

developed during the course of three hundred years, process the theological and

philosophical implications of Vedic literature.178

Vivekananda’s philosophy asserts that the divine exists inside all humans

regardless of caste and social status. His speeches and literary output addressed the

relative reality of the material world and how the believer should not completely ignore

it. This had much to do with his vision for social change in India and he sought to

address the poverty in his native land not through quoting religious principles, but

through working to exact physical change among the poor and starving. By using the

theological development of neo-Vedanta, elevating the reality of the one and denying the

reality of the many, Vivekananda promoted a unified Hinduism. He did not ignore the

diversity of Hindu practices, rituals, and sects. Instead, Swami Vivekananda stressed the

essential unity within the pluralistic nature of Hinduism and claimed it recognized all

religions as one aspect of the universal Truth.179 Vivekananda’s method of unifying

various Hinduisms as well as all world religions and his dedication to the uplift of India’s

poor and lower classes through the Ramakrishna Movement provided a basis for a

nationalist movement as well as the construction of Hinduism as a religion available in

the world market.180

177 Flood 2004, 83.178 The Upanishads were developed from the Aranyakas, or “forest texts,” which were ritual exegeticaltexts for sadhus. Flood 2004, 36-39.179 Flood 2004, 258.180 Flood, 259.



- 57 -

Every native translator of India coming to the West, including Mahatma Gandhi,

stands in the shadow of Swami Vivekananda. The figure he cut on the stage of the

Parliament of Religions and his subsequent interaction with the West through letters and

Vedanta Societies represented a polished, educated, and almost-Western mind to his

materialistic audience. Vivekananda is often recognized as the first Eastern spiritual man

to bring the East’s spiritual superiority to the attention of the West. The first Vedanta

Society in the West was founded in New York in 1895.181

However, various other

organizations with Eastern ties existed at the time. The Theosophical Society was

founded in New York in 1875 “to promote and explore esoteric knowledge.”

182

After

Madame Blavatsky died, one of the founders of Theosophy, Annie Besant took on the

leadership of the society and presented Jiddu Krishnamurti, a young boy from Andhra

Pradesh, as the Messiah.183

Vivekananda opined against following Theosophy as it was an “organized sect,”

in his letters to a near defection from the New York Vedanta Society. 184 “Individuality is

my motto,” Vivekananda wrote, “I have no ambition beyond training individuals up.”185

Vivekananda wrote in resistance to concrete organization in the same period he

orchestrated the creation of procedures and institutions in Ramakrishna’s name.186

The

main themes apparent in Swami Vivekananda’s letters and speeches seem contradictory.

Exclusive undertones exist within his inclusive rhetoric of all religions lead to the same

truth. Hinduism is the best of all the paths to the absolute Truth, and even within

181 Flood 2004, 258; Jackson 1994, 28 says the “nebulous” group was founded in November 1894.182 Flood 2004, 270.183 Ibid.184 Jackson 1994, 48.185 Vivekananda 1970-1973, v. 7 p.380.186 Similarly Jackson 1994, 49.



- 58 -

Hinduism he promoted the divinity of his guru and the orthodoxy of the Upanishads. It

was through his ministrations that the Bhagavad-Gita became an influential monistic text

in the West’s conceptions of Hinduism. Vivekananda had succeeded in molding the

language of the Gita into monistic language reminiscent of the Upanishads, even though

no such formal monistic language exists within the text. This transformation of a non-

canonical bhakti text into an unofficial canonical bhakti/monistic text influenced the

Hinduism of the 1960s counterculture. Vivekananda’s inclusive language created a way

for the countercultures to engage in a syncretism which they took to be Hinduism as a

whole.

187

Raga Rock: Eastern music moves West

As David Reck explores in his article “Beatles Orientalis,” the use of Eastern

themes and musical structures is not uncommon in the Western musical world. This

musical Orientalism in which composers and lyricists appropriated Eastern instruments

and musical structures reaches back to the time of Verdi and Rossini.188 Reck identifies

specific historical events which prompt the onset of Eastern fads such as colonialism and

the expansion of the Ottoman Empire.189 Western music integrates the Eastern through

employing exotic themes, using an Oriental title or scenario, including “Oriental” scales

and gestures, and Impressionism.190 These trends not only touched classical music, but

were also experienced in popular music and music of the counterculture. There were two

main ways in which the pop musician of the 1960s engaged the Eastern aesthete: through

187This syncretism was quite apparent in the figure of George Harrison and through his lyrics as a Beatleand as a solo artist.188 Reck 1985, 85.189 Reck 1985, 85-86.190 “The creation of new, though inherently Western, approaches to style, form, orchestration, and melody.”Reck 1985, 86.



- 59 -

Eastern religious philosophy and through Eastern sounds. Both aesthetic disciplines

required translators or gurus in order to obtain an authoritative command of both the

subject and the sound. Just as Hindu and Tibetan philosophies were popular among the

intellectual elite of the 1960s, Eastern sound granted access to an alternative music

culture. Reck cites Ravi Shankar’s popularity among the “intelligentsia” as the result of

this alternative-seeking impulse.191

Born in Benares, India in 1920 to a Brahmin family, Ravi Shankar was brought up

between the European and Indian sub-continent. As early as 1930, he toured Paris with

his cousin, Uday Shankar, who was a dance troupe leader.

192

By his first return trip to

India, Shankar became more interested in music and in 1934 he became a disciple of

Enayat Khan, a world famous sitariya.193 Unfortunately, Shankar became ill with typhoid

and discontinued his discipleship period. He continued to tour with Uday’s troupe and

soon became a star in the West. 194 The young Shankar felt himself being pulled in two

directions: dancing fame in the West and musical devotion with an Indian guru. Finally

in 1938, Shankar had his sacred thread ceremony195 and joined his guru Allauddin Khan,

whom he calls Baba, in Maihar.196 “Taking a guru was the biggest decision of my life. It

demanded absolute surrender, years of fanatical devotion and discipline,” Ravi says of his

191 Reck 1985, 93.192 Shankar 1999, 35.193 Meaning sitarist.194

Shankar 1999, 82.195 Flood 2004 explains that the sacred thread ceremony is performed “between the ages of eight andtwenty-four.” The ceremony consists of a high caste male receiving the sacred thread, which is a symbol of the twice born males. The ritual texts assign different age brackets for the three twice born castes(Brahmins, Kshatriyas, and Vaishya). Also, the conclusion of the ceremony is the conclusion of the “high-caste male’s entry into high-caste society, which excludes him from other sphere of social activity.” Flood2004, 204.196 Baba was “basically Muslim,” unlike Shankar who was born to a Hindu family. Maihar, a small citylocated in Madhya Pradesh, is a center for classical Indian music (specifically the Maihar Gharana, aHindustani musical style).



- 60 -

seven years in Maihar in the film Raga.197 Even when he left his guru for Bombay,

Shankar returned for months at a time because “we can never say we have finished

learning, because this process of learning from a guru can never end.”198 Shankar quickly

adapted to the fast paced life of Bombay—Bollywood’s capital—and soon began to write

his own ragas. His experience in the cosmopolitan and international society smoothed his

Westward ambitions and Shankar eventually “came to represent the entire Indian

classical music tradition.”199

Among his philosophical influences, Shankar cites Swami Vivekananda and his

guru, Ramakrishna Paramahansa. Shankar also acknowledges the presence and

popularity of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi and Swami Bhaktivedanta’s Hare Krishna

movement in the West, but withholds judgment unlike most of his Indian peers. “If they

have helped others, which is the most important thing, I never say anything against them.

That’s fine. But from the outside some of the stories do sound strange,” he writes in his

autobiography Raga Mala.200 He sees the swamis and gurus who have migrated

westward have become “waylaid” by the corporate impulses of America.201 Shankar, as a

musician, has benefited from what he calls the American naïveté “which makes them

[Americans] so open and dynamic, but it makes them vulnerable as well.”202

While I have focused on the Hindu reformers, their presentation of Hinduism

through the Brahmo Samaj and at the Parliament of Religion in Chicago is an indirect

influence on the Beatles. Harrison was familiar with the writings of Vivekananda and his

197 Shankar 1999, 85.198 Shankar 1999, 103.199 Reck 1985, 93.200 Shankar 1999, 116.201 Ibid.202 Ibid.



- 61 -

guru Ramakrishna, but it was not the philosophy that first attracted Harrison’s attention.

Upon hearing the sitar on the set of the Beatles’ second movie Help!, Harrison was

intrigued by the musical structures of the East. While Help! by itself is worthy of analysis

considering its overwhelming Orientalism which was later recreated in Indiana Jones and

the Temple of Doom, Harrison’s reaction to his introduction to Eastern sounds is

indicative of the sincerity of his belief and a foreshadowing of Ravi Shankar’s role as

translator of India., Harrison explained his first visceral response to the Eastern culture

surrounding the Help! set,

“…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…”203

Ravi Shankar and George Harrison entered into a guru-disciple relationship which was to

last for many years with Shankar teaching Harrison the sitar. 204 The least popular track

on Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band , “Within You Without You” was

orchestrated completely using Eastern instruments.205 In this song, Harrison embraces the

musical structure of India—an element of neo-Orientalism that Bartholomeusz cites.

“Within You Without You” has been deemed a precursor to the “type of song

increasingly common in the later Beatle song catalog and the late 1960s in general, “a

kind of inspirational hymnic song, an anthem of the times, often with the simplicity of the

203 Miles 1997, 157.204 This guru-disciple relationship stands in stark contrast to John Lennon’s religious aspiration—for hisone entirely Eastern inspired song, he relied on Timothy Leary’s commentary on the Tibetan Book of theDead which in itself was drug induced.205 Reck 1985, 109. However, a western string score underlies the track and the song



- 62 -

spiritual.”206 Without Harrison’s Indian contribution replete with ragas and transcendent

instrumentals, Paul McCartney may not have composed “Let it be” and Lennon may not

have been comfortable with the lulling strains of “Across the Universe.” Lennon and

McCartney moderate the religious imagery and message in these songs that more strongly

appeal to the mainstream.207

The Beatles reflected the mainstreaming of a renewed Orientalism, but they are

due more credit than Bartholomeusz and Rorem give the group. While their interest in the

East may not have commenced under the most auspicious of circumstances, with a Kali

cult hoax of a movie and a sitar twanging to the tune of “A Hard Day’s Night,” it matured

over the course of the sixties. This maturation began when the Beatles were exposed to

native translators of India into their acquaintance. As discussed briefly, Ravi Shankar was

integral in Harrison’s use of Eastern musical constructions on Beatle albums. Shankar

would also be responsible for introducing the Bhagavad Gita, Ramakrishna, and

Vivekananda to Harrison during the summer of 1966.

Reck illustrates how Shankar succeeded with Western, especially American,

audiences. In addition to his musical prowess, Shankar also benefited from the

similarities between Western and Eastern musical structures,208

musical texture, the

importance of drumming, and the provocative “twang” of the sitar.209 More importantly,

Shankar arrived in the Western music scene at a time when accessible experimentation

became integral to popular and countercultural music. The expanding drug culture and

206 Ibid.207 As evidenced in the recent movie “Across the Universe” and the inclusion of both “Let it Be” and thetitle song in the movie.208 “The overall shape of the slow, meditative alap, followed by the medium paced by more rhythmic jor,and finally the climactic excitement, speed and intricacy of the jhala is not unlike the overall shape of Western art forms with their expositions, developments, and climactic denouements.” Reck 1985, 94.209 Ibid.



- 64 -

more than just sitar lessons—mastery required dedication to the entire system of music as

well.216

Harrison’s dogged interest led him to India, where Shankar introduced him to

Swami Vivekananda’s philosophy via Raja Yoga as well as several other “Yogis of the

Himalayas.”217

With Harrison as a disciple, Shankar became a “superstar.”218

In the absence of a

birthright, Harrison’s humble request to learn of the yogis and ragas of the Himalayas

from Shankar authenticated Harrison’s use of Hindu philosophy and musical structures in

his compositions. The Beatles’ “Midas touch” did not escape popularizing Shankar—

who had previously performed for the “intelligentsia” and, after Harrison’s time in India,

performed for the popular masses.219

As nouveaux intelligentsia, Harrison, via Beatle

fame, introduced Shankar to sects of the counterculture previously unaware of the Indian

musical experience or an authentic classical Indian experience. For Shankar, this

introduction led to an interesting dilemma. The atmosphere at rock concerts in 1967 was

overrun by the drug culture and what Shankar considered inappropriate behaviors—“I

felt as if I had soiled and dirtied my music,” he said of his experiences with Western

hippy audiences.220 This was the same feeling Harrison encountered when he visited the

Haight-Ashbury district in San Francisco—guru and disciple were of the same mind.

“Sexy Sadie, what have you done?”221

: Maharishi’s Transcendental Meditation

Under Shankar’s tutelage, Harrison became engrossed in histories of yogis and

sadhus. Besides Shankar, Harrison had not come into contact with a live translator-cum-

216 There is also improvisation and a discipline to which the sitariya must adhere. Shankar 1999, 189.217 Shankar 1999, 195.218 His own choice of word. Shankar 196219 Including performances at the “peak of the hippy scene” at the Monterey Pop Festival. Shankar 1999,198.220 Shankar 1999, 202.221 The Beatles. “Sexy Sadie,” 1968.



- 65 -

guru. In 1967, Pattie Harrison began attending workshops on Transcendental Meditation.

The sessions Pattie attended were part of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi’s Spiritual

Regeneration Movement, which was part of his missionary work in the West. Maharishi

arrived on the Hawaiian shores of the United States of America in 1959. The Maharishi’s

brand of export Hinduism included Hindu themes and the values of the American middle

classes.222 In the same way Swami Vivekananda promulgated a unified Hinduism as a

valid and inherently inclusive world religion, Cynthia Ann Humes claims Maharishi

“thrust the reach of his Advaita Vedantin interpretations and many standard cultural

markers of Hinduism into a global context.”

223

Maharishi’s biographer, Paul Mason,

introduces the scene into which Maharishi insinuated himself as having “scant exposure

to representatives of that rich cultural history which is India.”224 Maharishi Mahesh Yogi

was thus able to mold Western conceptions of Hinduism to his liking and gloss over his

guru status.

Born Mahesh Prasad Varma in 1917 in the state of Madhya Pradesh, Maharishi’s

family belonged to the kshatriya caste (warriors or protectors). As a child, Mahesh

possessed a cheerful disposition and always had time to listen to stories of saints or to

contemplate religion.225

His parents sent him to Allahabad University when he showed

an aptitude for the scientific disciplines.226 Mahesh still sought deeper fulfillment, “I was

completely dissatisfied with what I studied in college. Because I knew—this can’t be the

whole knowledge. I was searching for something complete whereby I could understand

222 Forsthoefel and Humes 2005, 57.223 Ibid.224 Mason 1994, 3.225 Mason 1994, 11-12.226 Mason 1994, 12.



- 66 -

everything.”227 At the age of 23, Mahesh began his service to Swami Brahmananda

Saraswati, a devotee of Rama, and a future Shankaracharya. The Shankaracharya was the

spiritual mantle traced back to the ancient philosopher Shankara, who developed Advaita

Vedanta. The holder of the title Shankaracharya assumes an immense spiritual

responsibility for the religious guidance of the people of India.228

Mahesh began his

service to the Shankaracharya after Swami Brahmananda had begun his ministry.

Entering the guru/disciple relationship, Mahesh never took ascetic vows. Without a vow

of renunciation, Mahesh would never have the title “Swami” conferred upon him.

When his guru died, Maharishi entered a South Indian hermitage in the state of

Kerala.229

While in the South, he was invited to bring the wisdom of the Himalayas to

several spiritual centers dedicated to his guru, the Shankaracharya.230 From his guru’s

death until his own death in February 2008, Maharishi distanced himself from a life of

abstinence and seclusion.231 Instead of wandering India as an ascetic, Maharishi traveled

worldwide and began his missionary work. By the time he began his travels, Maharishi

had formed a philosophy of Deep Meditation, which incorporated the spiritual tools his

guru had bequeathed him and his scientific knowledge gained from his time at

University. “I had one thing in mind—that I know something which is useful to every

man; therefore no matter where I am people will find in me the commodity that they

want,” Maharishi said of his gradual entrance into the States.232 Perceiving the naïveté of

227 Ibid.228 Mason 1994, 15.229 Mason 1994, 25.230 Mason 1994, 27.231 Mason 1994, 31.232 Mason 1994, 37.



- 67 -

the West that Shankar spoke of as American’s blessing and curse, Maharishi knew how

to sell himself.

The Western reliance on scientific proofs was known to the Maharishi; after all,

his parents had made sure to encourage his scientific aptitude. “We belong to the realistic

age of science. Let us be sure that all we strive for and achieve remains realistic. Our age

of scientific involvement does not give credence to anything shrouded in the garb of

mysticism. Let us realize the Absolute Being through a scientific and systematic method

of achievement where every achievement will be supplemented by personal experience,”

Maharishi preached.

233

The West responded well to scientific language and talk of

experiential proofs; the “touchy-feely” nature of religion was to be discredited—

enlightenment can be achieved without emotional attachment. As Humes writes in her

analysis of the Maharishi, “All of the world could be understood through the superior

Indian science of the soul…Vedic science subsumed Western science.”234 Mason

indicates that Maharishi’s early audiences had mainly been composed of those who had

not previous knowledge of India’s spiritual history.235 This lack of historical knowledge

on the part of Maharishi’s devotees informed his popularity in the West. They did not

know Maharishi lacked the credentials of a “true” guru or the title of “Swami.”236

These

devotees were also unaware of the theological implications of Maharishi’s Hinduism. As

a “missionary to the West,” Maharishi avoided technical conversations on caste, jati, and

sati.237

233 Mason 1994, 48-49.234 Forsthoefel and Humes 2005, 62.235 Mason 1994, 55.236 Smith 2003, 171. 237 Smith 2003, 173.



- 68 -

Maharishi’s 40-day courses involved a textbook and a price tag. Disciples, such

as the Beatles, would have to pay $2,500 for a five day session in modern times.238

Mason describes the Maharishi’s modus operandi as the cultivation of powerful, rich, and

influential.239

He also cites the Beatles as the first to substantiate the Maharishi’s claim

that his technique led to a higher consciousness.240

Important to the nature of global

Hinduism, Maharishi wrote a commentary on the Bhagavad Gita. This commentary was

seen as a way to win over his native critics. Perhaps the most stinging critique of

Maharishi’s technique is that Transcendental Meditation is not a concept or abstraction

found in the Gita.

It was well noted that where the Beatles went, their fans followed. In due course,

the Beatles’ public stymied their drug use and took up a higher, cleaner transcendence at

the feet of Maharishi.241

The guru was employing the concept of upaya (skillful means)

to promote his philosophy by obtaining the Beatles as spokespersons. Even above being

a spiritual teacher, Maharishi was an empire builder.242 The subculture which the Beatles

inhabited was prime real estate for Maharishi’s technique and Eastern philosophy.

Maharishi and gurus coming to America appealed to the subculture’s desire for self

realization without devotion.243

The loss of the Beatles after Maharishi was accused of

being less than celibate during the Summer of Love in Rishikesh was a huge blow to the

TM empire.244 Even before the Beatles abandoned their guru, and John wrote a scathing

attack in his song “Sexy Sadie,” Allen Ginsberg—a member of the intellectual elite and

238 Koppel, Lily. “Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, Spiritual Leader, Dies” The New York Times. February 6, 2008.p. 1 of 3.239 Mason 1994, 79.240 Mason 1994, 104.241

Although they never completely gave up their drug use.242 Forsthoefel and Humes 2005, 7.243 Forsthoefel and Humes 2005, 57.244 Mason 1994, 144.



- 69 -

proponent of Zen Buddhism—engaged in a hostile critique of the guru and was

unimpressed with his social commitment.245

Despite the critique and mistrust of the Maharishi’s methods and intentions, he

was nonetheless engaged in a transformation of East/West relations. In India,

Maharishi’s authority required his allegiance to his guru’s divinity and his god’s

supremacy. In America, with a majority of devotees without previous involvement in a

spiritual organization, Maharishi was relieved of Hinduism’s cultural baggage. Instead of

using Rama, the object of his guru’s devotion, the Maharishi based his method on the

godmen of Western culture—the Beatles. Although unsatisfying to some intellectual

elite, Maharishi’s language—its scientific nature and inclusive rhetoric (anybody could

do it, it’s just meditation)—won him devotees. The surge of Western devotees increased

his authority in his native land, and even with an unsatisfying commentary on the most

popular sacred Hindu text, Maharishi was able to gain popularity in India as well as an

international audience.

“My Sweet Lord”: ISKCON and Saving the West’s Dharma

The International Society for Krishna Consciousness was founded in 1966 by

A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabupada.246

The Society claims a spiritual lineage that

reaches back into the 15th Century and the saint Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu.247 The

teachings of ISKCON focus on Krishna, an avatar of the Hindu god Vishnu, and use the

Bhagavad Gita as their theological touchstone. The Gita is a popular Hindu text in the

West, but ISKCON believes that no one has understood it.248 Prabhupada, whose

245 Mason 1994, 126.246 Bromley and Shinn 1989, 14. 247 http://www.iskcon.com/about/history.html248 Bromley and Shinn 1989, 57.



- 70 -

religious biography I will outline in a moment, believed in the pure transmission of

Krishna’s discourse through a disciplic succession.249

Hare Krishnas possess a

monotheistic philosophy and explain the pantheon of Hindu gods as the different names

for Krishna. The maha-mantra is another of ISKCON’s philosophical tenets, according

to the website, in addition to monotheism and the need to follow a spiritual master.

Devotees believe to chant Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare, Hare

Rama, Hare Rama, Rama Rama, Hare Hare” as put forth by Sri Caitanya is “the most

effective means of self-purification in this age.”250 An initiate of ISKCON may undergo a

formal initiation process in which the initiate takes a vow of abstinence from meat, as

well as “illicit sexual activity,” and gambling.251

This initiation process assumes the

initiate into the line of disciplic lineage.

Swami Prabhupada, the founder of ISKCON, is the sixteenth in the line of acaryas

(those who teach) since Sri Caitanya. He was born to a Vaishnavite family in Calcutta—

thus, the Bengali bhakti (devotional) movement was familiar to him. Prabhupada

attended college and pursued a science degree, much like Maharishi. In 1922,

Prabhupada met his first spiritual master Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakura and took his

vows of renunciation 1959. Arriving in the United States in 1965, Prabhupada intended to

continue his work to “Preach Krishna Consciousness to the English Speaking World.”252

The Hare Krishna movement claimed to “offer a refuge to people who are ‘materially

exhausted.’”253

After Prabhupada’s death in 1977, ISKCON was led by eleven Western

249 Ibid.250 http://www.iskcon.com/about/philosophy.html251 http://www.iskcon.com/about/philosophy.html252 http://www.iskcon.com/about/parampara/srila_prabupada.html253 Bromley and Shinn 1989, 64.



- 71 -

spiritual masters. Bhaktivedanta’s disciplic succession did not require Brahminical status

to lead, merely a trained and qualified spiritual master.

The Beatles entered the Hare Krishna scene once more via George Harrison’s

involvement. Prabhupada had been targeting the drug culture with sayings such as “Stay

High Forever” No more coming down. Practice Krishna Consciousness” and “Just

imagine a room full of LSD. Krishna Consciousness is like that.”254 In 1967, George and

John encountered the Krishna Consciousness album which contained the maha-mantra.

The group reportedly chanted together for hours on their trip to Greece that same year.

Spiritual autobiographer and practicing Hare Krishna, Joshua Greene, illustrates how

George became a ‘plainclothes devotee’ of Krishna, especially during his solo career. His

intimate interactions with Hare Krishnas started briefly after the Beatles’ time at

Rishikesh. At his request, Lennon housed a dozen or so of his Hare Krishna friends while

their London temple was under construction. Throughout his solo career, he would meet

with Swami Prabhupada. The Swami knew that famous devotees would attract a popular

following: “The public is in need of such songs [about Krishna], and if they are

administered through nice agents like the Beatles, it will surely be a great success.”255

George’s solo career shows the marks of Krishna Consciousness, while John and

Paul did not follow Prabhupada’s teachings. Through ISKCON, he learned about bhakti

yoga and continued his education about Vedic literature. Prabhupada told him to throw

out the mantra which Maharishi had given him—the only necessary mantra was the

maha-mantra. With George’s help, the London Hare Krishnas made Top of the Pops in

254 Turner 2006, 140.255 Turner 2006, 151.



- 72 -

1969 with their recording of the maha-mantra.256 Shortly after the Beatles’ breakup,

Harrison put to music Hindu prayers such as ‘Govinda’ and the mahamantra. Not long

thereafter, Harrison provided the entire funding for Prabhupada’s publication KRSNA.257

Due to his financial backing, Harrison wrote the preface, which he signs “All You Need

Is Love (Krishna) Hari Bol.”258

Harrison’s solo career included some of ISKCON’s most popular renderings of

the Hare Krishna community. “Awaiting on You All” promoted chanting the names of

the lord, though it did not define which names were appropriate. “My Sweet Lord”

contained the maha-mantra, slyly transitioned into from a “Hallelujah” chorus.

Harrison’s later solo career concentrated on the general themes of Advaita Vedanta he

had been taught by his various gurus, while fewer songs featured pure bhakti themes.

Swami Bhaktivedanta’s work had been done already; he had succeeded in garnering the

support of a Beatle. Even though crowds booed Harrison during his Dark Horse tour of

1974, Krishna’s message was becoming known to the English speaking world, just as

Bhaktivedanta’s guru had commanded.

The Beatles’ gurus were translators of the Indian culture and religion to which

they were devoted. Starting with Vivekananda, the definition of Hinduism became

universalized and accepting of diversity. Later gurus, such as Maharishi and

Bhaktivedanta, excluded some aspects of Indian culture in order to further their

messages. Maharishi handed out mantras without discussing traditional Hindu ritual.

Both Maharishi and Bhaktivedanta viewed Western pop stars as the path to success, and

they invited figures such as the Beatles to become “scribes” of their time. The Western

256 Ibid.257 Greene 2006, 158.258 Prabhupada 1970, ii.



- 73 -

devotee was elevated to spiritual disciple and eventually master status without the

cultural baggage necessary for such positions in the East.259

259 Although the clothing and other aesthetic cultural markers were popular in America, the culturalbaggage I reference includes caste and issues such as the position of women in India.



- 74 -

Chapter 3

“Writing the words of a sermon that no one will hear”: Lyrical Exegesis

In occupying a prime position in mainstream culture as well as the counterculture,

the Beatles were responsible for the quality of their musical output within the standards

of both audiences. They were to share their experiences in both the drug culture and

Indian culture through their music. By simulating an acid trip or a religious pilgrimage

through their artistic medium, the Beatles were not only guinea pigs, but also gurus in

their own right. The public expected the Beatles to share the knowledge and experience

they acquired via their position as popular musicians and pseudo-intellectuals. Fans were

entitled to reap what they had sown—they had made the Beatles famous and canonized

them within Western culture. What the Beatles had learned from their gurus and

translators—Bob Dylan, Maharishi, Timothy Leary, Swami Vivekananda, and Ravi

Shankar—was meant to be disseminated through their music. Their espousal of Eastern

religion, meditation, and drug use was informed by the translators, but the public required

the Beatles to sanctify these things within society. This sanctification is most clearly

seen in Beatle lyrics post-1965.

“I Me Mine”260

Advaita Vedanta shows the strongest influence in the lyrics of “I Me Mine.” Ego

is an individual’s understanding of their particular identity. Sankara’s Advaita Vedanta

philosophy teaches that identity is a projection of what is not the self onto the self.261

This

projection births spiritual ignorance and illusion: a general distortion of true knowledge.

To suspend this projection, one must practice “discrimination” (i.e. distinguishing what is

260 Beatles 1970.261 Flood 2004, 241.



- 75 -

the self from what is not the self). This discrimination allows the individual to

comprehend a spiritual reality—that dualisms do not exist. There is no “I” to oppose

“you,” instead these delineations are mental constructions. Sankara’s basis for Advaita

Vedanta exists in the Upanishads—monistic scriptures in the Hindu canon. The

consistent thread within the Upanishads is the relationship between Brahman and atman.

Brahman is the “essence of the universe” and “the very being at the heart of all

appearances.”262

Identified as the essence of the ritual and the world, Brahman is also the

essence of the self—or atman.263

All through the day I me mine, I me mine, I me mineAll through the night I me mine, I me mine, I me mine

This egoism and individualism is rampant in humanity’s use of personal

pronouns. Here Harrison uses the subjective, objective, and possessive first person

singular pronoun to illumine humanity’s error. With the use of first person singular, he

individualizes the egoism. It is not communal identity he seeks to correct, because

community ties are a separate problem altogether and complicate the individual sense of

identity. It is not seen, but experienced. This internalized essence is an impersonal force

in the world and realization comes from experiencing the universe within.264 Spiritual

fulfillment arrives when an individual ceases to engage in any activity which creates

karma and perpetuates samsara— the cycle of rebirth. Karma is the idea that every action

has a consequence which affects the present life or future lives. As the Beatles engaged

in Hinduism, they learned that moksha is liberation from samsara and that this liberation

comes from identification with Brahman. Moksha frees the individual not only from

262 Flood 2004, 84.263 Ibid.264 Flood 2004, 85.



- 76 -

samsara, but also from the storehouse of karma every individual necessarily accumulates

during life as action is difficult to avoid.

Now they’re frightened of leaving it,

Everyone’s weaving it,Coming on strong all the time

“They’re” comfortable in the illusion, not at all distressed that their reality is a

mental projection. In fact, not only do they sustain the illusion, these people Harrison

sings of are constantly in the act of creating it.

The mantra of ego- I ME MINE—distracts the one who seeks enlightenment. It

produces annoyance and frustration.

All I can hear I me mine, I me mine, I me mine

Even those tears: I me mine, I me mine, I me mine

No one’s frightened of playing it, everyone’s saying it.

Flowing more freely than wine.

The use of “even” to begin this stanza evokes a sense that “those tears” are not

being shed by the unenlightened individual for themselves. Instead, the unenlightened cry

for someone else. Perhaps they are mourning the loss of a loved one, or bemoaning lives

lost in a war. Here the lyric seems to say that even when an individual may think they are

acting altruistically and empathetically, they are still caught up in “I Me Mine.” They cry

for the loved one not because the loved one would rather be alive, but because they miss

the dead and wish they had still been alive. It is the living who mourn, not the dead.

Harrison follows this indictment of the unenlightened with frustration at the lack of

discrimination or the unforeseeable end to this “I Me Mine.” No one is “frightened of

playing it” and “everyone’s saying it” because they do not know it is something to be

feared. However, Harrison is proactive in disseminating the monistic message to the

unenlightened. This line may also be one of annoyance. He has tried; no one is listening



- 77 -

closely enough. Even as a Beatle, he cannot stem the flow of ego—just as a dinner party

host is helpless against the guest who continues to imbibe.

All through your life: I me mine

This last line serves as a warning. Harrison has preached the evils of ego and

illusion since 1967, and he does not envision a world in which everyone is free from the

concept of themselves. If the unenlightened cannot see beyond themselves, their entire

life will be in pursuit of “I Me Mine.” Harrison knows that “I Me Mine” is a tireless

taskmaster—the ego can never be sated. It remains unspoken, but the listener can almost

finish Harrison’s train of thought—watch out or “I Me Mine” will go on through to your

next life if you don’t wake up.

If the lyrics of “I Me Mine” describe the problems of the ego, then it is no

coincidence that Harrison bestowed the same title to his only autobiographical work. In

this book, Harrison explains the lyric to “I Me Mine,” “There are two ‘I’s’: the little ‘i’

when people say ‘I am this’ and the big ‘I’; i.e., OM, the complete whole, universal

consciousness that is void of duality and ego.”265 He reworks a quote by Swami

Vivekananda concerning humanity’s potential divinity into his vernacular: “Get rid of the

little ‘i’ by the drop becoming merged into the big ‘I’…”266

This song also possesses a

social context particular to the Beatles in the late Sixties. The Beatles were months away

from officially breaking up, however much they had already been emotionally and

socially broken up, and there were constant arguments over copyright ownership,

management, and name usage. Not only was Harrison struggling with his inner ego, he

265 Harrison 2007, 158.266 Ibid.



- 78 -

was also encountering the monstrous ego and its baggage inside Apple Corps and the

dissolution of the Beatles.

“Within You Without You”267

“’Within You Without You’ was written after I had got into meditation. We had

entered into the All You Need is Love consciousness after the LSD period,” George wrote

in I Me Mine. The song, George’s only solo contribution to the prolific Sgt. Pepper

album, reflects the growth of his attachment to Indian instruments and Hindu philosophy.

Harrison’s sitar skills were steadily improving under the watchful eye of Ravi Shankar: “I

was continually playing Indian music lessons the melodies of which are called Sargams,

which are the bases of different Ragas.

We were talking about the space between us all Harrison paints the listener a picture of past dialogue. His message touches an

important point of human interaction—speech. For the Beatles and the cultures of the

Sixties, this dialogue about “the space between us all” has been going on for awhile and

encompasses many different questions and disciplines. The differences between humans

are “the space between us all”—religion, race, class, education, language, appearance,

etc. The dialogue—“we were talking”—is encountered on many levels of human social

interaction—the political, ecclesiastical, national and local among others. The discussion

that exists within these social constructions is often surrounded by tension and anxiety—

nothing is ever resolved, a new problem or reemergence of an old problem always arises.

And the people who hide themselves behind a wall of illusion

At the center of George’s philosophy, it is illusion which separates man from

fellow man. Maya is a Sanskrit term signifying illusion, and Sankara’s philosophy

267 Beatles 1967.



- 79 -

defines this illusion as a symptom of the individual superimposing their ego on true

knowledge.268

These “people” willfully “hide themselves” behind a mental construction.

With this song, Harrison offers them a glimpse of what lies beyond illusion. More than

likely, however, the “people” take material reality as the only reality and do not realize

what exists beyond “a wall of illusion.” To these “people,” this “illusion” is an

intellectual byproduct of a hippie drug trip. Their material reality is comfortable,

manageable, and tangible—the same view held by Harrison’s subject in “I Me Mine.”

Never glimpse the truth—then it’s far too late—when they pass away

Again, the truth is extended to them, but the “people” hiding behind “a wall of

illusion” do not perceive it as truth. “Then it’s far too late,” Harrison warns his listeners

that the unenlightened have and may continue to miss their chance. Passing away in the

Hindu tradition George prescribes to at this point in time has nothing to do with the

Western perceptions of passing away informed by the Christian tradition. This passing

away is in no way final, instead it ushers the individual into the next life. George tells the

listener what state these people are in before they pass away—they’ve “never glimpsed

the truth.” Without glimpsing the truth, let alone acting upon the truth, the “people” he

sings of have no chance of liberation.

We were talking about the love that we could all share when we find it

To try our best to hold it there with our love

With our love we could save the world—if they only knew

This lyric is obviously informed by the All You Need Is Love consciousness that

George cited when he wrote the short segment on why he wrote “Within You Without

You.” Harrison is certain that they shall find it, he uses a stronger form of the conditional

268 Flood 2004, 241.



- 80 -

(when not if). However, the salvation of the world hangs in the balance because the

“people” do not know (“if they only knew”).

Try to realize it’s all within yourself

No one else can make you change

The unenlightened individual’s motivation to change can come from none other

than themselves. The change must be self-motivated and a product of the love found and

the truth discovered. If no one else can make you change, it follows that no one can force

you to change. George gently pushes the unenlightened towards self-realization. Try to

realize, I’ve laid it out for you, he sings. Yet, even George realizes his limitations. Even

as a Beatle and the influence his position commands, George is unable to compel his

unenlightened listeners to belief.

And see that you’re really only very small

And life flows on within you and without you

An individual’s existence is a merely a part of the greater world soul. Materially,

no one is bigger than anyone else—in fame, in fortune, or in status. Existence is manifest

within an individual’s life and without it—life does not cease to exist because an

individual dies. Here George can be writing on two separate issues within Hinduism—

samsara, the cycle of rebirth, and Brahman, the world Soul. In the cycle of rebirth, life

and death are only phases which lead into one another. When an individual passes away,

the individual’s karma determines what life they will lead next. So life exists outside of

individual identity. Concerning Brahman, each perceived individual possesses a piece of

the Absolute called atman. The realization that distinctions between individuals are

egoist superimpositions acknowledges atman as part of the greater whole. Thus, life and



- 81 -

existence exist outside of the rigidly defined “I” and “you”—they exist on a meta-level

via Brahman.

We were talking about the love that’s gone so cold and the people

Who gain the world and lose their soulThey don’t know- they can’t see- are you one of them?

George knows that this love he and the enlightened seek has existed before, and

still exists but it is hidden and cold. Humanity has let the love fall cold because they have

“Gained the world”—these people have become caught up in material wealth and the

culture of prosperity. In turn, they’ve lost their soul. This phrase comes directly from the

Christian New Testament. Mark 8:36 says, “What good is it for a man to gain the whole

world, yet forfeit his soul?” during one of Jesus’ talks on asceticism and denying the self

in order to take up the cross. Salvation cannot be bought or exchanged in material terms

or values. These people who sell their soul in exchange for the entire world have

condemned themselves to lives of spiritual ignorance and illusion. Harrison ends the

stanza with a question—even though “we’ve been talking,” there is still a chance that

“you [are] one of them.” Dialogue is the first step in the process of enlightenment, but

often the last step for some people. Being aware of others’ ignorance is much easier than

being self-aware, and George is cognizant of this trap. The enlightenment which George

espouses requires action on belief.

When you’ve seen beyond yourself

Then you may find peace of mind, is waiting there

And the time will come when you see we’re all one,

And life flows on within you and without you.

Again, George uses a more certain conditional. “Their” discussion will lead to

action, he knows, but it may take some time. Their glimpse at the truth will lead them to

find peace of mind and union with Brahman—sharing in the world Soul. George’s



- 82 -

insistence is didactic and conversational when compared to Lennon’s “Imagine.” From

the first verse, the song continues a conversation between the West and the East, if not

between himself and the Beatles’ public.

“Awaiting on You All”269

You don't need no love in

You don't need no bed pan

You don't need a horoscope or a microscope

The see the mess that you're in

If you open up your heart

You will know what I mean

We've been polluted so long

Now here's a way for you to get clean

This song appeared on Harrison’s triple album All Things Must Pass and contains

key principles of his religious philosophy. “Awaiting on You All” is a testament to the

material things that Harrison has given up trying to find fulfillment and enlightenment.

Harrison begins with a litany of what humanity thinks it needs, but would benefit from

doing without. The political (love-ins; perhaps a critique of John and Yoko?), medical

(bed pans), magical (horoscope), and scientific (microscope) miss the mark. These

human disciplines cannot even touch the wealth of truth available through opening the

heart. The love in, a form of social protest, cannot remedy society’s ills. Horoscopes can

only make generalizations about the future. And a microscope can miss the tiniest of life-

threatening mutations.

By chanting the names of the lord and you'll be free

The lord is awaiting on you all to awaken and see

Chanting the names of the lord and you'll be free


269 Harrison 2001, 1970.



- 83 -

George prescribes a simple, doable cure for the pollution that plagues humanity:

chanting the names of the lord. By reciting one of the many names for God the listener

brings themselves closer to the divine and enlightenment. In fact, the lord waits for the

unenlightened to open up their hearts, Harrison claims. However, George does not

provide any names for the lord. In this way, he makes the divine accessible to his

listeners and their diverse religious backgrounds. For the moment, belief is glossed over.

Harrison’s intent is to present a simple antidote to the West’s material obsession in the

same manner the Maharishi did not explain the intricacies of Hindu philosophy and

Indian society with his Western disciples.

You don't need no passport

And you don't need no visas

You don't need to designate or to emigrate

Before you can see Jesus


You'll see he's right there

Always was and will be

He'll relieve you of your cares

Harrison goes even further in his litany. Government identification, bureaucratic

documentation, and domicile relocation do not aid in the quest for enlightenment.

Enlightenment and encountering the divine does not necessitate pilgrimage or drastic

action. Taking from the I-Ching in his song “The Inner Light,” Harrison expands on this

very theme. “Without going out my door, I can know all things on earth/Without looking

out of my window, I could know the ways of heaven./ The farther one travels, the less

one knows,” George sings on the B-Side of the “Lady Madonna” single released in 1968.

A spiritual journey takes place within the seeker. A physical journey may even entrap the

unenlightened by forcing them to encounter cultural differences beyond their



- 84 -

understanding. Enlightenment is never outside of an individual’s grasp, however, even

when physical pilgrimage is impossible.

Harrison’s use of Jesus in this stanza relocates him in the mainstream religion his

listeners are more likely to practice.



Chanting the names of the lord and you'll be free


You don't need no church house

And you don't need no Temple

You don't need no rosary beads or them books to readTo see that you have fallen


You will know what I mean

We've been kept down so long

Someone's thinking that we're all green

The lyric now focuses on the houses of organized religion. Harrison denies the

need for places of worship, ritual aids, and liturgical manuals “to see that you have

fallen.” He again uses Christian language to describe how humanity has become

polluted, and prescribes a different antidote to the fallen state.

And while the Pope owns 51% of General Motors

And the stock exchange is the only thing he's qualified to quote us



Moving from religious paraphernalia, Harrison attacks religious hierarchies. His

target—the Pope—embodies humanity’s enchantment with the material world. The Holy

Father is even susceptible to material attachment. Harrison views the Pope’s material

wealth as a betrayal of religious principle and truth. Instead of quoting the Bible and

issuing holy truths ex cathedra, the Pope is only authorized to quote the stock exchange.



- 85 -

(The one who keeps tally of his flock’s sins is only useful to the bankers and

establishment.)

“Living in the Material World”270

I'm living in the material world

Living in the material world

Can't say what I'm doing here

But I hope to see much clearer,

after living in the material world

I got born into the material world

Getting worn out in the material world

Use my body like a car,

Taking me both near and farMet my friends all in the material world

Met them all there in the material world

John and Paul here in the material world

Though we started out quite poor

We got 'Richie' on a tour

Got caught up in the material world

This song comes from Harrison’s 1973 album of the same name. The lyrics

convey Harrison’s perplexity at his existence in the material world—“Can’t say what I’m

doing here.” In the same breath, he recognizes that the material world is a place where

enlightenment is possible.

Even though birth is a passive action on the part of the newborn, Harrison’s

wording makes the occurrence even more passive—“I got born in the material world.”

His body is a vessel which gets worn out in the material world, and he passes through

existence like a car driven by a tireless operator. Harrison also admits to acquiring

material attachment—“Met my friends in the material world,” and he “Got caught up in

the material world” along with the most famous of his bandmates.

270 Harrison 2006, 1973.



- 86 -

From the Spiritual Sky,

Such sweet memories have I

To the Spiritual Sky

How I pray

Yes I praythat I won't get lost

or go astray

As I'm fated for the material world

Get frustrated in the material world

Senses never gratified

Only swelling like a tide

That could drown me in the

material world

From the Spiritual Sky,Such sweet memories have I

To the Spiritual Sky

How I pray

Yes I pray

that I won't get lost

or go astray

The “Spiritual Sky” remains within a mainstream up-down dichotomy of the

spiritual world. The bits of past karma buried in his soul, carried on from his past life,

may comprise his “sweet memories.” These memories may also be of the time he spent in

the “Spiritual sky” with the divine—uninhibited encounters with Brahman. Praying that

he “won’t get lost or go astray” recalls the parable of the sheep and the shepherd in the

Christian New Testament.

The next verse relies heavily on an understanding of karma, samsara, maya and

monism. Harrison’s past karma fates him for existence in the material world. The senses

and perceived duality in the material world is frustrating—because it is maya, illusion,

and is so easy to get caught up in. Harrison knows the senses can drown him if given the

opportunity and frustrate his attempts at release from this material world.



- 87 -

While I'm living in the material world

Not much 'giving' in the material worldGot a lot of work to do

Try to get a message through

And get back out of this material world

I'm living in the material world

Living in the material world

I hope to get out of this place

by the LORD SRI KRSNA'S GRACE

My salvation from the material world

Big Ending

The use of “while” to begin this verse reminds the listener that Harrison hopes to

escape the material world and gain moksha (liberation) from samsara (the cycle of

rebirth). Harrison also feels his dharma is to disseminate Krishna’s message to the world

through his music—similar to Christ’s Great Commission in Matthew 28. By Krishna’s

grace, he will escape—but he’s uncertain. “I hope to get out of this place,” he sings.

Harrison may have acquired karma which he cannot eradicate and may not get out of this

place until the next life.



- 88 -

Conclusion

Himalayan High: the Beatles and the Orientalist Context

Ten years before Edward Said made the term Orientalism popular on the

scholastic stage of post-colonialism, Ned Rorem used it to describe George Harrison’s

interest in the resurgent India fad. In his article for the Music Educators Journal in late

1968, Rorem offers a cynical criticism of the Beatles’ musical, spiritual, and

philosophical offerings. He writes that they (especially Harrison) seem “to have adapted

only the frosting” of their recent excursions into India. While Harrison in particular may

be “undoubtedly sincere,” the “faithful meaning” is lost on the audience because he does

not possess the “birthright” necessary in order to produce the “music he would

emulate.”271

Of all the Beatles, Rorem believes Harrison’s penchant for meditation and

Vedanta is only a veneer of Hinduism that covers his latent Christianity. It is

uninteresting and “flounders” in the face of McCartney’s electronic innovations and

Lennon’s lyricism. In his first paragraph devoted to criticism of Harrison’s religious

devotion, Rorem derides Harrison’s adaptation of the structure of Indian music as well as

application of its philosophical teachings to daily life. As sincere as Harrison may

perceive his devotion to Hinduism, Rorem judges it as “fake.”272

Rorem undoubtedly dislikes the Indian sounds infiltrating the airwaves

considering his classical background, but his ambivalent piece on the Beatles involves a

larger theme. He reduces the Beatles’ consistent superiority as due to their nostalgic

271 Rorem 1968, 33-34, 77-83.272 Rorem1968, 82.



- 89 -

appeal—“they’ve simply brought back excitement.”273 Yet the Beatles’ interaction with

the jewel of Britain’s former empire can be viewed as a rediscovery of exoticism and the

Other reminiscent of colonial aspirations. Rorem refuses to attribute the excitement that

the Beatles’ music embodies through their music to the tambura beats and sitar strains of

Harrison’s songs or the influences of Eastern philosophy on Lennon’s lyrics.

Yet, if the Beatles were merely manufacturing the same product which the

American market rapaciously sought during the 1940s-1950s, how does Rorem explain

the need to detour through Liverpool before returning to America to produce the

excitement witnessed in Beatlemania? The Beatles’ popularity and superiority in

recapturing the American imagination cannot be reduced to their competitors being

“junk.”274 Rorem concludes by stating the Beatles have added nothing new, thus they are

not structurally interesting enough to analyze.275

Nevertheless, their continued popularity

indicates they added something new, though critics such as Rorem did not require the

Beatles to be innovators in order to enjoy their albums.276

As I have discussed, in neo-Orientalism, the Western individual may be seen as

nothing more than a “religious window shopper.”277 Rorem deems the Beatles’ religious

involvement as such in his 1968 article. Bartholomeusz uses the idea of “spiritual

tourists” to describe the model which the Beatles helped to perpetuate in Western society.

The focus on the individual in neo-Orientalism allows for this contextual appropriation in

a way Said’s Orientalism does not. It allows for people like the Beatles to “excavate and

273 Rorem 1968, 83.274 Rorem 1968, 78.275 Rorem 1968, 83. Why then, do so many analyze their lyrics? Who then is responsible for usheringIndian instrumentation and experimentation into Western pop culture?276 Indeed, Rorem’s article denies the American musical culture necessary change and evolution.277 Which is how Ned Rorem would define John Lennon’s religious pursuits in his Music Educators Journalarticle.



- 90 -

integrate” the East into their context, and disseminate this contextualized conversion to

their audience—“the armchair wanderers”278

of Bartholomeusz’s neo-Orientalism. The

Beatles’ listeners could drop acid alongside their heroes, but pilgrimage to India was too

much of a sacrifice and too far a distance. Searching for parallel experience, the

“armchair wanderer” used the Beatles’ interest in India and Eastern philosophy in the

same way the audience used their music to open the door to drug use. Drug users and

non-users alike listened to songs that were composed during acid trips which tried to

recreate the trip.279

When the Beatles, switched from drugs to religion to get “high,” they took the

listeners with them. Some songs provided both the drug and religious atmospheres such

as “Tomorrow Never Knows.” Others integrated the East entirely such as Harrison’s

“Within You Without You.”280

In these songs and much of Harrison’s later solo work, the

Beatles exercised cultural appropriation of musical structures where their musical

structures fell flat.281 The East provides the artist with a “visionary alternative,”282 and

with such an offering the Western Orientalophiles dominate the East. This domination

informs “colonial politics in a neocolonial world,”283 in the form of charity concerts and

sponsoring religious organizations.284

278 Bartholomeusz 1998, 7 of 12.279 Turner 1995, 60-61.280

Which was developed in the lyrical exegesis chapter as well as my chapter on the Beatles’ religioushistory.281

In saying the Beatles’ felt their musical structures fell flat, I mean that Eastern instrumentals andphilosophies were used (once the Beatles discovered them in their own right) to create excitement(religiously and otherwise) not only for themselves, but also for their audiences. They never abandonedWestern structures, even in their respective solo careers post-1970.282 Bartholomeusz 1998, 7 of 12.283 Bartholomeusz 1998, 2 of 12.284 George Harrison is the poster child of this neo-Orientalist discussion considering The Concert forBangladesh and his involvement with ISKCON and the Hare Krishna movement.



- 91 -

However, as I have shown, there is an added dimension to Bartholomeusz’s neo-

Orientalism present in the doubled figure of the translator—those who are native to the

East and who find their niche in the West, and those from the West that translate the East

for the broader audience.285

There have been many translators of India over time and

even many within the Beatles’ sphere of influence.286

Gurus, as the most familiar form of

translator in America and the West, provided not only a vision of India and the East that

appealed to the Western spiritual void, but also relinquished Hinduism’s cultural markers

to make their methods and philosophies appeal to the Western mind. The translators

clothed their philosophies in universal language and scientific proofs without unveiling

the social backgrounds that formed their movements. Acknowledging the agency of the

formerly subaltern expands Bartholomeusz’s neo-Orientalist model from mere Western

appropriation to include the possibility of syncretistic and sincere Western disciples.

After all, the Beatles’ translators preached a universal philosophy that shirked

institutionalized religion. Maharishi’s TM empire insisted upon its lack of religious

affiliation. A chapter of The TM Book, Peter McAllister and Denise Denniston entitled

“What the TM Program is not” illustrates the movement’s emphasis on religion-less

practice. The following rhetorical dialogue occurs between two cartoon characters of

McAllister’s creation:

“The TM program is not a religion? I’ve heard it was some Westernized form of

Hinduism”

“ No, no—it’s absurd to assume that just because the TM technique comes from

India it must be some Hindu practice… The TM technique is a scientific

285 Those Bartholomeusz 1998, calls the “ordinary shopper.” Bartholomeusz 1998, 8 of 12.286 Ravi Shankar, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, et al.



- 92 -

discovery which happens to come from India. As with all scientific discoveries, it

works everywhere because it involves the basic laws of nature The TM program

does not involve any religious belief or practice—Hindu or otherwise.”287

Similarly, the bhakti movement emphasized a direct and immediate experience with the

divine. They “often reject institutionalized forms of religion, such as formal temple

worship, yoga, and theology.”288 Both ISKCON and Maharishi’s TM transformed when

Western discipleship increased—an empire and organized following formed out of both

movements’ popularity. The universal nature of all religious experience that

Vivekananda exalted was no more than an engaging double talk.

Those in the West who became disciples and then translators of Eastern

spirituality, such as Harrison, and to a lesser extent, the Beatles, are judged according to

the level of their devotion and to the fidelity to one tradition. As early as 1968, critics

like Rorem considered a “religious shopper” like Harrison as insincere. The concept of a

birthright, which I have shown has mutated in the figure of the guru with the Maharishi,

is at the core of this verdict. However, the West tends to judge sincerity in faith in

degrees of loyalty to one particular tradition. In the words of Harrison’s critics and the

underlying particulars of Harrison’s chosen traditions, syncretism denotes a faulty

religious life.

Instead of evaluating Harrison’s sincerity in his faith through loyalty to one

dogmatic scheme, his religious experience should be understood through an emphasis of

the East’s agency in Bartholomeusz’s neo-Orientalist theory. Whether through

simplification, mutation, or redefinition, the East, in the figures of its translators, exerted

287 Denniston and McWilliams 1975, 14.288 Flood 2004, 131.



- 93 -

its agency by defining what kind of spirituality it would offer the West. The West

certainly viewed the East as an exotic, mystical land, but Western disciples and those

inspired by the new Orientalist fad were trained by Eastern gurus and translators who

presented their tradition on their own terms. Through spiritual lineage and Vedic

authority, the Beatles’ gurus defined the West’s materialist ailment and offered up a

prescription based in universality but entrenched in their own brand of particularity. If

there was a common theme for the various religious experiences of the Sixties, it was

embodied in the spiritual search. Perhaps Harrison’s own words to describe his sincerity

are the best example, “I want to be God-conscious. That’s really my only ambition, and

everything else is incidental.”289

289 Greene 2006, 184.



- 94 -

Appendix A: Images

Illustration A: A traditional representation of the goddess Kali.



- 95 -

Illustration B: A still photo of the sacrificial victim in the temple scene from the Beatles’ Help! The goddess Kaili is in the background. The victim must wear the sacrificial ring

and be painted red.

Illustration C: The dread mother rising from the depths of the Caribbean in the final sceneof Help!



- 96 -

Illustration D: The Sgt. Pepper Lonely Heart’s Club Band album cover.



- 97 -

Illustration E: A picture of Krishna and Arjuna from a scene in the Bhagavad Gita.



- 98 -

Illustration F: The Rubber Soul album cover. (1965)



- 99 -

Appendix B: Lyrics

Sexy Sadie

(Lennon/McCartney)

Sexy Sadie what have you doneYou made a fool of everyoneYou made a fool of everyone

Sexy Sadie ooh what have you done.

Sexy Sadie you broke the rulesYou layed it down for all to seeYou layed it down for all to see

Sexy Sadie oooh you broke the rules.

One sunny day the world was waiting for a loverShe came along to turn on everyoneSexy Sadie the greatest of them all.

Sexy Sadie how did you knowThe world was waiting just for youThe world was waiting just for you

Sexy Sadie oooh how did you know.

Sexy Sadie you'll get yours yetHowever big you think you areHowever big you think you are

Sexy Sadie oooh you'll get yours yet.

We gave her everything we owned just to sit at her tableJust a smile would lighten everything

Sexy Sadie she's the latest and the greatest of them all.

She made a fool of everyoneSexy Sadie.

However big you think you areSexy Sadie.



- 100 -

“Tomorrow Never Knows”(Lennon/McCartney)

Turn off your mind relax and float down-stream,It is not dying, it is not dying,

Lay down all thought surrender to the void,It is shining, it is shining.

That you may see the meaning of within,It is being, it is being,

That love is all and love is everyone,It is knowing, it is knowing.

That ignorance and haste may mourn the dead,It is believing, it is believing,

But listen to the color of your dreams,

It is not living, it is not living.

Or play the game "existence" to the end.Of the beginning, of the beginning.Of the beginning. Of the beginning.

“Rain”(Lennon/McCartney)

If the rain comes they run and hide their heads.They might as well be dead,

If the rain comes, if the rain comes.When the sun shines they slip into the shade,

And sip their lemonade,When the sun shines, when the sun shines.

Rain, I don't mind,Shine, the weather's fine.

I can show you that when it starts to rain,Everything's the same,

I can show you, I can show you.Rain, I don't mind,

Shine, the weather's fine.Can you hear me that when it rains and shines,

It's just a state of mind,Can you hear me, can you hear me?



- 101 -

“Eleanor Rigby”(Lennon/McCartney)

Eleanor RigbyAh, look at all the lonely people.

Ah, look at all the lonely people.

Eleanor Rigby picks up the rice in the church where a wedding has been,Lives in a dream.

Waits at the window, wearing a face that she keeps in a jar by the door,Who is it for?

All the lonely people, where do they all come from?All the lonely people, where do they all belong?

Father McKenzie, writing the words of a sermon that no-one will hear,

No-one comes nearLook at him working, darning his socks in the night when there's nobody there,What does he care?


Ah, look at all the lonely people.Ah, look at all the lonely people.

Eleanor Rigby died in the church and was buried along with her name.Nobody came.

Father McKenzie, wiping the dirt from his hands as he walks from the grave.No-one was saved.




- 102 -

“Girl”

(Lennon/McCartney)

Is there anybody going to listen to my storyAll about the girl who came to stay?

She's the kind of girl you want so muchIt makes you sorryStill you don't regret a single day.

Ah girl! Ffff...Girl!

When I think of all the times I've tried so hard to leave herShe will turn to me and start to cry;And she promises the earth to me

And I believe herAfter all this time I don't know why.

Ah, girl! Ffff...Girl!

She's the kind of girl who puts you downWhen friends are there, you feel a fool.

When you say she's looking goodShe acts as if it's understood.

She's cool, ooh, ooh, ooh,Girl! Ffff...Girl!

Was she told when she was young that painWould lead to pleasure?

Did she understand it when they saidThat a man must break his back to earn

His day of leisure?Will she still believe it when he's dead?

Ah girl!Ffff...Girl!



- 103 -

“Nowhere Man”(Lennon/McCartney)

He's a real nowhere Man,Sitting in his Nowhere Land,

Making all his nowhere plansfor nobody.

Doesn't have a point of view,Knows not where he's going to,Isn't he a bit like you and me?Nowhere Man, please listen,

You don't know what you're missing,Nowhere Man, the world is at your command.

He's as blind as he can be,

Just sees what he wants to see,Nowhere Man can you see me at all?

Nowhere Man, don't worry,Take your time, don't hurry,

Leave it all till somebody elselends you a hand.

Nowhere man please listen,you don't know what you’re missing

Nowhere Man, the world is at your command

Doesn't have a point of view,Knows not where he's going to,Isn't he a bit like you and me?

He's a real Nowhere Man,Sitting in his Nowhere Land,Making all his nowhere plans

for nobody.Making all his nowhere plans

for nobody.Making all his nowhere plans

for nobody.



- 104 -

“All You Need is Love”(Lennon/McCartney)

Love, love, love, love, love, love, love, love, love.

There's nothing you can do that can't be done.Nothing you can sing that can't be sung.Nothing you can say but you can learn how to play the game

It's easy.

There's nothing you can make that can't be made.No one you can save that can't be saved.

Nothing you can do but you can learn how to be in timeIt's easy.

All you need is love, all you need is love,

All you need is love, love, love is all you need.Love, love, love, love, love, love, love, love, love.All you need is love, all you need is love,

All you need is love, love, love is all you need.

There's nothing you can know that isn't known.Nothing you can see that isn't shown.

Nowhere you can be that isn't where you're meant to be.It's easy.

All you need is love, all you need is love,All you need is love, love, love is all you need.

All you need is love (all together now)All you need is love (everybody)

All you need is love, love, love is all you need.



- 105 -

Bibliography

A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupāda. Kṛṣṇa; The Supreme Personality of Godhead; a

Summary Study of Śr ī la Vyāsadeva's Śr ī mad-Bhāgavatam, Tenth Canto. Boston,

Mass: Iskcon Press, 1970.

Bartholomeusz, Tessa. “Spiritual Wealth and Neo-Orientalism”. Journal of Ecumenical

Studies; Vol. 35,No. 1 (Winter 98). Pp. 19-33

Beatles. Rubber Soul. [London]: Parlophone, 1987, 1965.

--. Revolver. Hollywood, Calif: Parlophone, 1987, 1966.

--. Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. [London]: Parlophone, 1987, 1967.

--. Magical Mystery Tour. [London]: Parlophone, 1987, 1967.

--. The Beatles. Hollywood, CA: Capitol, 1968.

--. Let It Be. Hollywood: Parlophone, 1987, 1970.

Bhabha, Homi K. The Location of Culture. New York: Routledge, 2004 ed.

--. “Signs Taken for Wonders: Questions of Ambivalence and Authority under a Tree

outside Delhi, May 1817,” Critical Inquiry, Vol. 12, No. 1 (Autumn 1985), pp.

144-165.

Bharati, Agenananda. “The Hindu Renaissance and its Apologetic Patterns”. The Journal

of Asian Studies, Vol. 29, No. 2 (Feb., 1970), pp. 267-287.

Bromley, David G. and Larry D. Shinn,ed. Krishna Consciousness in the West. London:

Associated University Presses, 1989.

Davies, Hunter. The Beatles. New York: Dell Publishing Co., 1968.

Denniston, Denise and Peter McWilliams. The TM Book: How to Enjoy the Rest of your

Life. Allen Park, Michigan: Three Rivers Press, 1975.



- 106 -

Dowlding, William J. Beatlesongs. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1989.

Eliade, Mircea. Cosmos and History; The Myth of the Eternal Return. New York: Harper,

1959.

Everett, Walter. The Beatles as Musicians: The Quarry Men through Rubber Soul. New

York: Oxford University Press, 2001.

-- The Beatles as Musicians: Revolver through the Anthology. New York: Oxford

University Press, 1999.

Flood, Gavin D. An Introduction to Hinduism. London: Cambridge University Press,

2004 edition.

Forsthoefel, Thomas A. and Cynthia Ann Humes, ed. Gurus in America. Albany, NY:

State University of New York Press, 2005.

Goswami, Satsvarupa Dasa. Prabhupada: He Built a House in which the Whole World

can Live. Los Angeles: The Bhaktivedanta Book Trust, 1983.

Gould, Jonathan. Can’t Buy Me Love. New York: Crown Publishing Group, 2007.

Greene, Joshua. Here Comes the Sun: The Spiritual and Musical Journey of George

Harrison. Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2006.

Harrison, George. All Things Must Pass. Hollywood, Calif: Capitol, 2001, 1970.

-- Living in the Material World. [S.l.]: EMI Records, 2006, 1973.

-- I Me Mine. 2nd ed. San Francisco: Chronicle Books, 2007.

Inglis, Ian, ed. The Beatles, Popular Music and Society: A Thousand Voices. New York:

St. Martin’s Press, 2000.

-- Burning Matches, Lifting Latches: Sociology, Popular Culture, and the Beatles. Diss.

University of Northumbria at New Castle, 2003. AAT C814180



- 107 -

Jackson, Carl T. Vedanta for the West: the Ramakrishna Movement in the United States.

Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1994.

Jayakar, Pupul. J. Krishnamurti: A Biography. 2nd edition, London: Arkana, 1996.

Lester, Richard, et al. A hard day's night. Miramax collector's series. Burbank, CA:

Miramax Home Entertainment, 2002.

-- . Help! Hollywood, CA: Capitol Records, Inc, 2007.

Mason, Paul. The Maharishi: the Biography of the Man who gave Transcendental

Meditation to the West. Shaftesbury, Dorset: Element Books Ltd., 1994.

Miles, Barry. Many Years from Now. New York: Henry Holt and Co., 1997.

Prabhupada, A.C. Bhaktivedanta. The Science of Self-Realization. Los Angeles: The

Bhaktivedanta Book Trust, 1995 edition.

Reck, David. “Beatles Orientalis.” Asian Music Journal. 16:1

Rorem, Ned. “The Music of the Beatles.” Music Educators Journal, Vol. 55, No. 4. (Dec.,

1968), pp.33-34, 77-83.

Said, Edward. Orientalism. New York: Pantheon Books, 1978.

Sen, Amiya P. Swami Vivekananda. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000.

Shankar, Ravi. Raga Mala: The Autobiography of Ravi Shankar. Ed. George Harrison.

Italy: Welcome Rain Publishers, 1999.

Sharpe, Jenny. "Figures of colonial resistance." Modern Fiction Studies 35.n1 (Spring

1989): 137(20).

Smith, David. Hinduism and Modernity. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, 2003.

Turner, Steve. Hungry for Heaven: Rock and Roll and the Search for Redemption.

Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 1995.



-- The Gospel According to the Beatles. Louisville, Kentucky: Westminster John Knox

Press, 2006.

Vivekananda. The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda. Calcutta: Advaita Ashrama,

1970.

Wenner, Jann S. Lennon Remembers. London: Rolling Stone Press, 2000.

beatles and india

Documents