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George Harrison tributes (BBC)

Jo Clarke | 30.11.2001 21:34

"...it is not dying".


BBC news clips

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 http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/entertainment/music/newsid_1646000/1646729.stm

Harrison mourned around the world

Beatles fans across the world gather in mourning for singer, guitarist and songwriter George Harrison, who has died of cancer aged 58.

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George Harrison led the Beatles in exploring Eastern mysticism, something which was to change him profoundly.

One reason he became interested in India, he was to say in a 1992 interview, was because "it unlocked this enormous big door in the back of my consciousness".

It brought him in close contact with an Indian spiritual guru, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi.

Harrison became deeply interested in India

Indian journalist Saeed Naqvi shared an apartment with Harrison at the Maharishi's retreat on the banks of the Ganges in Rishikesh, where they were attending a course on transcendental meditation.

"George was easily the most naive of the Beatles, but he was also the most sincere. The others were out to have some fun but George was serious about India and the Maharishi," he told BBC News Online.

"I remember his spending hours outside the Maharishi's room, playing the sitar and composing - he even composed a piece with Donovan which was never cut."

Eventually he became a devotee of the Hindu God Krishna, donating large sums of money to the International Society for Krishna Consciousness and even donating a 23-acre site outside London to the movement.

The 1960s have long passed and India is now home to the MTV generation.

But for some, Harrison brings back memories of a time when the West turned to India for inspiration and enlightenment.

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"The lyrics are the essence of Transcendental Meditation. You can hear it a lot and not know what it is about. The goal of the mind is to go beyond, that is to transcend, waking, sleeping and dreaming.
So the song states:
"Turn off your mind, relax and float downstream, it is not dying".

~ George Harrison: talking in the Beatles Anthology book about the song - Tomorrow Never Knows, 1999.

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George Harrison pictures:
 http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/entertainment/music/newsid_1430000/1430259.stm


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Jo Clarke

Comments

Hide the following 3 comments

Maharishi cult

01.12.2001 00:41

Peace be upon him, but George Harrison was no greater man than any other man. The fact that he became embroiled in the Maharishi cult doesn't make the super-rich fascist Mharishi Mahash Yogi any better. The Maharishi believes in the caste system and opposes mixed-race marriages. Harrison just didn't know enough Hindi to know what the Maharishi was preaching, and so he sunk millions into the TM cult as well as the mega-rich, but less stupid, Hare Krishna movement. I've no quarrels with the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON), which includes a lot of committed devotees who are involved with homeless projects in London. But the neo-fascist Maharishi cult is a stain that will forever mark Harrison's otherwise great character.

Daniel Brett
mail e-mail: dan@danielbrett.co.uk

nothing wrong with TM

01.12.2001 14:43

What's "stupid" about transcendental meditation?

I don't know enough about the Maharishi bloke to comment on his alledged fascism but just because he's a fascist doesn't mean transcendental meditation is fascist. It also doesn't mean that the Maharishi should be dismissed as a wanker.

It's entirely possible to be a good bloke in some ways and a bad bloke in others.

As for Harrison being no greater than anyone else? Well I'm sure all people are great but Harrison is someone who, amongst other things, wrote some really good songs and it's entirely normal to mourn his death.

Limesharp

not so cheap

03.12.2001 10:00

TM may be amazing, but it is also a bit exclusive don't you think, I contacted the Uk TM foundation and they charge £500!!! to teach it, obviously you have the be wealthy to become enlightened.

karl