John Lennon and George Harrison Tried Mending Their Relationship With Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, but the Guru Ignore Them — According to New Book
After John Lennon and George Harrison promptly fled the ashram of guru Maharishi Mahesh Yogi after hearing a rumor, the two Beatles tried to make amends with the spiritual leader. However, The Beatles’ stay in Rishikesh left a bad taste in Maharishi’s mouth. According to a new book, the spiritual leader couldn’t find it in his heart to forgive the singer-songwriters.
Why John Lennon and George Harrison quickly left Maharishi Mahesh Yogi during The Beatles’ stay in India
In 1968, Maharishi invited The Beatles to learn Transcendental Meditation at his ashram in Rishikesh, India. The group mainly agreed because they needed spirituality at the time. Their manager, Brian Epstein, died the year before, and they lacked direction.
However, things at the ashram soured quickly. According to John’s wife, Cynthia, “Magic” Alex Mardas, an inventor and Apple Corps employee, convinced The Beatles that Maharishi had been misbehaving toward certain women in the camp.
In her book John (per Beatles Bible), Cynthia wrote, “A couple of weeks before we were due to leave, Magic Alex accused the Maharishi of behaving improperly with a young American girl, who was a fellow student. Without allowing the Maharishi an opportunity to defend himself, John and George chose to believe Alex and decided we must all leave.”
However, Cynthia had seen Mardas with the girl, not the guru. She was upset and surprised that her husband and George chose to believe their employee so quickly. However, Mardas’ claims weren’t the only reason why John wanted to leave.
“It was only when John and I talked later that he told me he had begun to feel disenchanted with the Maharishi’s behavior,” Cynthia said. “He felt that, for a spiritual man, the Maharishi had too much interest in public recognition, celebrities and money.”
John confronted the guru, who seemingly confirmed the rumor, but asked why the Beatle was leaving. He told Rolling Stone (Beatles Bibel), “I just kept saying, ‘You know why’ – and he gave me a look like, ‘I’ll kill you, bastard,’ he gave me such a look, and I knew then when he looked at me, because I’d called his bluff. And I was a bit rough to him.”
John and George tried getting back into Maharishi’s good graces
Disenchanted with Maharishi, John swiftly left, leaving his bandmates behind. Eventually, they all left. Later, in The Beatles Anthology, John said, “We made a mistake there. We believe in meditation, but not the Maharishi and his scene. … We thought he was something other than he was.”
However, according to Susan Shumsky’s The Inner Light, John and George later tried to get back into Maharishi’s good graces. The guru didn’t let them. A year after The Beatles fled India, Maharishi’s secretary informed him that John had sent him a telegram asking if he could see the guru.
Maharishi claimed he didn’t know John Lennon. One of Maharishi’s skin-boys, Conny Larsson, told Shumsky that Maharishi “rode roughshod over people for whom he no longer had use,” and that included George. Larsson was George’s go-between with Maharishi.
The first time George phoned the guru was in 1973. Maharishi refused to speak with George but asked Larsson why he called. Larsson said, “George wants to apologize for all the trouble The Beatles and the whole other bunch of people caused Maharishi and the TM organization.” Maharishi told Larsson to hang up the phone.
George called Maharishi again. Maharishi told Conny, “Tell him we don’t need him, tell him to meditate regularly for a year and then come back to me.”
Larsson said Maharishi “was not at all satisfied with learning that George had joined the Krishna organization. George wanted always to be forgiven for his actions and especially for the damage John Lennon had caused. Maharishi was stone hard, and there was never any talk between them.
“During my time [as Maharishi’s skin-boy], George called him four times as I recalled. Maharishi’s message was always the same: ‘I don’t need The Beatles. The TM organization is moving on, not looking back. Past is past.'”
Another author claims George did get to apologize and that Maharishi called The Beatles ‘angels in disguise’
John didn’t try to apologize to Maharishi as much as George. The “Something” singer repeatedly offered to serve the guru however he could, but Maharishi never accepted his offers.
Larsson said, “George followed up and that call came much later when I was back on duty [in the late seventies]. Still Maharishi didn’t talk to him.”
Only once doctors diagnosed George with cancer did Maharishi give in and talk to the former Beatle. Joshua M. Greene wrote about their last encounter in Here Comes the Sun: The Spiritual And Musical Journey Of George Harrison, although doctors hadn’t diagnosed George yet.
George performed at a benefit concert for the Natural Law Party, a political group formed by the Maharishi’s followers in 1992. After the concert, journalist David Quantick said George visited the Maharishi and “asked that he forgive him and his friends for how they had behaved in Rishikesh.”
“We were very young,” George said. The Maharishi replied that The Beatles were “angels in disguise” and that there was nothing to forgive. “I could never be upset with angels,” he said.
Whether John and George groveled at Maharishi’s feet or if the guru denied them forgiveness or not, his relationship with The Beatles had a cultural impact.
Read Shumsky’s The Inner Light here.
