Welcome back to our fun new series!
This week in Yoga Time Machine: On the 41st anniversary of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967) we join the ghosts of yoga’s past and travel one more year ahead to 1968, to Beatles era rock n’ roll and yogi flunking! The Fab Four made their infamous trip to India to visit Maharishi Mahesh Yogi in February 1968 to “devote themselves fully to his instruction.” They didn’t last so long.
Via The News-Dispatch – Apr 16, 1968:
As the story goes, Ringo Starr left after 10 days because he didn’t like the veg diet, Paul McCartney lasted 3 weeks, and John Lennon and George Harrison left another 2 weeks later following a rumor about Maharishi making sexual advances toward Mia Farrow and other lady friends.
OK, maybe they didn’t get their diplomas in Transcendental Meditation, but we suppose after writing songs like this we can’t hold it against the yoga school dropouts.
Or this one, inspired by Maharishi and his alleged advances:
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Earlier…
How interesting to watch these! It seemed to me that in most shots, everyone looked bored or disconnected to the goings on. In many ways, this film could have been made now… there doesn’t seem to much different in clothes, hair, etc. Almost a timeless look at India and gurus.
Is the second video supposed to be of the ashram where the Beatles stayed? I was in Rishikesh a couple of years ago and was told the ashram is no longer standing. Interesting!