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Downloaded from
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Official YIFY movies site:
YTS.MX

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You deny existence of my soul

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00:00:26,568 --> 00:00:31,740
Much too long I've worn these chains

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Much too long I've borne the pain

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I hear the voice of my pride in the rage

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Much too long it's been in its grave

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So look out, here I come

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Look out till you know that I'm the only one

10
00:00:59,726 --> 00:01:05,023
Look out, here I come

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00:01:05,315 --> 00:01:10,696
Look out till you know that I'm the only one

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Won't let grass grow under me
No long and distant memory

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So look out
Look out, here I come now

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ENGLAND 1942

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My family lived in Am old Grove in the 1940s.

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The Liverpool Blitz was terrifying,

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and I will never forget as a child the drone
of sirens and the approaching bombers.

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ARNOLD GROVE
UNADOPTED

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00:02:08,086 --> 00:02:08,879
The Grove was a really neighbourly place

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00:02:09,171 --> 00:02:10,922
and we were always in and out
of each other's homes.

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00:02:13,383 --> 00:02:18,180
What, for me, was strange, was the music
coming from the house at number 12.

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The home of the Harrison family.

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George's mother Louise loved to listen
to Indian music on the radio.

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I'm told that it helped to keep her calm
and relaxed during her pregnancy.

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00:02:43,413 --> 00:02:46,208
When I first heard Indian music,

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I just couldn't really believe
that it was so... so great.

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And the more I heard of it,
the more I liked it,

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and it just got bigger
and bigger like a snowball.

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00:03:00,639 --> 00:03:06,812
THE BEATLES AND INDIA

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One day the telephone rang,
and my father always answered it.

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He had a particular
sort of authentic Indian accent.

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SHANKARA ANGADI
Asian Music Circle

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His Indian accent had remained unchanged
in all the forty years he'd been here,

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and he was shouting down the telephone,
"Ringo who? Ringo who?"

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And apparently it was because

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Ringo was on the other end of the line

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asking my father whether
he had a spare sitar string.

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00:03:35,882 --> 00:03:37,801
The return of the heroes
to their native land.

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They conquered the colonies.

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The Beatles, who originated
as a small-time act out of Liverpool,

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now have no rivals as the kingpins
of the teenage set.

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The group have certainly turned Liverpool

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<i>into Britain's answer to any pop trends
from across the Atlantic.</i>

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On every sign...

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ELVIS IS DEAD.
LONG LIVE THE BEATLES

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WE LOVE YOU
NEVER LEAVE US

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00:04:00,574 --> 00:04:02,117
...there is hero-worship that recalls the
heydays of Elvis Presley and Frank Sinatra.

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00:04:04,244 --> 00:04:08,874
Beatlemania has ceased to be a phenomenon
and seems to have become a way of life.

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My father had never heard of the Beatles,

50
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so he knew nothing about
anything European or popular,

51
00:04:16,631 --> 00:04:19,217
but what happened was
that they'd broken a sitar string

52
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while George was recording Norwegian Wood
in Abbey Road Studio.

53
00:04:22,679 --> 00:04:25,724
EMI knew my father
because he was often the person

54
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they came to when they required
a group of musicians,

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00:04:28,769 --> 00:04:32,022
so when the string broke, they phoned
my father and he did have one.

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00:04:32,314 --> 00:04:35,233
Amazingly he did have a set of sitar strings.

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So the whole family got in a tiny little car

58
00:04:42,282 --> 00:04:45,619
and they all drove to carry
one string to Abbey Road

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and there they handed it over
and they watched them recording.

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It started with Indian music.

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00:04:53,919 --> 00:04:58,882
I like so many Indian instruments,
but mainly sitar,

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and I'd used a little sitar on our records.

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00:05:06,223 --> 00:05:08,642
The Beatles had already
discovered Indian music,

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00:05:09,935 --> 00:05:10,727
I think, when they were making Help!...

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on THURSDAY 29th JULY 1965 at 8.30 pm
THE BEATLES HELP!

66
00:05:12,395 --> 00:05:15,732
...which is of course the story of a mystic,
Eastern religious group

67
00:05:16,399 --> 00:05:18,568
and they are after Ringo Starr's ring.

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00:05:18,860 --> 00:05:19,945
SIDHARTH BHATIA
Author I India Psychedelic

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So they had already discovered,

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and there's that famous scene
about them going into a restaurant.

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On the set of Help!,

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a sitar was used in a little group
that's playing in the restaurant.

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00:05:30,121 --> 00:05:31,915
George picked it up
and was playing with it...

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00:05:32,207 --> 00:05:33,333
STEVE TURNER
Author I The Complete Beatles Songs

75
00:05:33,625 --> 00:05:36,211
...and he sort of got interested
in the sitar because of that.

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00:05:37,045 --> 00:05:39,840
It was a very inappropriate film
for most Indians

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00:05:40,131 --> 00:05:43,718
because that film really lived up to
all of the stereotypes about India,

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about a bloodthirsty thug cult.

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00:05:46,304 --> 00:05:47,472
AJOY BOSE
Author I Across the Universe

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00:05:47,764 --> 00:05:51,852
The goddess which was named as Kaili
was really based on a real goddess,

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00:05:52,143 --> 00:05:54,688
the Kali goddess, and Hindus
are very reverential to her.

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So the whole film would be offending
a lot of Indians.

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00:06:04,030 --> 00:06:06,283
And then there was this book on yoga.

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00:06:06,575 --> 00:06:08,994
While they're on shoot in the Bahamas,

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they suddenly come across
this very diminutive yogi,

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00:06:12,873 --> 00:06:15,625
who cycles up to where they are
and distributes this book.

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00:06:15,917 --> 00:06:18,295
BOOK OF YOGA
SWAMI VISHNUDEVANANDA

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00:06:18,587 --> 00:06:20,797
This is VISHNUDEVANANDA,
the first illustrated book on yoga

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that went across the West,

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00:06:22,507 --> 00:06:25,886
but I don't think the Beatles
paid him much attention.

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I think much later they thought back,

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00:06:28,346 --> 00:06:31,224
and there was this
very mysterious connection.

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The palace of the Queen has lived
through many historic events,

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and it's our privilege today to witness
one of the most earth-shaking,

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The Beatles.

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00:06:41,610 --> 00:06:42,986
Fresh from an audience with the Queen,

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they hold medals indicating
they have been made members of

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The Most Excellent Order
of The British Empire.

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The Beatles, of course, have proven
to be one of Britain's prime exports.

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They have brought in more foreign exchange
than many industries

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00:06:55,415 --> 00:06:58,835
and the Queen saw fit to reward their
economic contribution to the nation.

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The award entitles the Beatles
to put the letters MBE after their names.

103
00:07:05,008 --> 00:07:09,304
That was the most miserable time
of our lives, was the MBE cop-out period.

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00:07:09,596 --> 00:07:12,474
We got an MBE, which is
one of the biggest jokes

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00:07:12,766 --> 00:07:15,226
in the history of this island, probably.

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The great cavalcade of Empire
makes a grand spectacle.

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One of the smallest countries on the map

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is responsible for the mightiest Commonwealth
of nations in history.

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India was always in British lives
because of the Empire.

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We knew about the tea
and we knew about rubber,

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but the idea of its music being in any way

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an influence on anything from this country
was simply not considered.

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00:07:42,462 --> 00:07:43,588
MARK LEWISOHN
Author & Historian

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From the music that I play
to get better and better musicians

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generally in the West
progress into, say, modern jazz.

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When I first heard Indian music,
there was so much more freedom

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00:08:04,192 --> 00:08:07,821
and there was so much more in it
compared to jazz,

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and I just couldn't really believe
that it was so, so great.

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And then I just started
to listen to it more and more

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and to try and listen a bit closer, and
the more I heard of it, the more I liked it.

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DELHI, 6 JULY 1966
The Beatles First Visit To India

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My mother meets the Beatles in India
way before I'm even born.

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I think she, by virtue of being
in the Hindustan Times at that point...

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BARKHA DUTT
Journalist

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...being a pre-eminent journalist,
being a chief reporter,

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got the opportunity but didn't really see,
my God, the magic of that moment.

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00:08:57,412 --> 00:08:58,455
And then I'm always asked,

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00:08:58,747 --> 00:09:02,125
"What's the one thing about your mother
that you really wished you would do?"

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00:09:02,417 --> 00:09:05,920
And she's been India's first
woman war correspondent,

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00:09:06,212 --> 00:09:08,715
she's done all kinds of crazy
trailblazing things,

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00:09:09,007 --> 00:09:10,633
and I always look at this photograph
and I say,

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"My God! I wish I had been that person
sitting between John and Paul!"

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00:09:20,602 --> 00:09:24,439
This is the first time the Beatles had,
as a group, come to India.

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And they symbolised to us,
not just a new kind of music,

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it was almost like symbolising
a new kind of life.

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They represented the whole '60s to us.

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When I heard they were in Delhi...

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KABIR BEDI
Actor

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00:09:42,540 --> 00:09:44,709
...I went to the Oberoi intercontinental
and I sat in the lobby

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and everyone was circling
all of the different entrances of the hotel

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waiting for The Beatles to come in
via the kitchen entrance or various ways.

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I sat near the lift and I waited
for Brian Epstein to emerge

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because I knew he was their manager.

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00:10:00,266 --> 00:10:01,976
And sure enough,
after a few hours of waiting,

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00:10:02,268 --> 00:10:04,687
I saw him come down and I sidled up to him

146
00:10:04,979 --> 00:10:07,941
and I said, "Excuse me, Mr Epstein.
I am from All India Radio

147
00:10:08,233 --> 00:10:11,111
"and the government has scheduled
an interview with The Beatles."

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00:10:11,736 --> 00:10:13,947
And he stopped in his tracks and said to me,

149
00:10:14,239 --> 00:10:19,077
"How dare you! The boys will not
give an interview! How dare you!"

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00:10:19,369 --> 00:10:21,871
I said, "Sir, I'm just conveying
the decision of the government

151
00:10:22,163 --> 00:10:23,873
"because it seems to have been announced

152
00:10:24,165 --> 00:10:27,210
"and it would be very embarrassing
if this didn't happen.”

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00:10:27,961 --> 00:10:29,963
"I will not permit this!" he said.

154
00:10:30,255 --> 00:10:32,090
"Well, I will give the interview!"

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00:10:33,091 --> 00:10:35,635
I said, "Good enough for me, sir.
You're Brian Epstein, good enough for me."

156
00:10:36,136 --> 00:10:39,139
Is there going to be any change
in the sort of work that they do?

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00:10:39,430 --> 00:10:45,019
Possibly. As I've said before,
there's no dynamic or important change,

158
00:10:45,311 --> 00:10:50,316
but the Beatles have always progressed.
And to progress, you have to change.

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00:10:51,484 --> 00:10:56,865
At 7:00, 1 go up in the lift, I get out
and I walk to the end of the corridor.

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00:10:57,157 --> 00:11:01,911
I knock, and there is Brian Epstein
in a bathrobe, sweating.

161
00:11:02,203 --> 00:11:05,039
He emerges, walks me across
the length of the hotel,

162
00:11:05,331 --> 00:11:08,001
opens the suite door
on the other side of the floor,

163
00:11:08,293 --> 00:11:11,004
and there I was, in with the Beatles,
all four of them.

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00:11:11,296 --> 00:11:12,547
I asked them what they were doing

165
00:11:12,839 --> 00:11:15,633
and they said they had an album
coming out in a month's time.

166
00:11:15,925 --> 00:11:19,846
George Harrison mentioned that he had
an Indian influence in one of the songs,

167
00:11:20,138 --> 00:11:23,766
which turned out to be Love You To,

168
00:11:24,058 --> 00:11:27,687
and Paul mentioned that he had a classical
arrangement behind one of the songs,

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00:11:27,979 --> 00:11:30,273
which I think must have been Eleanor Rigby.

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00:11:30,565 --> 00:11:34,736
Even then, there were going to be
Indian influences in their songs.

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00:11:35,528 --> 00:11:39,616
I personally hope that there will be more
Indian influences in just, generally,

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00:11:39,908 --> 00:11:42,869
in any music because it's worth it,
it's very good music.

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00:11:43,161 --> 00:11:46,581
I'd just like to see it more popular,
more people appreciating it.

174
00:11:51,127 --> 00:11:55,215
It was the 6th of July, 1966.
Some foreigners came.

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00:11:55,506 --> 00:11:57,008
They never knew what the name
of the person were...

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00:11:57,300 --> 00:11:58,468
JASPAL SINGH
Owner Lahore Music Store, Delhi

177
00:11:58,760 --> 00:11:59,969
...but they were interested
in buying some sitars,

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00:12:00,261 --> 00:12:03,848
harmoniums and tablas
and sarod, and that's all.

179
00:12:04,807 --> 00:12:06,935
A huge crowd assembled here outside,

180
00:12:07,227 --> 00:12:10,063
looking at the new face
of the English people,

181
00:12:10,355 --> 00:12:13,274
like their big hair and all that.
It was a craze.

182
00:12:14,525 --> 00:12:16,736
My father and uncle went to the hotel

183
00:12:17,028 --> 00:12:22,909
and showed instruments and later on
gave a lesson to George Harrison especially.

184
00:12:24,369 --> 00:12:29,791
After the Beatles, there was a big craze
for sitars, tablas and other instruments.

185
00:12:30,083 --> 00:12:33,711
In a day, in a month,
we were selling sitars like hot cakes.

186
00:12:35,797 --> 00:12:36,965
RIKHI RAM
Musical Instrument Mfg. Co.

187
00:12:37,257 --> 00:12:38,174
The famous Beatles...

188
00:12:38,466 --> 00:12:39,217
FROM: BEATLES
C/O OBEROI INTER CONTINENTAL HOTEL

189
00:12:39,509 --> 00:12:40,301
NEW_DELHI. (INDIA)
JULY 7, 1966.

190
00:12:40,593 --> 00:12:42,345
...they came in 1966 to our store.
They were dressed very differently,

191
00:12:42,637 --> 00:12:44,555
so that the people there
could not recognise them.

192
00:12:44,847 --> 00:12:45,640
AJAY SHARMA
Owner RIKHI Ram Shop, Delhi

193
00:12:45,932 --> 00:12:47,058
And they walked into the store

194
00:12:47,350 --> 00:12:49,936
and they started talking about
Indian musical instruments,

195
00:12:50,228 --> 00:12:54,232
especially the sitar, the tanpura,
the sarod, and also the tabla.

196
00:12:58,403 --> 00:13:00,655
And he was a good sitar player, my father.

197
00:13:00,947 --> 00:13:05,285
And he was showing them how to play it
and how the finger movements are,

198
00:13:05,576 --> 00:13:08,329
how to coordinate both left and right hand

199
00:13:08,621 --> 00:13:11,165
and, you know, and how to strike the strings,

200
00:13:11,457 --> 00:13:12,667
how to pluck the strings.

201
00:13:13,626 --> 00:13:17,297
They asked him whom
he learned the sitar from,

202
00:13:17,588 --> 00:13:19,757
so he said Pandit Ravi Shankar.

203
00:13:21,551 --> 00:13:22,468
Thank you.

204
00:13:27,974 --> 00:13:32,437
Ravi Shankar, as I see it, was really
the first ambassador for all musicians,

205
00:13:32,729 --> 00:13:36,232
artists, singers, dancers
from India to the West.

206
00:13:42,280 --> 00:13:47,493
Over the last few years, I heard
the name of Ravi Shankar mentioned.

207
00:13:50,079 --> 00:13:54,917
A good friend of mine told me
to buy a record, which I did.

208
00:13:55,209 --> 00:13:59,922
This was the first time
I'd ever heard Indian music properly.

209
00:14:02,342 --> 00:14:06,888
But when I first heard it,
I couldn't believe it really.

210
00:14:11,267 --> 00:14:13,644
He's also been turned on to Ravi Shankar by,

211
00:14:13,936 --> 00:14:15,605
like, David Crosby and Roger McGuinn
from The Byrds.

212
00:14:15,897 --> 00:14:19,317
Because Ravi Shankar had appealed
to the sort of, the Beat Generation,

213
00:14:19,609 --> 00:14:23,696
going back to the '50s actually.
It was all part of that kind of ambience.

214
00:14:24,906 --> 00:14:27,033
I'm sure you must have been
asked this lots of times before,

215
00:14:27,325 --> 00:14:29,035
but what's your opinion
of sort of English pop groups...

216
00:14:29,327 --> 00:14:31,120
A WHOLE SCENE GOING | 8 JUNE 1966
Keith Relf | The Yardbirds

217
00:14:31,412 --> 00:14:34,040
...and American pop groups using sitar
and the Indian influence in their records?

218
00:14:34,332 --> 00:14:39,128
It will make me very happy if I see
that some people take true interest

219
00:14:39,420 --> 00:14:40,421
and learn properly.

220
00:14:40,713 --> 00:14:41,506
JEFF BECK
The Yardbirds

221
00:14:41,798 --> 00:14:43,883
Because after having played the sitar
for 36 years,

222
00:14:44,175 --> 00:14:47,553
I feel that one has to give some time to it.

223
00:14:47,887 --> 00:14:49,013
Indeed.

224
00:14:54,560 --> 00:14:57,397
My father and my mother
were running the Asian Music Circle.

225
00:14:57,688 --> 00:14:58,481
ASIAN MUSIC CIRCLE
QUEEN ELIZABETH HALL

226
00:14:58,773 --> 00:15:00,108
My father was quite successful...

227
00:15:00,400 --> 00:15:01,234
International President: Yehudi Menuhin
presents Two Great Dance-Dramas (Ballets)

228
00:15:01,526 --> 00:15:03,694
...at getting musicians
to come to this country...

229
00:15:03,986 --> 00:15:04,737
Further information from Director, AM.C.,
MR AYANA DEVA ANGADI

230
00:15:05,029 --> 00:15:09,909
...and he put on concerts for them.
It was very much for erudite English people.

231
00:15:10,201 --> 00:15:11,786
Intellectuals, who knew about Indian music.

232
00:15:16,332 --> 00:15:18,292
Yehudi Menuhin, amazing man.

233
00:15:18,584 --> 00:15:20,461
He was the president
of the Asian Music Circle

234
00:15:20,753 --> 00:15:23,923
and I think it was through him
that Ravi Shankar first came.

235
00:15:26,634 --> 00:15:29,095
And George was fascinated by our family

236
00:15:29,387 --> 00:15:33,641
and so he was invited round
to spend the afternoon,

237
00:15:33,933 --> 00:15:35,351
and I think he came round for lunch.

238
00:15:35,643 --> 00:15:36,686
PATTIE was there as well.

239
00:15:36,978 --> 00:15:39,021
And then George came quite regularly.

240
00:15:39,313 --> 00:15:43,943
Eventually I said, "If we could get Ravi free
at a time when George was free,

241
00:15:44,235 --> 00:15:45,361
"we would invite them both together

242
00:15:45,653 --> 00:15:47,488
"and introduce them
and see whether they got on."

243
00:15:48,531 --> 00:15:53,786
And the doorbell rang and I rushed to the
door, and it wasn't George, it was Paul.

244
00:15:54,078 --> 00:15:56,789
And Paul said, "I'm Paul McCartney,"
and I said, "I know!"

245
00:15:58,207 --> 00:16:03,880
And he came in, and a little while
after that, I think George arrived next.

246
00:16:04,964 --> 00:16:09,510
Finally, we met very nicely
at somebody's house having dinner.

247
00:16:09,802 --> 00:16:15,141
We met just as two people,
instead of being a big publicity gimmick.

248
00:16:16,434 --> 00:16:20,813
Ravi came in and we just said,
"Ravi, this is George. George, this is Ravi."

249
00:16:22,023 --> 00:16:26,068
And we had a dinner there.
We just ate and talked.

250
00:16:26,360 --> 00:16:28,112
Paul was a little bit
on the outside, actually,

251
00:16:28,404 --> 00:16:30,948
looking a little bit bored,
smoking like a chimney.

252
00:16:31,240 --> 00:16:33,951
My young sister went around
collecting the cigarette butts

253
00:16:34,243 --> 00:16:36,579
to take to school the next day,
the used cigarette butts.

254
00:16:40,124 --> 00:16:43,753
And from then he offered to give me,

255
00:16:44,045 --> 00:16:48,591
to start me off on sitar
with a few lessons, which he did.

256
00:16:48,883 --> 00:16:52,470
He had many students in India,
very talented musicians.

257
00:16:52,762 --> 00:16:55,264
So to try to explain what drew...

258
00:16:55,556 --> 00:16:56,557
VIVEK BHARAT RAM
Ravi Shankar Disciple

259
00:16:56,849 --> 00:17:02,396
...George and Ravi Shankar together
is not easy, because it defied logic.

260
00:17:09,904 --> 00:17:13,950
When George Harrison came to me,
I didn't know what to think.

261
00:17:15,826 --> 00:17:18,162
But I found he really wanted to learn.

262
00:17:22,291 --> 00:17:25,795
I never thought our meeting
would cause such an explosion.

263
00:17:28,339 --> 00:17:31,634
That Indian music would suddenly
appear on the pop scene.

264
00:17:34,345 --> 00:17:39,934
George said, "I want to learn the sitar,"
and Ravi Ji said, "Yes, I can teach you...

265
00:17:40,226 --> 00:17:41,602
VINAY & ARUN BHARAT RAM
Ravi Shankar Disciples

266
00:17:41,894 --> 00:17:44,230
"...but it's a very difficult instrument
to learn and you will have to spend

267
00:17:44,522 --> 00:17:47,775
"a lot of time and your fingers will hurt.

268
00:17:48,067 --> 00:17:51,028
"It's going to be
a difficult thing for you to do.

269
00:17:51,362 --> 00:17:57,910
"But I want you to come to India
and I will teach you over there."

270
00:18:08,879 --> 00:18:12,133
So when Ravi invited George and me,
I was thrilled to be going.

271
00:18:12,425 --> 00:18:13,301
PATTIE BOYD

272
00:18:13,593 --> 00:18:15,553
You know, at 22,
I hadn't really thought much about it.

273
00:18:15,845 --> 00:18:18,389
I thought of the King's Road
and, you know, clothes.

274
00:18:19,390 --> 00:18:21,309
And we started off in Mumbai.

275
00:18:21,601 --> 00:18:25,855
Ravi took us to concerts, private concerts,
that he gave in people's houses

276
00:18:26,147 --> 00:18:29,191
and then bigger concerts
in front of his students.

277
00:18:29,984 --> 00:18:33,696
George Harrison came with his wife,
September 1966.

278
00:18:33,988 --> 00:18:37,450
You know, Pandit Ravi Shankar picks him up,
he takes him to the Taj Hotel,

279
00:18:37,742 --> 00:18:41,704
and within about four hours, the whole
of the Apollo Bunder and the Ta;...

280
00:18:41,996 --> 00:18:42,913
FALI SINGARA
All India Radio

281
00:18:43,205 --> 00:18:46,042
...it was just filled with people and media
and fans just coming and shouting,

282
00:18:46,334 --> 00:18:47,084
"George! George! George!"

283
00:18:47,501 --> 00:18:52,214
So finally, George just got fed up and he
told Pandit, "Let's give a press conference.

284
00:18:52,506 --> 00:18:53,424
"Let's go and talk to the press."

285
00:18:53,716 --> 00:18:54,759
So, of course, Pandit Ravi Shankar

286
00:18:55,051 --> 00:18:57,219
was the music director
of All India Radio for many years...

287
00:18:57,511 --> 00:18:58,304
TALKS STUDIO 1

288
00:18:58,596 --> 00:18:59,347
...50 he said, "Let's go and do
a radio interview."

289
00:18:59,639 --> 00:19:03,643
Studio 1. This is where Pandit Ravi Shankar
and George Harrison did an interview.

290
00:19:05,102 --> 00:19:07,605
So we searched for it and we
actually opened quite a few spools,

291
00:19:07,897 --> 00:19:11,692
dusty spools lying in the side of a corner,
and then we found George Harrison,

292
00:19:11,984 --> 00:19:14,153
there was a paper inside that said
"George Harrison interview".

293
00:19:14,445 --> 00:19:16,489
The tape hadn't been played
in maybe 30 years.

294
00:19:17,365 --> 00:19:18,824
Good afternoon, George.

295
00:19:19,116 --> 00:19:20,034
Good afternoon.

296
00:19:20,993 --> 00:19:26,666
We'd like to know from you. Do you think
you could not make a public appearance?

297
00:19:26,957 --> 00:19:30,795
If I did want to make a public appearance,
I would have come here to do a show

298
00:19:31,087 --> 00:19:33,339
and I would've come with
John, and Paul, and Ringo.

299
00:19:33,631 --> 00:19:37,176
It's just like all our fans
who go to school during the week.

300
00:19:37,468 --> 00:19:38,844
Well, if they go on their holidays

301
00:19:39,136 --> 00:19:41,764
and suddenly somebody
is making them learn maths

302
00:19:42,056 --> 00:19:43,974
and learn English and learn all this,

303
00:19:44,266 --> 00:19:47,228
then they don't like to do that
when it's their holiday.

304
00:19:47,520 --> 00:19:50,815
It's the same for me.
I go around having me photograph taken

305
00:19:51,107 --> 00:19:54,777
and signing autographs and waving at people
and being a Beatle,

306
00:19:55,069 --> 00:19:56,737
and when it comes to my holiday,

307
00:19:57,029 --> 00:19:59,782
then naturally, I want to not
be a Beatle, I want to be me.

308
00:20:04,161 --> 00:20:07,665
When I was 19, I went to India.

309
00:20:07,957 --> 00:20:09,166
PAT REKHI
Beatle Fan

310
00:20:09,458 --> 00:20:11,293
My aunt greeted me at the airport
and promptly said,

311
00:20:11,585 --> 00:20:14,672
"Do you know that George Harrison
is staying at the hotel?"

312
00:20:14,964 --> 00:20:16,382
Beatle Fans Storm Hotel
As George Meets Press

313
00:20:16,674 --> 00:20:17,508
We asked around...

314
00:20:17,800 --> 00:20:19,051
"What do they want?" he
burst out. "I am not God!"

315
00:20:19,343 --> 00:20:20,469
...you know, "Where's Mr Harrison?"
And we weren't told.

316
00:20:20,761 --> 00:20:21,971
"They will do anything to see me,"
he said with the air of a martyr.

317
00:20:22,263 --> 00:20:25,307
And we then hopped onto the elevator
and we started going to floors

318
00:20:25,599 --> 00:20:27,601
and then eventually there was one floor

319
00:20:27,893 --> 00:20:31,313
where there was a waiter
standing outside a room

320
00:20:31,605 --> 00:20:33,774
and I don't really know what made me do it...

321
00:20:34,066 --> 00:20:35,609
RAVI SHANKAR SUITE AT THE TAJ MAHAL PALACE
MUMBAI

322
00:20:35,901 --> 00:20:37,194
...but I sort of hobbled in

323
00:20:37,486 --> 00:20:40,948
and George Harrison asked
what I was doing there

324
00:20:41,240 --> 00:20:43,993
and I just said, "I would like
your autograph, Mr Harrison,"

325
00:20:44,285 --> 00:20:48,080
and he said... You know, he wasn't
too happy about me being there.

326
00:20:48,372 --> 00:20:53,461
I also said to him he had numerous fans
outside the hotel, and his words were,

327
00:20:53,753 --> 00:20:55,171
which I've never, ever forgotten,

328
00:20:55,463 --> 00:20:58,507
"Tell your friends if they like me,
to keep away from me."

329
00:20:58,799 --> 00:21:02,178
Which I thought was rather nasty,
but I needed the autograph.

330
00:21:02,470 --> 00:21:04,472
To Patsy - love from George Harrison xx

331
00:21:06,223 --> 00:21:11,979
Everything that Ravi had shown us and told us
about and introduced us to made an impact.

332
00:21:13,355 --> 00:21:17,318
He took us to the Ellora Caves, fascinating.

333
00:21:18,360 --> 00:21:23,073
And we went to Benares, Varanasi.

334
00:21:23,699 --> 00:21:26,285
Benares was unbelievable,
because we came by boat,

335
00:21:26,577 --> 00:21:31,874
and Ravi had explained to us the whole reason
for people coming to Benares to die,

336
00:21:32,166 --> 00:21:38,005
and they would request that they be burned
and I was fascinated by this.

337
00:21:39,131 --> 00:21:44,678
The pyres and the family of the wife
or the husband taking it into the Ganges

338
00:21:44,970 --> 00:21:47,014
and letting the ashes float away.

339
00:21:49,183 --> 00:21:52,520
So, Agra, we went to
the Taj Mahal, beautiful.

340
00:21:52,812 --> 00:21:54,480
I love the story surrounding it.

341
00:21:54,772 --> 00:21:59,527
It was more exquisite than I could
ever have described to anyone.

342
00:21:59,819 --> 00:22:00,319
And then...

343
00:22:00,611 --> 00:22:01,403
KUMBH MELA PILGRIMAGE

344
00:22:01,695 --> 00:22:03,656
...towards the end of our trip, KUMBH MELA.

345
00:22:03,948 --> 00:22:06,867
There were all these sadhus
walking down the road and I said,

346
00:22:07,159 --> 00:22:08,577
"Ravi, what are they doing,
where are they going?"

347
00:22:08,869 --> 00:22:12,581
He said, "They walk hundreds of miles
to come to this KUMBH MELA."

348
00:22:12,873 --> 00:22:14,708
And I was just watching this spectacle

349
00:22:15,000 --> 00:22:18,671
and all these people and families
and groups of sadhus.

350
00:22:18,963 --> 00:22:20,339
All of India, it seemed.

351
00:22:22,716 --> 00:22:28,013
He also told us about Indian culture
and spirituality.

352
00:22:28,305 --> 00:22:32,101
Ravi took us to meet his spiritual guru.

353
00:22:32,393 --> 00:22:35,521
This man was over 100, and obviously,

354
00:22:35,813 --> 00:22:39,316
we didn't know what they were saying,
but it wasn't very many words.

355
00:22:39,608 --> 00:22:42,361
Ravi was very reverential towards his guru.

356
00:22:44,196 --> 00:22:50,870
Throughout my life, I look to the great
Yogi Tat Maharaj, my spiritual guru.

357
00:22:51,161 --> 00:22:58,002
As a Hindu, I believe the blessing of guru
is the most priceless thing in life.

358
00:23:00,170 --> 00:23:05,092
It was very moving for me to see
somebody as powerful as Ravi,

359
00:23:05,467 --> 00:23:09,889
George adored him, and here
he was humbled in front of his guru.

360
00:23:11,265 --> 00:23:15,019
Ravi Ji said that "There was something
that I found in George,

361
00:23:15,311 --> 00:23:18,981
"where he was so simple, so down-to-earth.

362
00:23:19,273 --> 00:23:22,026
"He looked upon me like a guru,
like a father,

363
00:23:22,318 --> 00:23:25,195
"and he had absolutely no airs about him."

364
00:23:25,487 --> 00:23:27,281
And that is something
that we also observed...

365
00:23:27,615 --> 00:23:27,990
That's true.

366
00:23:28,449 --> 00:23:29,825
...when he came to our home.

367
00:23:30,159 --> 00:23:35,122
He was absolutely a simple person,
not demanding anything.

368
00:23:36,165 --> 00:23:38,125
I haven't learned to play the sitar.

369
00:23:38,417 --> 00:23:42,421
Ravi Shankar hasn't learned to play it
and he's been playing it 35 years.

370
00:23:44,548 --> 00:23:47,301
He was not a star sitar player
or a star musician,

371
00:23:47,593 --> 00:23:51,931
but I've not seen Ravi Ji
have so much time for someone.

372
00:23:52,222 --> 00:23:54,975
This association, this link,

373
00:23:55,267 --> 00:23:58,771
I can only explain it that they must
have had some links in a previous life

374
00:23:59,063 --> 00:24:00,105
that brought them together.

375
00:24:02,942 --> 00:24:05,694
When George and me got connected

376
00:24:05,986 --> 00:24:11,867
in '66, it was like wildfire, you know?

377
00:24:12,868 --> 00:24:14,870
He's like a son to me. Something.

378
00:24:15,162 --> 00:24:17,790
Sometimes I feel like his dad,
as well, though!

379
00:24:18,958 --> 00:24:20,167
He can be...

380
00:24:25,881 --> 00:24:29,134
George Harrison. He loved India.

381
00:24:29,426 --> 00:24:30,427
PANDIT SHIVKUMAR SHARMA
San to or Maestro

382
00:24:30,719 --> 00:24:34,598
He loved Indian music.
He loved Indian spirituality.

383
00:24:34,890 --> 00:24:39,853
So this thing, you know,
pushed Indian classical music on the top.

384
00:24:40,145 --> 00:24:43,983
You know, fusion, we can call it.
Western and Indian classical music.

385
00:24:44,274 --> 00:24:47,528
And that was the biggest fusion
ever happened.

386
00:24:47,820 --> 00:24:49,989
WONDERWALL
THE MOVIE

387
00:24:53,367 --> 00:24:54,576
7 JANUARY 1968

388
00:24:54,868 --> 00:24:57,496
And then Harrison came here
to record WONDERWALL

389
00:24:57,788 --> 00:24:59,581
with Indian classical musicians.

390
00:24:59,873 --> 00:25:01,291
MAHARAJAH
AIR-INDIA

391
00:25:01,583 --> 00:25:03,585
He was interested in meeting local musicians.

392
00:25:06,672 --> 00:25:10,384
The Beatles used the sitars in their records.

393
00:25:10,676 --> 00:25:13,429
Somehow we were able
to imagine the Beatles...

394
00:25:13,721 --> 00:25:14,888
NARESH FERNANDES
Author & Journalist

395
00:25:15,180 --> 00:25:17,099
...as our band, as an Indian band.

396
00:25:19,143 --> 00:25:22,438
You know, India was a closed society
and a closed economy.

397
00:25:22,730 --> 00:25:26,567
And it was not very easy
to get your hands on albums.

398
00:25:26,859 --> 00:25:31,905
In 1962, or very early '63,
on the international shortwave,

399
00:25:32,197 --> 00:25:33,198
a group of people...

400
00:25:33,490 --> 00:25:34,575
ENTERTAINMENT AT YOUR FINGER TIPS!
RADIO CEYLON

401
00:25:34,867 --> 00:25:36,118
...in Bangalore heard their music

402
00:25:36,410 --> 00:25:38,537
and said, "Hey, wait a minute!
This is very different."

403
00:25:38,829 --> 00:25:43,042
What it did really was to liberate
an entire generation

404
00:25:43,333 --> 00:25:46,170
from the cultural shackles of the past.

405
00:25:46,462 --> 00:25:47,880
The British had left in 1947.

406
00:25:48,172 --> 00:25:49,465
SIDHARTH BHATIA
Author I India Psychedelic

407
00:25:49,757 --> 00:25:54,887
This cohort was born in the late '40s
or mid-'50s, and they came of age,

408
00:25:55,179 --> 00:25:58,432
they rejected the past and embraced the new.

409
00:25:59,933 --> 00:26:02,478
In those days, most of the musicians

410
00:26:02,770 --> 00:26:04,855
were really from the Anglo-Indian...

411
00:26:05,147 --> 00:26:06,148
SURESH & DEVIKA BHOJWANI
Musicians

412
00:26:06,440 --> 00:26:07,316
...Catholic Christian community,

413
00:26:07,608 --> 00:26:10,652
because they were the ones
who were more trained in English.

414
00:26:11,361 --> 00:26:16,033
The Jets was really the first beat band,
it wasn't so much rock music,

415
00:26:16,325 --> 00:26:21,080
it was known as beat music, and the
word "beat" was not far from "Beatle".

416
00:26:21,371 --> 00:26:27,127
We started to model our lives along the lines
of what the Beatles were doing at the time.

417
00:26:27,419 --> 00:26:28,378
RECORDS OF YOUR FAVOURITE STARS

418
00:26:28,670 --> 00:26:31,673
The musicians those days were
more into singing Jim Reeves,

419
00:26:31,965 --> 00:26:36,470
Everly Brothers, Pat Boone,
and then bang came the Beatles!

420
00:26:36,762 --> 00:26:37,554
Who wants tradition in the Beatle generation?

421
00:26:37,846 --> 00:26:39,848
And it was like an electric breath
of fresh air.

422
00:26:40,140 --> 00:26:44,061
Whatever we were used to,
suddenly lost its relevance.

423
00:26:46,188 --> 00:26:48,982
One day we just woke up and we saw...

424
00:26:49,274 --> 00:26:50,484
MAHESH BHATT
Film Director

425
00:26:50,776 --> 00:26:53,153
...an image of the great Shammi Kapoor
with that Beatle wig,

426
00:26:53,445 --> 00:26:55,280
in a Hindi film.

427
00:26:55,572 --> 00:26:58,951
That spoke about the enormous power
and the clout of the Beatles.

428
00:26:59,243 --> 00:26:59,952
THE SAVAGES

429
00:27:00,244 --> 00:27:04,248
My mother was an Indian classical musician,
and then she bought me my first 45,

430
00:27:04,540 --> 00:27:05,749
which was I Want To Hold Your Hand.

431
00:27:06,041 --> 00:27:07,042
THE SAVAGES
1960s Indian Group

432
00:27:07,334 --> 00:27:09,211
And she bought me a British pop magazine

433
00:27:09,503 --> 00:27:13,966
where I could read about what was happening
in the UK and, you know, the UK pop scene.

434
00:27:15,175 --> 00:27:19,513
One day, one of my classmates
came back to India after the holidays,

435
00:27:19,805 --> 00:27:22,015
and he brought an album by The Beatles,
who we'd never heard of.

436
00:27:22,307 --> 00:27:23,100
BIDDU
Songwriter & Music Producer

437
00:27:23,392 --> 00:27:25,894
By 10:00 that night,
I'd fallen in love with the music

438
00:27:26,186 --> 00:27:29,022
because I'd heard it three or four times
and that music grew into me

439
00:27:29,314 --> 00:27:31,024
and I thought, "Wow, this is fabulous!"

440
00:27:31,316 --> 00:27:32,192
HMV RECORDS - PLAYERS - RADIOS
harmony house

441
00:27:32,484 --> 00:27:35,362
We used to play those records
again and again and again.

442
00:27:35,654 --> 00:27:37,239
You know, somebody is listening to the words,

443
00:27:37,531 --> 00:27:42,327
somebody is trying to figure out
the chords and the solos.

444
00:27:42,619 --> 00:27:44,788
And the most difficult part
was the harmonies.

445
00:27:45,080 --> 00:27:50,460
The Beatles still remain one of the greatest,
you know, harmony groups, you know, ever.

446
00:27:51,587 --> 00:27:54,464
We went to Calcutta, we stayed with a friend

447
00:27:54,756 --> 00:27:57,759
and the first night he took us
to a restaurant called Trincas.

448
00:27:58,051 --> 00:28:00,971
When we walked in, we were
dressed in our Beatle clothes

449
00:28:01,263 --> 00:28:03,015
and everybody got up and started clapping.

450
00:28:03,307 --> 00:28:06,435
I don't know why. Maybe they assumed
we were some famous group,

451
00:28:06,727 --> 00:28:09,354
but we weren't.
But the owner of the restaurant said,

452
00:28:09,646 --> 00:28:13,358
"Hey, the people want to know if
you guys sing" and I said, "Yeah, we sing."

453
00:28:13,650 --> 00:28:15,485
He said, "Would you do a couple of numbers?"

454
00:28:15,777 --> 00:28:18,906
So we did She Loves You and Please Please Me.

455
00:28:19,198 --> 00:28:22,075
We brought the house down,
shook our heads, etc, etc.

456
00:28:22,367 --> 00:28:26,121
The owner came and he said,
"Would you guys like a residency?"

457
00:28:26,413 --> 00:28:27,831
And that's how our career started.

458
00:28:28,123 --> 00:28:29,333
PAIN
THE SAVAGES (Bombay) & ASHA PUTHLI

459
00:28:29,625 --> 00:28:32,753
We were the first Western
music performing group to be

460
00:28:33,045 --> 00:28:35,756
ever recorded in India at the HMV studios.

461
00:28:36,048 --> 00:28:37,007
H.M.V
AIR CONDITIONED

462
00:28:37,299 --> 00:28:38,091
"HIS MASTER'S VOICE"

463
00:28:38,383 --> 00:28:39,801
And the song, if I'm not mistaken,
there was a song called Pain

464
00:28:40,093 --> 00:28:41,887
and The Girl Next Door.

465
00:28:42,179 --> 00:28:45,432
I think The Girl Next Door had
some influences of The Beatles.

466
00:28:45,724 --> 00:28:46,642
Especially the harmonies.

467
00:28:46,934 --> 00:28:48,185
-The harmonies.
-Especially the harmonies.

468
00:28:49,895 --> 00:28:52,564
I was planning to go West
because, you know...

469
00:28:52,856 --> 00:28:53,982
Forget the Indian culture.

470
00:28:54,274 --> 00:28:55,234
Singles
KUNG FU FIGHTING Carl Douglas

471
00:28:55,525 --> 00:28:56,318
Produced by BIDDU
SUBIDDU/CHAPPELL

472
00:28:56,610 --> 00:28:58,278
The Western culture was
what we youngsters wanted.

473
00:28:58,570 --> 00:28:59,655
By some strange paradox, the Beatles,

474
00:28:59,947 --> 00:29:03,659
who lived in the culture I wanted,
were making their way to India.

475
00:29:15,754 --> 00:29:17,589
LSD was really beginning...

476
00:29:17,881 --> 00:29:18,674
MARK LEWISOHN
Author & Historian

477
00:29:18,966 --> 00:29:21,260
...to make its mark in London,
in the circles that they moved in.

478
00:29:22,886 --> 00:29:26,807
Some newspaper man came up
and he said, "Have you had LSD?"

479
00:29:27,099 --> 00:29:32,396
So I thought, well, I'll either be cagey
here, or I'll be honest. So I said, "Yes."

480
00:29:35,732 --> 00:29:39,152
Oh, God, well, I mean,
the first time was when George and me,

481
00:29:39,444 --> 00:29:43,824
John and Cynthia were invited
for dinner by our dentist.

482
00:29:44,116 --> 00:29:47,828
And that was a bit scary because you
didn't know what was happening to them.

483
00:29:48,328 --> 00:29:49,037
Do you know, I mean...

484
00:29:49,329 --> 00:29:50,205
LSD

485
00:29:50,497 --> 00:29:52,874
...it's just everything is surreal
and you look at your hand

486
00:29:53,166 --> 00:29:54,710
and it looks 500 years old.

487
00:29:55,919 --> 00:29:59,089
And then I'd hear my voice
and wonder where it came from.

488
00:29:59,381 --> 00:30:02,217
And colours and there's an intensity to it.

489
00:30:05,220 --> 00:30:08,640
When we took the notorious wonder drug LSD,

490
00:30:08,932 --> 00:30:12,477
we had it and we went out to a club
and it was incredible.

491
00:30:12,769 --> 00:30:17,691
When I got on to acid right, you know,
the day that you're at 100% potential

492
00:30:17,983 --> 00:30:20,027
and you can handle whatever the situation is.

493
00:30:20,319 --> 00:30:22,237
With acid or just after acid,

494
00:30:22,529 --> 00:30:26,783
the percent of good days as opposed
to bad days was just a bit better, you know.

495
00:30:28,577 --> 00:30:32,164
They particularly got into drugs
and Indian music at the same time

496
00:30:32,456 --> 00:30:35,292
and it seemed like there was some
kind of a connection between the two.

497
00:30:35,584 --> 00:30:38,879
There wasn't, of course,
because they both pre-existed separately.

498
00:30:40,922 --> 00:30:43,050
There must be an intimate connection
between Indian music and drugs,

499
00:30:43,342 --> 00:30:46,094
maybe because of the bizarre sound,
there should be a drug connection.

500
00:30:46,386 --> 00:30:47,637
He said that's not what he remembers.

501
00:30:47,929 --> 00:30:48,513
Watch who you're calling "bizarre," Dick.

502
00:30:48,805 --> 00:30:49,973
THE DICK CAVETT SHOW | 23 NOVEMBER 1971

503
00:30:50,265 --> 00:30:52,267
Yes, I have difficulty
with the word "bizarre".

504
00:30:52,559 --> 00:30:54,436
Oh, not... I meant B-A-Z-A-A-R.
The other...

505
00:30:54,728 --> 00:30:56,688
No, wait a minute,
there's no way I can get out of this.

506
00:30:56,980 --> 00:31:02,861
To Western ears, the unusual sound might
suggest some sort of chemical intoxication.

507
00:31:03,153 --> 00:31:05,322
I'm not blaming George,
but, you know, somehow,

508
00:31:05,614 --> 00:31:10,702
because of him, the sitar became
really popular among the young people.

509
00:31:10,994 --> 00:31:13,330
The "hippies" were the ones
who caught on to Indian music

510
00:31:13,622 --> 00:31:18,043
and it just happens that most of them
were either smoking pot or something

511
00:31:18,335 --> 00:31:23,131
and since then, the two got caught up
together, but it's really a problem.

512
00:31:23,632 --> 00:31:26,885
May I request my listeners
to be in a clear mind?

513
00:31:27,177 --> 00:31:30,972
Because I like to make them high
with the music.

514
00:31:31,264 --> 00:31:32,265
-Yourself.
-Yes.

515
00:31:32,557 --> 00:31:32,974
Yeah.

516
00:31:33,266 --> 00:31:35,310
And I feel rather cheated
when they're already high.

517
00:31:38,522 --> 00:31:41,733
LSD opened them up to experiences...

518
00:31:42,025 --> 00:31:42,859
STEVE TURNER
Author I The Complete Beatles Songs

519
00:31:43,151 --> 00:31:47,531
...and awarenesses of consciousness that
they wouldn't have got in any other way.

520
00:31:47,823 --> 00:31:50,826
Eastern religion, I think,
would have been opaque to them,

521
00:31:51,118 --> 00:31:53,537
they wouldn't have been able
to understand it at all,

522
00:31:53,829 --> 00:31:56,873
but having had that experience,
suddenly these things made sense.

523
00:31:57,999 --> 00:32:00,794
George said that when he first took LSD,

524
00:32:01,086 --> 00:32:05,632
he heard voices in the back of his head
saying, "Yogis of the Himalayas."

525
00:32:11,930 --> 00:32:14,182
Maharishi, good evening. You once said...

526
00:32:14,474 --> 00:32:15,267
Maharishi MAHESH Yogi

527
00:32:15,559 --> 00:32:17,853
..."even if only one-tenth
of the adult population meditated

528
00:32:18,145 --> 00:32:21,481
"for short periods each day,
it would not take more than a few months

529
00:32:21,773 --> 00:32:24,734
"to remove the entire accumulation
of tension in the world."

530
00:32:25,026 --> 00:32:28,488
- I am absolutely convinced about it.
-These are your words, yes.

531
00:32:29,072 --> 00:32:33,243
I saw an advertisement in the paper
for transcendental meditation classes...

532
00:32:33,535 --> 00:32:35,078
TRANSCENDENTAL MEDITATION
of Maharishi MAHESH Yogi

533
00:32:35,370 --> 00:32:35,787
...so I went with a girlfriend.

534
00:32:36,079 --> 00:32:40,959
England I have been visiting once every year.
People do feel stress and strain

535
00:32:41,251 --> 00:32:45,005
due to the greater undertakings
in their life.

536
00:32:45,714 --> 00:32:50,260
Paul phoned George and said,
"There's this man called Maharishi

537
00:32:50,552 --> 00:32:53,180
"who's going to come to England
and talk about meditation."

538
00:32:53,472 --> 00:32:56,016
And I said, "That's the same guy
that, you know, I follow."

539
00:32:56,308 --> 00:33:00,979
So in those days when one Beatle did
something, they all did it. So we all went.

540
00:33:01,271 --> 00:33:03,148
Now you've been travelling
the world now for many years,

541
00:33:03,440 --> 00:33:05,150
you've made, I think,
something like eight world tours...

542
00:33:05,442 --> 00:33:07,068
Nine. I returned this time.

543
00:33:07,360 --> 00:33:09,029
This was the ninth completed.

544
00:33:11,198 --> 00:33:13,116
Maharishi was the most powerful,

545
00:33:13,408 --> 00:33:16,244
magnetically-charismatic person
I've ever met.

546
00:33:16,536 --> 00:33:17,996
He was also the happiest person I ever met.

547
00:33:18,288 --> 00:33:19,080
SUSAN SHUMSKY
Author I Maharishi & Me

548
00:33:19,372 --> 00:33:21,291
He was filled with this energy;,

549
00:33:21,583 --> 00:33:25,962
that you wanted to be near him all the time.
All of us who were on his staff,

550
00:33:26,254 --> 00:33:28,673
we fought each other
to get in the room with him.

551
00:33:29,758 --> 00:33:31,218
It was just the right time anyway.

552
00:33:31,510 --> 00:33:32,802
There we were waiting for someone.

553
00:33:33,094 --> 00:33:33,762
Waiting for a guru.

554
00:33:34,054 --> 00:33:35,305
-The great magic man to come.
-He came.

555
00:33:35,597 --> 00:33:39,726
He came, you know, and there he was talking
about it all and he had great answers.

556
00:33:40,018 --> 00:33:45,524
He's got that kind of thing,
you know, the twinkle in the eye.

557
00:33:45,815 --> 00:33:49,903
They told Maharishi that they'd
been seeking a spiritual experience.

558
00:33:50,195 --> 00:33:53,823
They'd been trying to do it through drugs,
but it just didn't work, you know.

559
00:33:54,115 --> 00:33:57,536
And so he invited them to come
to Bangor in North Wales

560
00:33:59,704 --> 00:34:02,541
where he would be doing
a meditation retreat for ten days.

561
00:34:06,211 --> 00:34:12,634
25 AUGUST 1967

562
00:34:17,973 --> 00:34:19,391
BANGOR

563
00:34:23,853 --> 00:34:27,232
The Beatles seem to be among your supporters
now, how do you feel about that?

564
00:34:27,524 --> 00:34:30,193
They seem to be very intelligent and alert.

565
00:34:31,027 --> 00:34:33,822
So you think that if the Beatles
adopt your teachings,

566
00:34:34,114 --> 00:34:36,575
then they can spread it amongst
other young people in England?

567
00:34:36,866 --> 00:34:38,910
Not only England, but throughout the world.

568
00:34:39,202 --> 00:34:42,122
Because the word "Beatle"
has gone on all the continents

569
00:34:42,414 --> 00:34:45,500
and the younger people
are fascinated by their fame.

570
00:34:45,792 --> 00:34:47,252
What do you think of the Beatles?

571
00:34:47,544 --> 00:34:51,256
Very good, intelligent young boys
and there is a great potential.

572
00:34:51,548 --> 00:34:52,716
And their music?

573
00:34:53,008 --> 00:34:57,095
Music, I haven't heard, but because
they are appreciated all over the world,

574
00:34:57,387 --> 00:34:59,931
they must have something
very graceful in their music.

575
00:35:05,812 --> 00:35:09,482
I think he's trying to say that the things
we're getting into aren't that important,

576
00:35:09,774 --> 00:35:11,401
money has taken over from God.

577
00:35:11,693 --> 00:35:15,822
Instead of trying to get where God is,
we all try and get the biggest bank balance.

578
00:35:16,114 --> 00:35:17,282
That's what it seems to me.

579
00:35:18,992 --> 00:35:19,993
The mind is like an ocean.

580
00:35:20,285 --> 00:35:24,664
Very deep, and the activity
is only on the surface like that.

581
00:35:24,956 --> 00:35:28,209
So if the waves of the ocean
contact deeper level of water,

582
00:35:28,501 --> 00:35:30,378
then the waves become stronger.

583
00:35:30,670 --> 00:35:32,380
That means that we're going to be happier?

584
00:35:33,173 --> 00:35:37,552
Much happier and much more creative also.

585
00:35:45,644 --> 00:35:46,645
EPSTEIN (The Beatle-Making Prince of Pop)
DIES AT 32

586
00:35:46,936 --> 00:35:47,854
THE QUIET MAN FROM LIVERPOOL
WHO RAN A STABLE OF STARS

587
00:35:48,146 --> 00:35:49,439
27 AUGUST 1967

588
00:35:49,731 --> 00:35:54,110
He was found in his second floor bedroom just
after 2:00 this afternoon by his housekeeper.

589
00:35:54,402 --> 00:35:57,280
Mr Epstein has been unwell now
for some months

590
00:35:57,572 --> 00:36:00,492
and he has been in the habit of taking
tablets to help him sleep at night.

591
00:36:02,202 --> 00:36:06,831
When Brian died, the Beatles, clearly,
were lost. They were like jelly.

592
00:36:07,123 --> 00:36:11,252
Their manager, their best friend,
the man who they rely on totally

593
00:36:11,544 --> 00:36:16,466
for their fame, for their fortune,
you know, their guide in life, was now gone.

594
00:36:19,886 --> 00:36:22,347
John, where would you be today
without Mr Epstein?

595
00:36:23,014 --> 00:36:24,099
I don't know.

596
00:36:25,016 --> 00:36:28,895
I understand
that Mr Epstein was to be initiated here.

597
00:36:29,187 --> 00:36:31,189
When was he coming up?
Was he coming up this afternoon?

598
00:36:31,481 --> 00:36:33,858
Tomorrow. Monday, that's all we knew.

599
00:36:34,150 --> 00:36:36,569
I spoke to him Wednesday evening,

600
00:36:36,861 --> 00:36:40,865
the evening before we first saw
Maharishi's lecture,

601
00:36:41,157 --> 00:36:43,827
and he was in great spirits.

602
00:36:44,119 --> 00:36:45,036
EPSTEIN (The Beatle-Making Prince of Pop)
DIES AT 32

603
00:36:45,328 --> 00:36:47,956
I wanted Maharishi
to bring him back to life again.

604
00:36:48,248 --> 00:36:51,000
You know, by this time,
I had given him so much power...

605
00:36:51,292 --> 00:36:52,252
PATTIE BOYD

606
00:36:52,544 --> 00:36:54,963
...and how extraordinary
that they were with Maharishi,

607
00:36:55,672 --> 00:36:58,675
who was now going to be their spiritual guru,

608
00:36:58,967 --> 00:37:02,846
but also, that they could lean on him
because they trusted him so much.

609
00:37:03,138 --> 00:37:06,850
So for that moment in time,
he replaced Brian.

610
00:37:08,226 --> 00:37:11,938
I understand that
Maharishi conferred with you all.

611
00:37:12,230 --> 00:37:16,735
He told us not to get overwhelmed by grief

612
00:37:17,026 --> 00:37:20,196
and whatever thoughts we have of Brian,
to keep them happy,

613
00:37:20,488 --> 00:37:23,908
because any thoughts we have of him
will travel to him wherever he is.

614
00:37:39,632 --> 00:37:44,179
I come to India
because I want to leave material world

615
00:37:45,096 --> 00:37:46,890
Come to simple country

616
00:37:48,475 --> 00:37:52,854
Ganga is a holy river
because it comes from the Himalayas

617
00:37:53,688 --> 00:37:55,815
and this place has much energy

618
00:37:56,107 --> 00:37:57,108
MANOHAR
Sadhu

619
00:37:57,400 --> 00:37:58,735
And it comes down, no?

620
00:37:59,360 --> 00:38:01,988
Takes energy and comes here

621
00:38:02,322 --> 00:38:03,406
RISHIKESH

622
00:38:03,698 --> 00:38:04,616
GANGES RIVER

623
00:38:04,908 --> 00:38:07,827
The ashrams, or monasteries
of the various religious orders,

624
00:38:08,119 --> 00:38:10,580
glimmer over the smooth green water.

625
00:38:10,872 --> 00:38:12,999
Now, the sun is hot, the river is icy,

626
00:38:13,291 --> 00:38:17,378
flowing from a glacier high up
in the Himalayas, the land of the gods.

627
00:38:17,670 --> 00:38:21,216
But RISHIKESH,
its name means "Place Of The Wise Ones",

628
00:38:21,508 --> 00:38:23,760
is far from being a remote or desert region.

629
00:38:24,052 --> 00:38:28,181
It's one of the most celebrated
centres of pilgrimage in the whole of India.

630
00:38:29,516 --> 00:38:32,727
In the cool, clear air of RISHIKESH,
North India,

631
00:38:33,019 --> 00:38:35,980
the meditation retreat
of Maharishi MAHESH Yogi.

632
00:38:36,648 --> 00:38:39,901
Flower-loving Yogi told reporters
that his brand of peace of mind

633
00:38:40,193 --> 00:38:43,571
could only be truly appreciated
by intelligent men of the world

634
00:38:43,863 --> 00:38:46,658
with rewarding activities and high incomes.

635
00:38:47,075 --> 00:38:49,786
"The purpose of life
is the expansion of happiness.

636
00:38:50,078 --> 00:38:51,621
"Anyone can find a way."

637
00:38:51,913 --> 00:38:54,332
That's the basic teaching
of Maharishi MAHESH Yogi.

638
00:38:54,624 --> 00:38:57,836
Are the Beatles really going to find
happiness here in RISHIKESH?

639
00:38:58,127 --> 00:39:02,382
Are they really going to become as Maharishi
hopes the practical philosophers of the age,

640
00:39:02,674 --> 00:39:05,134
or must they return home unsatisfied?

641
00:39:05,426 --> 00:39:07,679
Eternal rich young men, victims of a fad,

642
00:39:07,971 --> 00:39:11,307
looking for something, anything,
to make their lives worthwhile.

643
00:39:20,316 --> 00:39:22,777
I was a reporter.

644
00:39:23,069 --> 00:39:26,823
I'd heard that the best thing
that a reporter can do

645
00:39:27,115 --> 00:39:30,743
is to beat all the other reporters
in getting to the news.

646
00:39:31,035 --> 00:39:31,911
SAEED NAQVI
Journalist

647
00:39:32,203 --> 00:39:37,625
A friend of mine read the Beatles were coming
to stay with the Maharishi...

648
00:39:37,917 --> 00:39:39,586
Beatles may come to India by month-end
"The Times of India" News Service

649
00:39:39,878 --> 00:39:42,005
...and he said,
"SAEED, do you know what it means?

650
00:39:42,297 --> 00:39:46,342
"The whole world and its media
is going to be here."

651
00:39:48,887 --> 00:39:54,893
16 FEBRUARY 1968
John and George Arrive In Delhi

652
00:39:55,184 --> 00:39:58,313
Mia at airport to receive Beatles

653
00:39:59,731 --> 00:40:00,732
20 FEBRUARY 1968
Paul and Ringo Arrive In Delhi

654
00:40:01,024 --> 00:40:03,735
The idea is to beat them.
How do you beat them?

655
00:40:04,027 --> 00:40:05,361
"Ah!" I said.

656
00:40:05,653 --> 00:40:08,740
The idea is to become a disciple.

657
00:40:09,032 --> 00:40:12,660
If I become an insider, I get the story.

658
00:40:13,202 --> 00:40:16,205
So I walked in.
You had to make some excuse.

659
00:40:16,497 --> 00:40:19,959
If you were a drug addict,
if you had failed, if you were a junkie...

660
00:40:20,251 --> 00:40:24,047
He whispered a mantra, a chant, in my ear,

661
00:40:26,007 --> 00:40:28,885
which I am not supposed to share
with anybody.

662
00:40:29,594 --> 00:40:33,181
Then I went in, and again, and again,

663
00:40:33,473 --> 00:40:38,102
until all the sadhus who were
going to be his managers recognised me.

664
00:40:38,394 --> 00:40:41,230
And the password was "Jai Gurudev."

665
00:40:41,522 --> 00:40:43,316
You say, "Jai Gurudev" and you were in.

666
00:40:43,608 --> 00:40:45,276
HARDWAR

667
00:40:45,568 --> 00:40:50,239
From Ha rid war to RISHIKESH

668
00:40:51,699 --> 00:40:54,369
across Lakshman Jhula.

669
00:41:08,800 --> 00:41:10,593
I was taken aback.

670
00:41:11,302 --> 00:41:14,889
It was like a locust storm.

671
00:41:15,181 --> 00:41:19,894
Journalist, after journalist,
after journalist... Hundreds of them.

672
00:41:20,186 --> 00:41:23,439
"What's going on? They're not letting us in."

673
00:41:23,731 --> 00:41:25,817
I said, "They're not letting anybody in."

674
00:41:27,902 --> 00:41:29,946
Overnight, I went off to RISHIKESH.

675
00:41:30,238 --> 00:41:31,322
SUSMIT BOSE

676
00:41:31,614 --> 00:41:33,366
There were quite a few people
from all over India...

677
00:41:33,658 --> 00:41:34,659
SUSMIT BOSE
Folksinger & Songwriter

678
00:41:34,951 --> 00:41:37,620
...and it was very difficult to even know
where the Beatles' ashram was

679
00:41:37,912 --> 00:41:39,372
because it was so fortified.

680
00:41:39,664 --> 00:41:42,208
"Fortified" in the sense
that there was a lot of police.

681
00:41:42,500 --> 00:41:44,210
There was a lot of bandobast in there.

682
00:41:44,502 --> 00:41:47,505
The whole day, we would just,
early morning, wake up,

683
00:41:47,797 --> 00:41:51,092
somebody said,
"Hey, the Beatles are coming to the Ganga!"

684
00:41:51,384 --> 00:41:54,303
And so, we'd all rush up there
and wait there for two or three hours,

685
00:41:54,595 --> 00:41:56,222
but nothing would happen, you know?

686
00:41:56,514 --> 00:41:58,224
But it was like a celebration.

687
00:41:58,516 --> 00:42:02,895
It was like an exhibition.
You know, there was so much of joy.

688
00:42:06,024 --> 00:42:08,860
One day, Maharishi called me in and he said,

689
00:42:09,152 --> 00:42:11,904
"The Beatles are going to be arriving
in a few days,

690
00:42:12,196 --> 00:42:15,158
"but I want you to go fix up their rooms."

691
00:42:15,450 --> 00:42:16,826
NANCY COOKE DE HERRERA
Maharishi Publicist

692
00:42:17,160 --> 00:42:20,955
They put me in charge
to make their rooms nicer.

693
00:42:21,789 --> 00:42:24,959
I would have them paint this,
but they dropped so much paint on the floors

694
00:42:25,251 --> 00:42:26,335
then they would have to paint the floor.

695
00:42:27,086 --> 00:42:30,965
Anyway, we had curtains put up,
we had mirrors.

696
00:42:31,257 --> 00:42:34,052
We even had toilet fixtures that worked.

697
00:42:34,343 --> 00:42:36,721
They had mattresses on their beds.

698
00:42:38,431 --> 00:42:41,017
There's a fan club of real beetles
waiting to welcome them.

699
00:42:42,143 --> 00:42:44,353
But the hardest thing about the life
they will lead here

700
00:42:44,645 --> 00:42:45,980
are the beds they'll sleep on.

701
00:42:46,522 --> 00:42:48,399
A hard wooden base.

702
00:42:49,150 --> 00:42:51,778
A simple rather than a spartan existence.

703
00:42:55,156 --> 00:42:59,577
When they did arrive,
he introduced them to me and said,

704
00:42:59,869 --> 00:43:03,081
"If you want anything, get hold of Nancy.

705
00:43:03,372 --> 00:43:05,041
"Nancy will be my ears and eyes.

706
00:43:05,333 --> 00:43:08,044
"In case you need anything,
let me know through her."

707
00:43:19,472 --> 00:43:25,269
So I found my way and I went to the gate
and I said, "Jai Gurudev."

708
00:43:25,561 --> 00:43:27,396
"Ah." I was in.

709
00:43:28,439 --> 00:43:32,693
There was a commotion outside.
"How did this bastard get in?"

710
00:43:32,985 --> 00:43:35,905
I said, "I'm just a devotee
of the Maharishi."

711
00:43:36,197 --> 00:43:40,743
So, anyway, I entered,
and there under the tree,

712
00:43:41,035 --> 00:43:47,291
Maharishi, George, John Lennon, Paul,
their respective ladies.

713
00:43:47,583 --> 00:43:48,626
A whole galaxy.

714
00:43:48,918 --> 00:43:52,088
|I mean, I can't keep describing them,
I need a photograph.

715
00:43:52,380 --> 00:43:54,048
So I called the sadhus.

716
00:43:54,841 --> 00:43:59,804
I said, "Look, I'm having difficulty
managing this on my own."

717
00:44:00,096 --> 00:44:04,267
I immediately assumed the role of
Publicity Manager for the Maharishi.

718
00:44:04,934 --> 00:44:09,689
So I said, "Here's the name, Raghu Rai.
You go outside, call him in."

719
00:44:09,981 --> 00:44:11,315
JAI GURUDEV
WELCOME

720
00:44:12,108 --> 00:44:16,112
This man came who was from the ashram,
and he says,

721
00:44:16,404 --> 00:44:20,074
"Mr Naqvi wants to see you."
I said, "Give me two minutes."

722
00:44:20,366 --> 00:44:26,539
So I went in, I put a big zoom lens
on my camera and put it inside my la bad a...

723
00:44:26,831 --> 00:44:27,623
RAGHU RAI
Photographer

724
00:44:27,915 --> 00:44:31,878
...so when I'm walking,
nobody can see if I'm carrying a camera.

725
00:44:32,170 --> 00:44:34,797
So I walked with him
for about eight, ten minutes.

726
00:44:35,506 --> 00:44:39,594
One sadhu was standing there
and SAEED was standing next to him.

727
00:44:39,886 --> 00:44:41,721
So, SAEED said, "Look there."

728
00:44:42,930 --> 00:44:44,098
I was shocked.

729
00:44:45,349 --> 00:44:49,520
Then I turned around,
I saw that sadhu standing next to us.

730
00:44:49,812 --> 00:44:51,355
I said, "Bhai sahab..."

731
00:44:51,814 --> 00:44:54,859
I'm thirsty,
please may I have a glass of water

732
00:44:55,151 --> 00:44:57,904
So he goes to get a glass of water for me.

733
00:44:58,571 --> 00:45:00,198
And SAEED says, "Hurry up, hurry up."

734
00:45:00,489 --> 00:45:05,203
In those days, we didn't have auto-focus,
or auto-exposure cameras,

735
00:45:05,494 --> 00:45:08,873
so you had to set the focus,
set the exposure, everything.

736
00:45:09,165 --> 00:45:14,879
And I take just one picture,
nicely focussed and proper.

737
00:45:16,797 --> 00:45:20,134
Under the tree, MAHESH Yogi and The Beatles.

738
00:45:58,965 --> 00:46:04,720
INDRA SRIVASTAVA
Ashram Manager's wife

739
00:46:05,554 --> 00:46:07,265
Everything has changed

740
00:46:08,307 --> 00:46:11,185
When the Beatles arrived

741
00:46:11,477 --> 00:46:14,397
we arranged everything for them

742
00:46:14,981 --> 00:46:18,901
I looked after their accommodation and food

743
00:46:19,235 --> 00:46:21,153
I did everything for them

744
00:46:21,821 --> 00:46:25,616
They liked things like lettuce,
salad, tomatoes

745
00:46:25,950 --> 00:46:30,121
Instead of water they drank Coca Cola

746
00:46:34,583 --> 00:46:37,712
They learnt a lot from us

747
00:46:38,337 --> 00:46:41,424
They used to shake hands a lot
in their culture

748
00:46:41,716 --> 00:46:44,385
Their way of showing affection was different

749
00:46:44,677 --> 00:46:47,930
Staying among us made them learn our culture

750
00:46:48,264 --> 00:46:51,976
Husband and wife would walk around...

751
00:46:52,268 --> 00:46:54,770
...with their arms around each other

752
00:46:55,062 --> 00:46:58,149
They soon stopped doing that
after watching us

753
00:46:59,442 --> 00:47:03,571
In our culture, no matter how much
husband and wife love each other

754
00:47:03,863 --> 00:47:07,867
...we maintain a distance in public

755
00:47:08,326 --> 00:47:11,871
They started following our customs

756
00:47:12,163 --> 00:47:17,335
saying things like Namaste to greet us

757
00:47:25,301 --> 00:47:28,262
See this building?
This is the building where they lived.

758
00:47:28,637 --> 00:47:31,849
This room, I'll show you, this side.

759
00:47:32,141 --> 00:47:33,392
Ashram Forest Ranger

760
00:47:33,684 --> 00:47:35,644
This is the room of John Lennon.

761
00:47:35,936 --> 00:47:37,313
John Lennon was staying here.

762
00:47:37,605 --> 00:47:44,153
Other Beatles were staying in these rooms,
along with their wives and family.

763
00:47:50,034 --> 00:47:52,119
When Beatles came, I was a little kid.

764
00:47:52,411 --> 00:47:54,872
We were enjoying the whole atmosphere

765
00:47:55,164 --> 00:47:57,625
and the jungles,
and Beatles and the Maharishi.

766
00:47:57,917 --> 00:47:59,251
We were very close.

767
00:47:59,543 --> 00:48:01,587
We never find he's a celebrity
or some big thing,

768
00:48:01,879 --> 00:48:02,838
we should not go near him.

769
00:48:03,130 --> 00:48:04,006
AMITA CHOUDHRY
Ashram Manager's Daughter

770
00:48:04,298 --> 00:48:08,636
So this was the place where Maharishi
used to converse with Beatles and guests.

771
00:48:08,928 --> 00:48:13,307
Straight, we can see River Ganga.
Clear water and forest.

772
00:48:13,599 --> 00:48:15,726
There was a raised platform,
rectangular shape.

773
00:48:16,894 --> 00:48:21,607
He was usually posing with the visitors
and Beatles for the group photographs.

774
00:48:28,239 --> 00:48:29,615
Jai Gurudev.

775
00:48:38,791 --> 00:48:39,792
Jai, jai Gurudeva.

776
00:48:42,503 --> 00:48:46,632
This was the main ashram

777
00:48:46,924 --> 00:48:53,180
The Beatles came here to meditate

778
00:48:53,556 --> 00:49:00,354
They usually preferred
to meditate out in the open

779
00:49:00,646 --> 00:49:02,648
...in fresh air

780
00:49:04,442 --> 00:49:08,821
Maharishi's disciples can wander in peace
amongst the trees and bungalows,

781
00:49:09,113 --> 00:49:12,700
or meditate in some quiet spot
overlooking the Ganges.

782
00:49:13,784 --> 00:49:17,705
He doesn't require you to give anything up,
except drugs and a week's salary.

783
00:49:17,997 --> 00:49:20,666
In the Beatles' case, around £11,000 apiece.

784
00:49:22,751 --> 00:49:24,962
What exactly have you been doing?
How do you meditate?

785
00:49:25,254 --> 00:49:29,550
You sit down, you relax
and then you repeat a sound to yourself,

786
00:49:29,842 --> 00:49:33,387
and it sounds daft,
but it's just a system of relaxation.

787
00:49:33,679 --> 00:49:35,806
And that's all it is, you know,
there's nothing more to it.

788
00:49:37,391 --> 00:49:41,103
It's expanding the conscious capacity
of the mind.

789
00:49:41,395 --> 00:49:43,105
Mental capacity will be stronger,

790
00:49:43,397 --> 00:49:44,940
thought power will be great

791
00:49:45,232 --> 00:49:46,734
and when the thought power great,

792
00:49:47,026 --> 00:49:50,613
then the thought will find
their fulfilment more easily.

793
00:49:52,406 --> 00:49:56,076
"You go into those interstellar spaces,

794
00:49:56,368 --> 00:50:00,164
"where the spaces
ultimately shrink into your being."

795
00:50:00,456 --> 00:50:06,962
Now this gibberish goes on and on
and on relentlessly,

796
00:50:07,254 --> 00:50:10,841
and you have these people close their eyes

797
00:50:11,133 --> 00:50:15,054
and the more unintelligible it gets,

798
00:50:15,346 --> 00:50:19,600
the more profoundly affected
they pretend to be,

799
00:50:19,892 --> 00:50:24,522
because I can't really imagine
anyone being moved by words

800
00:50:24,813 --> 00:50:28,859
which are patently and absolutely absurd.

801
00:50:29,151 --> 00:50:33,239
His lectures were in the nature
of this kind of arcane nonsense.

802
00:50:33,531 --> 00:50:34,698
SUPERNORMAL POWERS
Levitating the body at will - Invisibility

803
00:50:34,990 --> 00:50:37,952
Nothing succeeds like success,
and it succeeded.

804
00:50:38,244 --> 00:50:39,453
SUPERNORMAL sight and hearing
Lecture: TM and SUPERNORMAL powers

805
00:50:39,745 --> 00:50:40,663
The TM Program
Transcendental Meditation

806
00:50:40,955 --> 00:50:44,208
-Are you a businessman?
-I don't deal with money directly,

807
00:50:44,500 --> 00:50:47,002
but I'm conducting the movement
in 50 countries.

808
00:50:47,294 --> 00:50:51,173
I can't be said to be no businessman
even though I'm not dealing with money.

809
00:50:52,883 --> 00:50:55,636
I was a young girl, 21 or 22.

810
00:50:55,928 --> 00:50:58,806
So there I was in this beautiful ashram.

811
00:50:59,098 --> 00:51:00,307
I was taken to meet The Maharishi.

812
00:51:00,599 --> 00:51:01,642
ARUNA NAQVI
Ashram Visitor

813
00:51:01,934 --> 00:51:05,854
He asked me to come close to him.
I did, too close, in fact.

814
00:51:06,146 --> 00:51:10,150
He said, "I'm going to whisper something
in your ear", a mantra.

815
00:51:10,776 --> 00:51:14,488
Then he said,
"I want you to go down into my prayer room

816
00:51:14,780 --> 00:51:17,324
"and I want you to concentrate
upon that mantra.

817
00:51:17,616 --> 00:51:19,994
"You're going to feel like a new person."

818
00:51:21,203 --> 00:51:24,498
And I actually believed
that this was going to happen to me.

819
00:51:25,749 --> 00:51:27,543
It was a dark room

820
00:51:28,419 --> 00:51:30,087
and there was some incense burning

821
00:51:30,379 --> 00:51:32,006
and there were some things
hanging on the wall.

822
00:51:32,715 --> 00:51:34,592
And I started repeating the mantra.

823
00:51:34,883 --> 00:51:36,343
I repeated it

824
00:51:36,927 --> 00:51:39,388
and the only feeling that I remember there

825
00:51:39,680 --> 00:51:42,808
was this intense, you know,
desire to escape from that place.

826
00:51:43,851 --> 00:51:47,021
I went near the Maharishi and he said,

827
00:51:47,313 --> 00:51:51,483
"How do you feel, my daughter?
Do you feel like a different person?"

828
00:51:51,775 --> 00:51:53,319
I said, "Actually, I don't."

829
00:51:53,611 --> 00:51:56,447
He looked at me and he said,

830
00:51:57,114 --> 00:51:59,533
"I'm going to whisper another mantra.

831
00:52:00,743 --> 00:52:05,164
"Back you go, repeat that mantra.
You might have to spend a little longer.”

832
00:52:06,582 --> 00:52:08,709
By now, I was in control.

833
00:52:09,001 --> 00:52:11,587
I repeated the mantra

834
00:52:11,879 --> 00:52:14,381
and within half an hour, I came upstairs.

835
00:52:14,673 --> 00:52:20,095
I gave him a glorious account of how I felt
like a totally new human being.

836
00:52:20,387 --> 00:52:22,598
I felt like a different person altogether.

837
00:52:23,474 --> 00:52:28,479
That was the only way to escape
and I walked out into freedom.

838
00:52:33,567 --> 00:52:39,281
Maharishi really influenced the Beatles'
songs and lyrics tremendously,

839
00:52:39,823 --> 00:52:41,200
starting with Across The Universe,

840
00:52:41,492 --> 00:52:45,162
which is written right after
the Beatles learned meditation.

841
00:52:45,621 --> 00:52:48,499
In that song, it says, "Jai Gurudeva"

842
00:52:48,791 --> 00:52:51,752
and Maharishi used to use
that expression all the time.

843
00:52:52,127 --> 00:52:52,920
Now once more.

844
00:52:53,212 --> 00:52:55,339
Vande Gurudeva.
Jaya Jaya Gurudeva.

845
00:52:55,631 --> 00:52:57,549
-Jaya shree...
-Jaya shree Gurudeva.

846
00:52:57,841 --> 00:52:59,093
-Jaya Jaya...
-Jaya Jaya Gurudeva.

847
00:52:59,385 --> 00:53:00,844
It is in praise of the guru.

848
00:53:01,178 --> 00:53:05,182
So John Lennon put that into the song
"Jai Gurudeva"

849
00:53:05,474 --> 00:53:06,600
and then he said "Om",

850
00:53:06,892 --> 00:53:08,435
and "Om" is the primordial sound

851
00:53:08,727 --> 00:53:11,313
that underlies and gives rise
to the universe.

852
00:53:16,360 --> 00:53:17,778
Just the exposure to mantras...

853
00:53:18,070 --> 00:53:19,279
I mean, the idea was that repetitious sound

854
00:53:19,571 --> 00:53:21,657
could create an altered state
of consciousness.

855
00:53:22,074 --> 00:53:24,993
You get it in Hello, Goodbye,
you get it in "Goo Goo G'Joob."

856
00:53:25,285 --> 00:53:28,163
Repetitious sounds creeping into their songs,
whether deliberately or not.

857
00:53:28,455 --> 00:53:29,289
STEVE TURNER
Author I The Complete Beatles Songs

858
00:53:51,770 --> 00:53:54,106
This is the Ganga ghat

859
00:53:54,648 --> 00:53:58,694
Occasionally the Maharishi came here,
but the Beatles came here frequently

860
00:53:59,987 --> 00:54:04,700
Back then the water was unpolluted

861
00:54:05,075 --> 00:54:09,455
It was crystal clear

862
00:54:10,789 --> 00:54:15,127
Sometimes when we all gathered, we would sing

863
00:54:15,461 --> 00:54:19,298
Even though they did not understand
our language...

864
00:54:19,590 --> 00:54:23,177
...this is what I used to sing, 50 years ago

865
00:54:23,552 --> 00:54:25,512
Oh dweller of the forest

866
00:54:25,804 --> 00:54:28,974
I live by your name!

867
00:54:29,308 --> 00:54:35,481
What can I want from this world?

868
00:54:35,814 --> 00:54:42,279
The world is false,
its bonds are false, a false illusion!

869
00:54:42,571 --> 00:54:46,784
Every breath from this body is false

870
00:54:47,075 --> 00:54:49,578
I take your name

871
00:54:54,583 --> 00:55:00,172
MIA FARROW
Actor

872
00:55:12,017 --> 00:55:15,103
I lived for three days in a cottage
at a camp in RISHIKESH,

873
00:55:15,395 --> 00:55:17,648
just 100 yards from the Beatles.

874
00:55:17,940 --> 00:55:20,234
I remember sitting around a bonfire at night
with the Beatles...

875
00:55:20,526 --> 00:55:21,693
AMRITA KUMAR
Beatles Fan

876
00:55:21,985 --> 00:55:25,656
...and Mike Love of the Beach Boys
and Donovan and others

877
00:55:25,948 --> 00:55:26,990
singing and playing the guitar.

878
00:55:28,158 --> 00:55:31,453
It was a cold, cold evening
and at some point,

879
00:55:31,745 --> 00:55:34,748
I muttered to the person next to me,
"I'm freezing."

880
00:55:35,040 --> 00:55:37,209
A man seated just ahead of me,

881
00:55:37,501 --> 00:55:41,004
wrapped in a huge brown grey blanket,
heard me.

882
00:55:41,296 --> 00:55:44,258
He said, "Move up, love,
come and share my blanket with me."

883
00:55:45,384 --> 00:55:47,135
It was George Harrison.

884
00:55:47,427 --> 00:55:48,595
I should have said yes,

885
00:55:48,887 --> 00:55:52,599
but by then, I had successfully cultivated
an air of nonchalance

886
00:55:52,891 --> 00:55:55,769
and looked at George like he was a nobody

887
00:55:56,061 --> 00:55:58,939
and replied, "No, thanks, George, I'm fine."

888
00:55:59,231 --> 00:56:03,068
Four regrettable words
that I could never take back

889
00:56:03,986 --> 00:56:05,904
and that have haunted me all my life

890
00:56:06,697 --> 00:56:10,075
for what could have been, but never was.

891
00:56:12,286 --> 00:56:16,832
The person who was actually sincere
about meditation,

892
00:56:17,124 --> 00:56:22,671
about Indian culture,
Indian music, was George Harrison.

893
00:56:23,213 --> 00:56:26,091
Maharishi said, "Of all the Beatles,

894
00:56:26,383 --> 00:56:29,136
"George is the most advanced
and this is his last life."

895
00:56:29,428 --> 00:56:30,262
SUSAN SHUMSKY
Author I Maharishi & Me

896
00:56:31,138 --> 00:56:35,893
George wanted to understand
why he was chosen to be famous.

897
00:56:36,184 --> 00:56:37,060
PATTIE BOYD

898
00:56:37,352 --> 00:56:39,730
He found it curious that he,
a boy from Liverpool,

899
00:56:40,022 --> 00:56:42,399
who otherwise would have had
a very menial job,

900
00:56:42,691 --> 00:56:47,738
was selected and was famous
and he wanted to know the answer.

901
00:56:49,907 --> 00:56:52,034
Really, the only reason to be living

902
00:56:52,326 --> 00:56:57,039
is to have complete full knowledge,
full bliss consciousness.

903
00:56:57,331 --> 00:57:00,167
Everything else
is just mundane and secondary.

904
00:57:00,626 --> 00:57:02,586
The purpose is to transcend

905
00:57:02,878 --> 00:57:06,757
from this relative state of consciousness
to an absolute state of consciousness.

906
00:57:09,259 --> 00:57:14,348
Maharishi said,
"John Lennon has many more lives to go,

907
00:57:14,640 --> 00:57:18,143
"and he must not give in
to his weakness for women,

908
00:57:18,435 --> 00:57:19,853
"or it will ruin him."

909
00:57:21,021 --> 00:57:24,066
Keeping company with himself,
it could be part of the treatment,

910
00:57:24,358 --> 00:57:26,777
John stalked along the shady paths.

911
00:57:28,403 --> 00:57:29,988
John Lennon, when he first arrived,

912
00:57:30,280 --> 00:57:31,782
he was grey, he'd been heavily into drugs.

913
00:57:32,074 --> 00:57:33,784
He just looked awful,

914
00:57:34,076 --> 00:57:38,080
and then little by little, you saw the change
that came over this man.

915
00:57:38,372 --> 00:57:41,083
He had pink cheeks,
he started to be very sociable,

916
00:57:41,375 --> 00:57:44,002
he was out playing his guitar,
chatting with other people

917
00:57:44,294 --> 00:57:46,171
and he was having such a lovely time.

918
00:57:47,714 --> 00:57:49,049
Meditation worked all right.

919
00:57:49,341 --> 00:57:53,470
You know, you could handle each day
better than I could handle it before.

920
00:57:53,762 --> 00:57:56,139
I was meditating like eight hours a day,
things like that

921
00:57:56,723 --> 00:57:59,309
and it was really some trip
like acid was nowhere, you know.

922
00:57:59,601 --> 00:58:01,937
Just sitting there,
muttering some word in a room,

923
00:58:02,229 --> 00:58:04,940
it was the biggest trip
I've ever had in my life.

924
00:58:06,775 --> 00:58:10,153
Ringo is always in meditation

925
00:58:10,445 --> 00:58:12,823
and he goes by feeling and heart,

926
00:58:13,115 --> 00:58:16,660
whereas the other Beatles,
too much brain is in the way.

927
00:58:18,495 --> 00:58:21,581
Ringo enjoyed the peaceful togetherness
with Mrs Ringo.

928
00:58:21,873 --> 00:58:23,291
It was a very peaceful scene.

929
00:58:23,875 --> 00:58:27,838
Ringo Starr, two or three days
he sees all this and he declares,

930
00:58:28,130 --> 00:58:32,843
"It's like a Butlin's holiday camp"
and disappears.

931
00:58:33,135 --> 00:58:35,595
He left, and then there were three.

932
00:58:37,097 --> 00:58:40,934
Ringo and his wife Maureen
stayed at the ashram for ten days.

933
00:58:41,226 --> 00:58:44,771
Ringo's allergies caused problems
with the ashram's food.

934
00:58:45,063 --> 00:58:48,900
He was allergic to so many things
that he took two suitcases to India.

935
00:58:49,192 --> 00:58:53,947
One had his clothes and the other one
was stuffed with cans of Heinz beans.

936
00:58:54,239 --> 00:58:55,115
HEINZ
BEANZ

937
00:58:55,407 --> 00:58:56,241
The fourth Beatle, drummer Ringo Star,

938
00:58:56,533 --> 00:58:57,325
slipped out of India with his wife
after only 10 days' study.

939
00:58:57,617 --> 00:58:58,744
But the primary reason
that Ringo and Maureen left

940
00:58:59,036 --> 00:59:00,495
was because they missed their kids.

941
00:59:00,787 --> 00:59:01,538
Ringo had to leave
"under pressure of his wife Maureen,

942
00:59:01,830 --> 00:59:02,622
who was longing to see here tiny daughter."

943
00:59:02,914 --> 00:59:04,374
Maharishi, I thank him,
you know, all the time.

944
00:59:04,666 --> 00:59:06,084
I thank him for giving me what he gave me

945
00:59:06,376 --> 00:59:09,254
and I'm glad I got it
in case I ever want to go into it again.

946
00:59:09,546 --> 00:59:11,590
You know, you can't lose
if you learn something.

947
00:59:27,606 --> 00:59:31,568
Maharishi wanted to take them off on a trip
to the Himalayas.

948
00:59:32,277 --> 00:59:36,073
A company ran these helicopter services.

949
00:59:40,035 --> 00:59:42,245
I'd always wanted to become a pilot.

950
00:59:43,288 --> 00:59:45,707
I became a chief pilot
for the Maharashtra government.

951
00:59:45,999 --> 00:59:46,833
RUSTOM CAPTAIN
Pilot

952
00:59:47,125 --> 00:59:51,046
I flew everybody,
including the prime minister often

953
00:59:51,338 --> 00:59:54,800
and Indira Gandhi also and the Beatles.

954
00:59:55,634 --> 00:59:58,637
Paul kept on saying, "Me, me, me"
because he wanted to get in

955
00:59:58,929 --> 01:00:00,055
and John said, "No, me, me, me"

956
01:00:00,347 --> 01:00:03,558
and anyway, finally,
John just pushed him aside and went in.

957
01:00:04,810 --> 01:00:08,522
I'm flying John on my left
and the Maharishi on my right

958
01:00:08,814 --> 01:00:13,443
and the Maharishi leant across me,
as you know he had a lot of hair and beard.

959
01:00:13,735 --> 01:00:16,071
So it's difficult for me
to fly the helicopter.

960
01:00:17,364 --> 01:00:21,993
He is telling John, "Down there
in the mountains, people live there.

961
01:00:22,285 --> 01:00:25,622
"They never go down to the valleys,
and they're praying all the time."

962
01:00:25,914 --> 01:00:28,125
So John said, "What are they praying for?"

963
01:00:28,416 --> 01:00:30,752
Maharishi said,
"They're praying that we crash."

964
01:00:31,044 --> 01:00:33,380
And John said,
"Goodness, why do they want us to crash?"

965
01:00:33,672 --> 01:00:37,676
He said, "Well, they are on the mountain top
with hardly any food

966
01:00:37,968 --> 01:00:41,263
"and I'm in RISHIKESH
with all these celebrities there

967
01:00:41,555 --> 01:00:43,014
"and all the money in the world."

968
01:00:43,306 --> 01:00:48,353
So John said, "Maharishi,
if you don't move your head and hair,

969
01:00:48,645 --> 01:00:50,564
"their prayers will be answered."

970
01:00:51,648 --> 01:00:54,693
And of course I started laughing
and everybody did.

971
01:00:55,861 --> 01:00:57,362
He had a sense of humour.

972
01:01:10,959 --> 01:01:13,628
PRATAP MUSIC HOUSE
Everything Musical

973
01:01:17,507 --> 01:01:21,595
They were visiting Dehradun.
George, John and Paul.

974
01:01:21,887 --> 01:01:27,309
He said, "This Saturday, they are having
celebrations in the ashram

975
01:01:27,601 --> 01:01:31,855
"to celebrate the birth
of George Harrison's wife."

976
01:01:32,147 --> 01:01:36,067
If I could bring some other musicians
along with me, they'll be very happy.

977
01:01:36,359 --> 01:01:37,360
AJIT SINGH
Owner PRATAP Music, Dehradun

978
01:01:37,652 --> 01:01:40,614
So I told them, "Okay, I can arrange it."

979
01:01:46,828 --> 01:01:49,956
So we all sat down,
Maharishi MAHESH gave a lecture

980
01:01:50,248 --> 01:01:52,292
and then I was asked to play.

981
01:01:52,584 --> 01:01:56,087
There was a composition by George Harrison
Within You Without You

982
01:01:56,379 --> 01:01:58,965
which was based on Raag Jog.

983
01:01:59,257 --> 01:02:04,221
So I decided to play that
and George was so excited about it.

984
01:02:05,138 --> 01:02:07,891
And I smiled
and he smiled and he waved at me.

985
01:02:09,142 --> 01:02:12,229
At that time, Nick Nugent went with me.

986
01:02:12,854 --> 01:02:15,065
Nick was a visiting teacher.

987
01:02:15,899 --> 01:02:17,901
Now tell me,
where did that famous photo of us...

988
01:02:18,193 --> 01:02:19,903
Was it in the middle, or was it over here?

989
01:02:20,362 --> 01:02:23,198
-Here, in this area. In this wall.
-Okay. Okay.

990
01:02:28,828 --> 01:02:29,746
NICK NUGENT
Teacher, The Doon School, Dehradun

991
01:02:30,038 --> 01:02:32,707
I have such vivid memories of that birthday
party where so much music was played,

992
01:02:32,999 --> 01:02:34,334
so much glamour.

993
01:02:34,626 --> 01:02:36,461
PATTIE Harrison there in her mauve sari.

994
01:02:36,753 --> 01:02:37,504
17 MARCH 1968

995
01:02:37,796 --> 01:02:40,131
Part of our mission was to bring her

996
01:02:40,423 --> 01:02:43,134
George Harrison's birthday present to her,
the dilruba.

997
01:02:43,927 --> 01:02:46,429
It was so relaxed coming from Britain.

998
01:02:46,721 --> 01:02:50,850
The Beatles were impossible
to see, or touch, or reach,

999
01:02:51,142 --> 01:02:53,144
and here, it was a completely
different atmosphere.

1000
01:02:54,521 --> 01:02:57,816
They were absolutely natural,
all the musicians there.

1001
01:02:58,108 --> 01:03:02,195
I think I spoke to Donovan,
Mike Love, Paul Horn

1002
01:03:02,487 --> 01:03:05,740
and of course Paul McCartney,
Jane Asher, John Lennon.

1003
01:03:06,032 --> 01:03:09,452
I don't think I spoke to George Harrison
because he was so tied up

1004
01:03:09,744 --> 01:03:13,748
in both the occasion of his wife's birthday
and also the music.

1005
01:03:14,040 --> 01:03:17,335
He really was playing music
and enjoying music

1006
01:03:17,627 --> 01:03:19,629
and absorbing Indian music.

1007
01:03:19,921 --> 01:03:23,300
There was no pretence about it,
he was completely hooked.

1008
01:03:25,468 --> 01:03:31,349
The music started off being very Indian
and played on Indian instruments.

1009
01:03:31,641 --> 01:03:34,811
But then you could say it deteriorated
into a birthday party

1010
01:03:35,103 --> 01:03:36,646
with the Happy Birthday song

1011
01:03:36,938 --> 01:03:40,150
and the British national anthem
for some curious reason.

1012
01:03:40,942 --> 01:03:44,654
As the evening went on
and perhaps people got a bit fidgety,

1013
01:03:44,946 --> 01:03:47,073
we went outside and enjoyed fireworks.

1014
01:03:47,365 --> 01:03:49,075
Of course I went away feeling

1015
01:03:49,367 --> 01:03:51,494
that perhaps the meditation
was all a bit of a lark

1016
01:03:51,786 --> 01:03:53,830
because they enjoyed themselves
so much in the evening.

1017
01:03:57,417 --> 01:04:03,548
Now George Harrison was thinking
mostly of playing better, serious music

1018
01:04:03,840 --> 01:04:05,425
which belong to the world.

1019
01:04:06,092 --> 01:04:08,678
But John Lennon was a serious human being.

1020
01:04:08,970 --> 01:04:13,725
He was not very talkative,
but his thinking was very beautiful

1021
01:04:14,017 --> 01:04:17,645
and I was slightly more fascinated by John.

1022
01:04:20,440 --> 01:04:25,111
They gave me so much respect, you know,
they treated me very well.

1023
01:04:25,403 --> 01:04:26,821
They called me "Sir" and I was feeling...

1024
01:04:27,113 --> 01:04:28,615
It was strange, you know.

1025
01:04:28,907 --> 01:04:32,535
I told them, "Don't call me 'Sir'.
"No, no. For us you are sir."

1026
01:04:32,827 --> 01:04:37,707
They could not have seen me at all,
there was no need to, but they did.

1027
01:04:37,999 --> 01:04:43,004
Success had not gone to their head, you know.
They were simple human beings.

1028
01:04:47,008 --> 01:04:49,511
We came up the path here,
we were killing time,

1029
01:04:49,803 --> 01:04:52,472
and the Beatles, meantime,
had come back to their bungalow.

1030
01:04:52,764 --> 01:04:55,266
And they were on the roof.
Not just the Beatles,

1031
01:04:55,558 --> 01:04:57,685
but many musicians were on the roof
of the bungalow

1032
01:04:57,977 --> 01:05:02,565
playing music and it's the most
memorable thing of my day here

1033
01:05:02,857 --> 01:05:06,653
was hearing this music,
which was of course unrecorded music.

1034
01:05:06,945 --> 01:05:10,031
It was just being created at that time

1035
01:05:10,323 --> 01:05:12,450
and we felt we were witnessing

1036
01:05:12,742 --> 01:05:15,328
the first time round,
the first version of this music.

1037
01:05:29,926 --> 01:05:35,515
The word was coming to Maharishi
that they had suspended their meditations

1038
01:05:35,807 --> 01:05:39,269
and that they were sitting
and composing music.

1039
01:05:41,020 --> 01:05:44,774
We were there for about six weeks
and during that time,

1040
01:05:45,066 --> 01:05:49,696
there was no pressure from the outside world,
there was no pressure of them being Beatles

1041
01:05:49,988 --> 01:05:53,283
and their creative juices just overflowed.

1042
01:05:54,284 --> 01:05:56,911
They wrote all the songs for The White Album.

1043
01:05:57,203 --> 01:05:59,831
They worked out gradually
what they wanted to do

1044
01:06:00,498 --> 01:06:02,667
for the rest of their time as Beatles.

1045
01:06:04,627 --> 01:06:05,753
Other than when they were in the studio,

1046
01:06:06,045 --> 01:06:07,422
they didn't get to spend
a lot of time together.

1047
01:06:07,714 --> 01:06:08,590
STEVE TURNER
Author I The Complete Beatles Songs

1048
01:06:08,882 --> 01:06:11,176
So in India, they were suddenly together,
like, sort of, mates again,

1049
01:06:11,468 --> 01:06:13,094
so they could sit out and play

1050
01:06:13,386 --> 01:06:16,181
in the way that John and Paul used to play
in the council house

1051
01:06:16,473 --> 01:06:18,016
where Paul had grown up.

1052
01:06:19,767 --> 01:06:22,228
And you've got Mike Love
from The Beach Boys there,

1053
01:06:22,520 --> 01:06:25,565
so they've got that whole tributary
of American music that had influenced them

1054
01:06:25,857 --> 01:06:28,067
and Donovan with his kind of folk tradition

1055
01:06:28,359 --> 01:06:31,029
and Paul Horn who was a jazz flautist,
he was there, too.

1056
01:06:31,321 --> 01:06:34,532
So you've got
a lot of interesting streams coming in.

1057
01:06:39,120 --> 01:06:40,580
I'll show you the stairs. Here.

1058
01:06:40,872 --> 01:06:42,373
Ashram Forest Ranger

1059
01:06:42,665 --> 01:06:45,418
They'd sit here on these stairs.

1060
01:06:45,710 --> 01:06:49,923
There was a bamboo structure here
as a fence those days.

1061
01:06:50,215 --> 01:06:52,383
They would come
and they'd make new songs here,

1062
01:06:52,675 --> 01:06:55,011
staying here, sitting on the stairs.

1063
01:06:55,303 --> 01:06:58,306
That side, Prudence was living.

1064
01:06:58,598 --> 01:07:03,186
Maharishi told her to be inside,
stay with their practices.

1065
01:07:04,938 --> 01:07:10,735
Mia Farrow's sister, Prudence,
was way ahead of anybody else.

1066
01:07:11,027 --> 01:07:14,864
As soon as she entered her thing,
she went into meditation...

1067
01:07:15,156 --> 01:07:15,949
SAEED NAQVI
Journalist

1068
01:07:16,241 --> 01:07:20,828
...and as she has not emerged,
it's already 24 hours.

1069
01:07:21,621 --> 01:07:23,122
So she sings.

1070
01:07:24,040 --> 01:07:26,751
They would invite her outside.

1071
01:07:27,043 --> 01:07:30,964
"Hello. Prudence, come out.
Come out, Prudence" and she won't come.

1072
01:07:31,256 --> 01:07:33,800
And then they made a song Dear Prudence.

1073
01:07:37,303 --> 01:07:39,055
I think one that was, kind of, interesting

1074
01:07:39,347 --> 01:07:43,101
was when I came back from a tiger hunt
with my eldest son.

1075
01:07:43,393 --> 01:07:46,229
When we came walking in,
he said to Maharishi,

1076
01:07:46,521 --> 01:07:48,565
"I shot a tiger today, is that bad karma?"

1077
01:07:48,856 --> 01:07:49,691
NANCY COOKE DE HERRERA
Maharishi Publicist

1078
01:07:50,275 --> 01:07:53,236
Well, sitting there, observing this
was John Lennon

1079
01:07:53,528 --> 01:07:57,323
and John said, "You don't call that
slightly life destructive?"

1080
01:07:57,615 --> 01:07:59,993
And I said, "It was the tiger or us."

1081
01:08:03,246 --> 01:08:07,333
Maharishi glared at Nancy
the whole time they were talking about it.

1082
01:08:07,625 --> 01:08:10,753
"Life destruction is life destruction.
End of story."

1083
01:08:11,045 --> 01:08:16,467
That's how the song The Continuing Story
of Bungalow Bill originated.

1084
01:08:16,759 --> 01:08:21,180
It was John's answer
to Nancy's paltry excuse.

1085
01:08:22,599 --> 01:08:25,560
Because Mike Love was there
and they knew the Beach Boys' music

1086
01:08:25,852 --> 01:08:29,063
and there was this, kind of, friendly rivalry
with them wanting to top each other.

1087
01:08:29,355 --> 01:08:31,774
Back In The U.S.S.R
is just like a parody of a Beach Boys song...

1088
01:08:32,066 --> 01:08:32,942
ONE NIGHT ONLY - LAST BOSTON APPEARANCE

1089
01:08:33,234 --> 01:08:34,068
IN PERSON - MAHARISHI MAHESH YOGI (THE GURU)
& THE BEACH BOYS

1090
01:08:34,360 --> 01:08:35,403
...but instead of being about the USA,
it was about Russia.

1091
01:08:35,695 --> 01:08:36,529
DELHI

1092
01:08:36,821 --> 01:08:38,906
It was a very novel idea at the time
to think of a rock 'n' roll song

1093
01:08:39,198 --> 01:08:40,742
that appeared
to be celebrating Russian culture,

1094
01:08:41,034 --> 01:08:44,996
and had all these Russian names
and Russian places being mentioned.

1095
01:08:45,288 --> 01:08:47,749
RISHIKESH as spy centre:
probe plea against Yogi

1096
01:08:48,041 --> 01:08:52,629
Opposition members today demanded an enquiry
into Maharishi MAHESH Yogi,

1097
01:08:52,920 --> 01:08:56,466
alleging that RISHIKESH had become
a centre of espionage.

1098
01:08:56,758 --> 01:08:58,051
The issue was raised by Mr K Anirudhan...

1099
01:08:58,343 --> 01:08:59,469
'RISHIKESH, hot-bed of espionage'

1100
01:08:59,761 --> 01:09:02,430
...after a radio transmitter
was found on a bus

1101
01:09:02,722 --> 01:09:06,809
near the antibiotics factory in RISHIKESH
belonging to a foreigner.

1102
01:09:07,935 --> 01:09:10,355
A furore broke out in Parliament.

1103
01:09:10,647 --> 01:09:12,607
It was led by the Communists,
backed by the Socialists...

1104
01:09:12,899 --> 01:09:13,733
AJOY BOSE
Author I Across The Universe

1105
01:09:14,025 --> 01:09:14,817
RISHIKESH a spy centre, alleges MP

1106
01:09:15,109 --> 01:09:17,445
...and they said that there was a CIA camp
in the ashram.

1107
01:09:17,737 --> 01:09:18,613
MAHESH Yogi denies harbouring spies

1108
01:09:18,905 --> 01:09:20,698
And the Maharishi was getting all these
foreigners, including the Beatles...

1109
01:09:20,990 --> 01:09:21,866
The Beatles and the Hippies
"had started their own colony."

1110
01:09:22,158 --> 01:09:22,992
An American secret service boss
was also "at the feet of the yogi,"

1111
01:09:23,284 --> 01:09:24,452
...to destabilise India.

1112
01:09:24,744 --> 01:09:26,329
1964 - CLASSIFIED

1113
01:09:26,621 --> 01:09:31,501
I give the CIA a total credit
for sponsoring and initiating

1114
01:09:31,793 --> 01:09:33,586
the entire consciousness movement,

1115
01:09:33,878 --> 01:09:35,338
counterculture events of the 1960s.

1116
01:09:35,630 --> 01:09:36,589
TIMOTHY LEARY
Psychologist And Psychedelic Drug Advocate

1117
01:09:38,424 --> 01:09:40,176
This was exactly the time

1118
01:09:40,468 --> 01:09:43,888
when Indira Gandhi was making friends
with the Soviet Union.

1119
01:09:44,180 --> 01:09:46,683
PENTAGON BUILDING
MALL ENTRANCE

1120
01:09:46,974 --> 01:09:49,727
Today, we're going to show you
cases of attempted espionage

1121
01:09:50,019 --> 01:09:53,064
by agents of
the Sino-Soviet intelligence system.

1122
01:09:53,356 --> 01:09:57,235
You recognise the way
a Sino or Soviet agent operates,

1123
01:09:57,527 --> 01:10:00,613
both in finding someone vulnerable
to subversion,

1124
01:10:00,905 --> 01:10:03,116
as well as in their technique
of ensnaring him

1125
01:10:03,408 --> 01:10:05,576
and applying pressure
to get him to play ball.

1126
01:10:07,036 --> 01:10:11,541
The KGB sent their top man in India,
Bezmenov,

1127
01:10:11,833 --> 01:10:14,752
to the ashram to check out the Maharishi.

1128
01:10:16,754 --> 01:10:21,467
Well, my function was to discover
what kind of people attend this school.

1129
01:10:21,759 --> 01:10:25,179
Yes, there are some influential
opinion makers

1130
01:10:25,471 --> 01:10:28,850
who come back with the crazy stories
about Indian philosophy.

1131
01:10:29,142 --> 01:10:29,976
YURI BEZMENOV
KGB Agent

1132
01:10:30,727 --> 01:10:33,646
Maharishi MAHESH Yogi,
a great spiritual leader,

1133
01:10:33,938 --> 01:10:35,898
or maybe a great charlatan and crook,

1134
01:10:36,190 --> 01:10:38,484
depending from which side
you are looking at him.

1135
01:10:38,776 --> 01:10:40,778
The Beatles were trained at his ashram.

1136
01:10:41,070 --> 01:10:45,867
Mia Farrow and other useful idiots
from Hollywood visited his school,

1137
01:10:46,159 --> 01:10:48,077
and they returned back to the United States

1138
01:10:48,369 --> 01:10:51,873
absolutely zonked out of their minds
with marijuana, hashish,

1139
01:10:52,165 --> 01:10:54,250
and crazy ideas of meditation.

1140
01:10:56,085 --> 01:10:57,712
Maharishi used to always say,

1141
01:10:58,004 --> 01:11:01,215
"You can never create peace
through signing treaties,

1142
01:11:01,507 --> 01:11:05,428
"through legislation,
through any kind of external means."

1143
01:11:05,720 --> 01:11:06,304
SUSAN SHUMSKY
Author I Maharishi & Me

1144
01:11:06,596 --> 01:11:09,891
The only way to create world peace
is for people to meditate.

1145
01:11:10,683 --> 01:11:14,061
If you carefully look,
what Maharishi MAHESH Yogi is teaching,

1146
01:11:14,353 --> 01:11:15,938
is that most of the problems,

1147
01:11:16,230 --> 01:11:20,735
most of the burning issues of today
can be solved simply by meditating.

1148
01:11:21,569 --> 01:11:23,613
Don't rock the boat,

1149
01:11:23,988 --> 01:11:25,239
don't get involved,

1150
01:11:25,531 --> 01:11:27,909
just sit down, look at your navel,
and meditate,

1151
01:11:28,201 --> 01:11:32,121
and the things, due to some strange logic,
due to cosmic vibration,

1152
01:11:32,413 --> 01:11:34,916
will settle down by themselves.

1153
01:11:36,375 --> 01:11:40,296
It's in the air of spiritually regenerating

1154
01:11:40,588 --> 01:11:42,757
every man everywhere in the world

1155
01:11:43,049 --> 01:11:45,676
and creating peace.

1156
01:11:47,261 --> 01:11:50,848
You can get control of yourself
just by sitting quietly

1157
01:11:51,140 --> 01:11:55,520
and by turning off
from the external problems we have

1158
01:11:55,812 --> 01:11:57,438
and all this society...

1159
01:11:57,730 --> 01:12:01,692
You can go inside yourself
where it's always calm and peaceful.

1160
01:12:02,944 --> 01:12:06,656
This is exactly what the KGB
and Marxist-Leninist propaganda want.

1161
01:12:06,948 --> 01:12:11,285
To distract their attention and mental energy
from real issues

1162
01:12:11,577 --> 01:12:15,248
into non-issues, into non-existent harmony.

1163
01:12:16,290 --> 01:12:19,752
Maharishi MAHESH Yogi obviously
is not on the payroll of the KGB,

1164
01:12:20,753 --> 01:12:22,505
but whether he knows it or not,

1165
01:12:22,797 --> 01:12:26,384
he contributes greatly
to the demoralisation of American society.

1166
01:12:30,513 --> 01:12:31,055
Another Beatle leaves
Hindustan Times Correspondent

1167
01:12:31,347 --> 01:12:31,764
New Delhi, March 23 - Paul McCartney,
one of the Beatles,

1168
01:12:32,056 --> 01:12:32,598
and his girl friend, Jane Asher, an actress,
left for London tonight.

1169
01:12:34,267 --> 01:12:37,270
Paul McCartney and his girlfriend,
Jane Asher,

1170
01:12:37,562 --> 01:12:39,105
stayed for five weeks,

1171
01:12:39,397 --> 01:12:43,359
and they left because Jane had
a theatrical commitment back in London.

1172
01:12:45,778 --> 01:12:47,989
This, presumably,
is your first big meditation.

1173
01:12:48,656 --> 01:12:49,866
What effect has it had on you?

1174
01:12:50,366 --> 01:12:52,368
I think it calms you down.

1175
01:12:52,785 --> 01:12:56,122
It's hard to tell because
it was so different, life out there.

1176
01:12:56,414 --> 01:12:59,709
It'll be easier to tell now that I'm back
and doing some ordinary things

1177
01:13:00,001 --> 01:13:01,586
to see just what it does.

1178
01:13:04,463 --> 01:13:07,091
They were four working class guys
from Liverpool.

1179
01:13:07,383 --> 01:13:10,887
They had an innate sense
of not being taken advantage of.

1180
01:13:11,178 --> 01:13:14,765
So when they get together with Maharishi,
Maharishi is inevitably tempted

1181
01:13:15,057 --> 01:13:20,062
to capitalise on his sudden worldwide fame

1182
01:13:20,354 --> 01:13:21,689
because of the Beatles association.

1183
01:13:21,981 --> 01:13:22,857
MAHARISHI MAHESH YOGI

1184
01:13:23,149 --> 01:13:24,233
They realised that

1185
01:13:24,525 --> 01:13:27,945
maybe Maharishi had been
using them all along for publicity,

1186
01:13:28,237 --> 01:13:29,822
ever since the vinyl record

1187
01:13:30,114 --> 01:13:33,618
that was by "the Beatles' spiritual teacher,"
it said on the album.

1188
01:13:33,910 --> 01:13:34,327
Maharishi MAHESH Yogi
the Beatles' spiritual teacher

1189
01:13:34,619 --> 01:13:34,952
speaks to the youth of the world on Love

1190
01:13:35,244 --> 01:13:35,620
and the untapped source of Power
that lies within

1191
01:13:35,912 --> 01:13:39,081
So John and George started to think,
"Something fishy is here,

1192
01:13:39,373 --> 01:13:40,958
"he's using us for publicity."

1193
01:13:42,418 --> 01:13:47,006
So they began to hear little bits of news
here and there from the grapevine...

1194
01:13:47,298 --> 01:13:47,632
a feature for Four Star Productions

1195
01:13:47,924 --> 01:13:48,299
based on the life
of the Maharishi MAHESH Yogi

1196
01:13:48,591 --> 01:13:50,301
..."Maharishi's planning this
and planning that,

1197
01:13:50,593 --> 01:13:51,135
"and you're gonna be in it,"

1198
01:13:51,427 --> 01:13:52,470
and they go, "Are we?"

1199
01:13:53,512 --> 01:13:59,769
Maharishi kept promising ABC
that he would do a special with the Beatles,

1200
01:14:00,061 --> 01:14:02,855
and the Beatles kept saying,
"We're not gonna do this special”,

1201
01:14:03,147 --> 01:14:06,233
but Maharishi kept promising it
over and over.

1202
01:14:06,776 --> 01:14:10,446
There comes a time in late '67
when Paul and George go to Sweden

1203
01:14:10,738 --> 01:14:13,491
basically to tell the Maharishi
to cool it a bit.

1204
01:14:13,783 --> 01:14:17,328
"Don't start making plans that involve us
without telling us first."

1205
01:14:17,620 --> 01:14:19,538
-We're glad to have you here.
-Thank you.

1206
01:14:19,830 --> 01:14:21,415
We do appreciate your music.

1207
01:14:21,707 --> 01:14:22,416
14 OCTOBER 1967
Falsterbo Sweden

1208
01:14:22,708 --> 01:14:23,793
And...

1209
01:14:24,710 --> 01:14:25,461
That's good, yeah.

1210
01:14:25,753 --> 01:14:26,629
The smell of the flowers.

1211
01:14:27,463 --> 01:14:29,799
-We only decided to come yesterday...
-Yes. Yes.

1212
01:14:30,341 --> 01:14:32,426
Just to pop over to have a little chat.

1213
01:14:32,718 --> 01:14:33,552
Yes.

1214
01:14:33,844 --> 01:14:35,721
And when the Beatles were in RISHIKESH,

1215
01:14:36,013 --> 01:14:39,266
he, without their knowledge,
was having discussions

1216
01:14:39,558 --> 01:14:43,270
with a Hollywood film company
called Four Star International.

1217
01:14:45,231 --> 01:14:47,108
FOUR
STAR

1218
01:14:47,400 --> 01:14:50,945
Maharishi promised them
that they could have exclusive rights

1219
01:14:51,237 --> 01:14:55,282
to make a film about Maharishi
and about Maharishi's guru,

1220
01:14:55,574 --> 01:14:59,328
but unfortunately, Maharishi made
the same promise to someone else.

1221
01:14:59,620 --> 01:15:02,832
He had given rights to Four Star Productions

1222
01:15:03,124 --> 01:15:06,961
and a lawyer arrived in RISHIKESH
with a signed contract

1223
01:15:07,253 --> 01:15:12,425
that gave exclusive rights to film Maharishi
for the next five years.

1224
01:15:14,051 --> 01:15:17,263
Some suits arrived from Hollywood and a crew

1225
01:15:17,555 --> 01:15:19,974
and John and George were going,
"We didn't want this.

1226
01:15:20,266 --> 01:15:21,142
SERBJEET SINGH PROD.
"LOOK WITHIN"

1227
01:15:21,434 --> 01:15:23,978
"We're here to meditate,
we don't want these film people here"

1228
01:15:24,270 --> 01:15:26,564
and there was a confrontation
with Maharishi about,

1229
01:15:26,856 --> 01:15:28,941
"Why are you doing this? We told you not to."

1230
01:15:30,359 --> 01:15:33,779
In any case, The Beatles became
quite disillusioned about that.

1231
01:15:34,196 --> 01:15:38,284
The film was really kind of a deal breaker
and they got very angry

1232
01:15:38,576 --> 01:15:41,996
because they had been granted
exclusive rights to do this film

1233
01:15:42,288 --> 01:15:46,375
and now another film company is there,
so the whole thing just fell apart.

1234
01:15:51,172 --> 01:15:52,173
I don't know what happened.

1235
01:15:52,465 --> 01:15:54,592
I still don't know, and I know
there are many rumours around,

1236
01:15:54,884 --> 01:15:58,220
but John said,
"That's it, we're going, we're going."

1237
01:15:58,512 --> 01:15:59,180
PATTIE BOYD

1238
01:15:59,472 --> 01:16:03,059
But I know John wanted to come back
to England to see Yoko.

1239
01:16:03,350 --> 01:16:06,645
And so, any little excuse,
John was ready to go,

1240
01:16:06,937 --> 01:16:09,065
'cause we'd been there for weeks.

1241
01:16:09,523 --> 01:16:11,734
Well, it was only John who was upset.

1242
01:16:12,026 --> 01:16:14,111
John dragged George along

1243
01:16:14,403 --> 01:16:18,699
and I still think it was when Magic Alex came
from the Apple Corp group.

1244
01:16:21,911 --> 01:16:25,748
Alexis Mardas
was one of the Beatles' associates.

1245
01:16:26,040 --> 01:16:27,875
In fact, he was very close to John.

1246
01:16:28,167 --> 01:16:33,380
He'd sort of attached himself to John's hip
and Cynthia really didn't like Alexis.

1247
01:16:33,672 --> 01:16:37,051
She was very concerned
about the Svengali influence

1248
01:16:37,343 --> 01:16:39,386
that he was having on John.

1249
01:16:39,678 --> 01:16:43,557
John had introduced Alex as "my new guru".

1250
01:16:43,849 --> 01:16:47,061
He was this electronics marvel, supposedly.

1251
01:16:47,353 --> 01:16:51,857
He introduced himself as somebody who was
like Edison and Marconi combined...

1252
01:16:52,149 --> 01:16:53,150
He's the Beatles' personal boffin -
you want an invention? Then he's got it

1253
01:16:53,442 --> 01:16:55,319
...but in fact he was just a TV repairman.

1254
01:16:55,611 --> 01:16:56,570
We've just got a friend of ours

1255
01:16:56,862 --> 01:16:58,155
-who's in electronics...
-Oh, yeah.

1256
01:16:58,447 --> 01:16:59,657
...who's called Alex.

1257
01:16:59,949 --> 01:17:02,827
And he's great, he's a Greek fella
and he's invented...

1258
01:17:03,119 --> 01:17:05,621
He's invented incredible things.

1259
01:17:06,038 --> 01:17:08,457
He was a minx. Yeah, a naughty little boy.

1260
01:17:08,749 --> 01:17:10,793
You see, he wanted to have power over John

1261
01:17:11,085 --> 01:17:13,796
so he would, you know,
create all these things,

1262
01:17:14,088 --> 01:17:15,214
pretending he's a scientist.

1263
01:17:15,506 --> 01:17:17,758
He said,
"Here's this wonderful new wallpaper,

1264
01:17:18,050 --> 01:17:22,596
"but it's all speakers, so the whole room
will be one big speaker."

1265
01:17:22,888 --> 01:17:25,432
So he loved all that, controlling John.

1266
01:17:25,724 --> 01:17:28,978
So clearly, and obviously,
Maharishi was in the way.

1267
01:17:29,854 --> 01:17:32,439
One night, John and Maharishi were having
this wonderful rapport...

1268
01:17:32,731 --> 01:17:33,399
NANCY COOKE DE HERRERA
Maharishi Publicist

1269
01:17:33,691 --> 01:17:35,776
...and you know how you can see sometimes

1270
01:17:36,068 --> 01:17:38,696
when a person lets the mask
drop from their face?

1271
01:17:38,988 --> 01:17:44,285
And I could see this real dislike of
Maharishi on Magic Alex's face.

1272
01:17:44,577 --> 01:17:47,955
It disturbed me enough that I felt
something was going wrong.

1273
01:17:48,998 --> 01:17:51,041
No one ever saw him meditating

1274
01:17:51,333 --> 01:17:55,087
and as a matter of fact,
he admitted that he came to India

1275
01:17:55,379 --> 01:17:58,924
for the purpose of getting the Beatles away
from Maharishi.

1276
01:17:59,216 --> 01:18:04,221
Alexis said, "It's because we don't want

1277
01:18:04,513 --> 01:18:09,310
"Maharishi to have that much influence
over the boys."

1278
01:18:11,312 --> 01:18:14,982
I'm totally convinced
that Magic Alex made a friend

1279
01:18:15,274 --> 01:18:17,067
of one of the young women at the ashram

1280
01:18:17,359 --> 01:18:23,157
and he got her to tell John Lennon
that she was having sex with Maharishi.

1281
01:18:23,449 --> 01:18:26,660
This just horrified all of us
when this whole thing happened.

1282
01:18:28,120 --> 01:18:30,539
I believe that Maharishi made a pass,

1283
01:18:31,373 --> 01:18:32,541
and the reason I believe it

1284
01:18:32,833 --> 01:18:35,836
is because he made a pass
at many women that I knew.

1285
01:18:36,128 --> 01:18:38,505
She wasn't the first, or the last one.

1286
01:18:39,506 --> 01:18:41,759
Well, I remember Maharishi
saying that, you know,

1287
01:18:42,051 --> 01:18:45,304
if you have an ugly woman over here
and a beautiful woman over there,

1288
01:18:45,596 --> 01:18:49,183
it's just easier for your attention
to go to the more beautiful.

1289
01:18:51,518 --> 01:18:53,646
John and George didn't believe it at first,

1290
01:18:53,938 --> 01:18:56,315
but finally Alexis convinced them,

1291
01:18:57,358 --> 01:19:01,737
and then went and got taxis for all of them
before they could change their mind.

1292
01:19:02,613 --> 01:19:06,033
While they were waiting for the taxis,
John wrote,

1293
01:19:06,325 --> 01:19:10,663
"Maharishi, Maharishi, what have you done?
You've made a fool of everyone."

1294
01:19:10,955 --> 01:19:13,832
The song had a lot of expletives in it

1295
01:19:14,124 --> 01:19:18,087
and George said,
"You can't say that, that's ridiculous."

1296
01:19:18,379 --> 01:19:21,507
So John changed the lyrics to "Sexy Sadie."

1297
01:19:22,925 --> 01:19:25,970
Sexy Sadie, it was actually called Maharishi,

1298
01:19:26,262 --> 01:19:29,265
and it was a putdown of the Maharishi
in very vicious terms.

1299
01:19:29,556 --> 01:19:31,350
I don't think there was any chance
of it getting out

1300
01:19:31,642 --> 01:19:34,353
with the words
that John had originally written.

1301
01:19:34,645 --> 01:19:37,439
He basically denounces him
and says he was a bit of a rogue.

1302
01:19:39,441 --> 01:19:44,321
John dragged George along
and then he just bolted from the ashram.

1303
01:19:44,613 --> 01:19:45,739
10 APRIL 1968

1304
01:19:46,031 --> 01:19:48,367
-It was a mistake.
-What do you mean it was a mistake?

1305
01:19:48,659 --> 01:19:49,952
We made a mistake.

1306
01:19:50,244 --> 01:19:53,539
We thought there was more to him
than there was, you know, but he's human.

1307
01:19:55,082 --> 01:19:57,668
And for a while we thought he wasn't,
you know, thought he was a...

1308
01:20:08,429 --> 01:20:11,348
...and the devil was released

1309
01:20:11,640 --> 01:20:14,852
Back home, we got a postcard in the mail

1310
01:20:17,438 --> 01:20:20,441
That was in the good old days

1311
01:20:21,567 --> 01:20:23,777
Along the hippie trail

1312
01:20:30,034 --> 01:20:34,913
The Beatles, they were opening us up
to different experiences in various ways,

1313
01:20:35,205 --> 01:20:40,336
Indian philosophy and Indian music
and then when they went to RISHIKESH,

1314
01:20:40,627 --> 01:20:42,588
it was the idea of Indian travel.

1315
01:20:43,547 --> 01:20:44,506
RICHARD GREGORY
Musician And Hippie Trail Historian

1316
01:20:44,798 --> 01:20:45,799
It's like, "It looks nice over there",
you know.

1317
01:20:46,091 --> 01:20:48,302
They're enjoying themselves in the sunshine.

1318
01:20:50,429 --> 01:20:54,558
There had been a hippie trail,
an embryonic hippie trail in the early '60s,

1319
01:20:54,850 --> 01:20:55,768
a few people had gone out.

1320
01:20:56,352 --> 01:20:59,104
The whole point,
being that you drove over land,

1321
01:20:59,396 --> 01:21:02,608
the ultimate destination
was, in fact, Kathmandu in Nepal.

1322
01:21:02,900 --> 01:21:05,444
I'm sure the Beatles inspired
lots of people to go

1323
01:21:05,736 --> 01:21:09,948
because this little trickle of people
on the hippie trail beforehand

1324
01:21:10,240 --> 01:21:11,617
suddenly turned into a flood.

1325
01:21:15,412 --> 01:21:16,914
Did you enjoy the trip over to India?

1326
01:21:18,082 --> 01:21:19,208
The journey was terrible,

1327
01:21:19,500 --> 01:21:21,627
-but the trip was all right.
-Yeah.

1328
01:21:21,919 --> 01:21:25,714
-There was a report that... Now we...
-Yeah, it's true. Smashed him.

1329
01:21:27,508 --> 01:21:29,301
You didn't like it,
or you didn't have the patience

1330
01:21:29,593 --> 01:21:30,552
and you decided to go home?

1331
01:21:30,844 --> 01:21:32,971
We were there four months.
Well, George and I were.

1332
01:21:33,263 --> 01:21:35,182
Did you think this man is on the level?

1333
01:21:35,724 --> 01:21:37,017
I don't know what level he's on,

1334
01:21:37,309 --> 01:21:40,979
but we had a nice holiday in India
and came back rested.

1335
01:21:43,107 --> 01:21:48,862
Maharishi looked visibly frail
and without his usual effervescence.

1336
01:21:49,988 --> 01:21:55,369
His brilliant and beautiful yogic radiance
was reduced to grey and ashen.

1337
01:21:56,036 --> 01:21:57,663
He became physically sick

1338
01:21:57,955 --> 01:22:01,208
when the course moved
from RISHIKESH to Kashmir.

1339
01:22:02,584 --> 01:22:04,461
He's still a nice fella and everybody's fine,

1340
01:22:04,753 --> 01:22:07,297
but we don't go out with him any more.

1341
01:22:08,173 --> 01:22:10,634
When the RISHIKESH experience finished,

1342
01:22:10,926 --> 01:22:15,431
Paul, John and Ringo just kind of,
carried on, resumed, with their lives.

1343
01:22:15,722 --> 01:22:18,225
But for George,
India was never a five minute thing,

1344
01:22:18,517 --> 01:22:19,518
India was a lifetime's devotion.

1345
01:22:19,810 --> 01:22:20,561
MARK LEWISOHN
Author & Historian

1346
01:22:20,853 --> 01:22:24,648
And he wasn't just going to give it up
because of the way that RISHIKESH finished

1347
01:22:24,940 --> 01:22:26,066
with a bit of a sour taste.

1348
01:22:26,358 --> 01:22:28,861
India, for him, was something
that he continued to push.

1349
01:22:31,196 --> 01:22:33,282
George didn't want to go back to London.

1350
01:22:33,574 --> 01:22:35,784
George was still in meditation mode

1351
01:22:36,076 --> 01:22:38,620
and he didn't want to go
straight back to see the press.

1352
01:22:38,912 --> 01:22:41,748
So he said, "Let's go down to Kerala
just for a week."

1353
01:22:42,583 --> 01:22:44,126
And it was very calm then

1354
01:22:44,418 --> 01:22:49,339
and then, you know, he wanted to slowly
come back into business life,

1355
01:22:49,631 --> 01:22:52,509
as it were, and London, slowly. In his way.

1356
01:22:56,722 --> 01:22:59,683
Everybody all of a sudden
became an individual,

1357
01:22:59,975 --> 01:23:03,145
John, Paul, Ringo and George.

1358
01:23:03,437 --> 01:23:05,397
The Maharishi phase faded out...

1359
01:23:05,689 --> 01:23:06,482
SUSMIT BOSE
Folksinger & Songwriter

1360
01:23:06,773 --> 01:23:09,401
...you know, but the Indian aesthetics

1361
01:23:09,693 --> 01:23:12,112
and the etiquettes remained with everybody

1362
01:23:12,404 --> 01:23:15,491
using the influence of Indian music
and the culture.

1363
01:23:17,159 --> 01:23:19,661
You know,
when you look back at the Beatles' story

1364
01:23:19,953 --> 01:23:23,582
on their return to the UK
in the spring of 1968,

1365
01:23:23,874 --> 01:23:27,920
there was still the camaraderie that saw them
through the madness of Beatlemania.

1366
01:23:28,212 --> 01:23:32,549
Soon to dissolve, as the fraught sessions
of The White Album began.

1367
01:23:32,841 --> 01:23:36,261
Working separately most of the time
and not as a unit,

1368
01:23:36,553 --> 01:23:39,223
and with Ringo quitting the band
for a short period,

1369
01:23:39,515 --> 01:23:44,019
remarkably, they delivered what many
would call one of their greatest albums.

1370
01:23:44,311 --> 01:23:45,479
1 (3) THE BEATLES (Double Album)
Beatles, Apple

1371
01:23:45,771 --> 01:23:47,064
When The Beatles were in India,

1372
01:23:47,356 --> 01:23:48,941
Maharishi told them

1373
01:23:49,233 --> 01:23:53,820
if they don't continue meditating regularly,
their band would break up.

1374
01:23:58,325 --> 01:24:03,163
Now does this mean a business
or emotional split within The Beatles?

1375
01:24:03,455 --> 01:24:04,456
I should think a bit of both.

1376
01:24:04,748 --> 01:24:05,707
It's probably to do with growing up.

1377
01:24:05,999 --> 01:24:06,959
DEREK TAYLOR
Beatles Press Officer 10 April 1970

1378
01:24:07,251 --> 01:24:08,502
There was a time
when there were just four of them,

1379
01:24:08,794 --> 01:24:10,295
but now, they're married
and there are children.

1380
01:24:11,713 --> 01:24:16,260
Night Special
BEATLES SPLIT

1381
01:24:21,098 --> 01:24:24,309
I was born in 1971,

1382
01:24:24,601 --> 01:24:26,895
the same time around
when Beatles broke up.

1383
01:24:27,187 --> 01:24:28,105
NEIL MUKHERJEE
Musician & Producer

1384
01:24:28,397 --> 01:24:32,985
I mean, even like...
I guess it's about 50 odd years or something,

1385
01:24:33,277 --> 01:24:35,153
it still sounds fresh.

1386
01:24:35,654 --> 01:24:37,531
It sounds amazing.

1387
01:24:38,407 --> 01:24:41,660
The world would have been, like,
so shit without them, you know.

1388
01:24:42,327 --> 01:24:46,164
The world is so much better to live in
with that music around.

1389
01:24:47,499 --> 01:24:50,836
The songs they made in India in RISHIKESH,
I had no idea,

1390
01:24:51,128 --> 01:24:53,422
and out of them, some of the songs
like Blackbird, like Dear Prudence...

1391
01:24:53,714 --> 01:24:54,590
the Score magazine
BENNY DAYAL

1392
01:24:54,881 --> 01:24:56,717
Like, these are some of the songs
that I used to perform

1393
01:24:57,009 --> 01:24:59,553
in my old band in Chennai.

1394
01:24:59,845 --> 01:25:02,306
To have known
they have written these songs in India...

1395
01:25:02,598 --> 01:25:03,265
BENNY DAYAL
Singer

1396
01:25:03,557 --> 01:25:04,683
...just gave it so much more meaning

1397
01:25:04,975 --> 01:25:08,437
because I used to connect to these songs
as a classical musician

1398
01:25:08,729 --> 01:25:11,648
more than a person who loves English music.

1399
01:25:13,191 --> 01:25:14,484
I was born in 74.

1400
01:25:14,776 --> 01:25:17,779
So for me to get to know
the Beatles happened much later...

1401
01:25:18,071 --> 01:25:20,324
We were not really bothered that time
when the dressing,

1402
01:25:20,616 --> 01:25:21,742
how Beatles' haircut,

1403
01:25:22,034 --> 01:25:23,535
or the dress that they wore
really attracted us,

1404
01:25:23,827 --> 01:25:24,703
we didn't see that.

1405
01:25:24,995 --> 01:25:25,704
BANN CHAKRABORTY
Musician & Producer

1406
01:25:25,996 --> 01:25:26,997
We only heard the music.

1407
01:25:27,581 --> 01:25:28,749
It's purely the music.

1408
01:25:29,041 --> 01:25:34,421
It sounded very simple,
very catchy and it had a high recall.

1409
01:25:34,713 --> 01:25:36,840
So, whenever you heard a song,
you would remember it.

1410
01:25:37,132 --> 01:25:42,012
But when you sat down to work on it,
to try and see if you can sing that song,

1411
01:25:42,304 --> 01:25:44,598
that was when you realise
the complexity of it.

1412
01:25:45,307 --> 01:25:47,684
I don't know how it was appreciated
when it was released,

1413
01:25:47,976 --> 01:25:50,937
but it's something
that's still relevant today.

1414
01:25:59,905 --> 01:26:02,491
They came to see in the fullness of time,

1415
01:26:02,783 --> 01:26:06,828
and particularly in George's case,
George discovered from gathering evidence

1416
01:26:07,120 --> 01:26:10,248
what exactly happened
at the end of their stay in RISHIKESH

1417
01:26:10,540 --> 01:26:15,629
and how Alexis Mardas, Magic Alex,
had cooked up this whole thing.

1418
01:26:16,088 --> 01:26:18,215
George always loved Maharishi

1419
01:26:18,507 --> 01:26:21,885
and towards the end of his life,
he went back to see Maharishi.

1420
01:26:23,053 --> 01:26:26,973
George said to Maharishi,
"I came to apologise."

1421
01:26:27,599 --> 01:26:30,102
And Maharishi asked, "For what?"

1422
01:26:30,936 --> 01:26:33,563
And George replied, "You know for what."

1423
01:26:35,107 --> 01:26:37,401
Maharishi, apparently, said to George

1424
01:26:37,693 --> 01:26:40,696
that he believed
that the Beatles were angels on Earth

1425
01:26:40,987 --> 01:26:43,782
and that they were not guilty
of any crime themselves,

1426
01:26:44,074 --> 01:26:48,203
so when George came away from that meeting,
he felt cleansed of his guilt

1427
01:26:48,495 --> 01:26:52,207
of the method of the departure back in 1968.

1428
01:26:54,000 --> 01:26:55,293
I got into India.

1429
01:26:55,585 --> 01:26:57,629
I think that was the one thing in my life

1430
01:26:57,921 --> 01:26:59,923
that I could have done
without everything else,

1431
01:27:00,215 --> 01:27:04,886
but that one thing of getting in touch
with what's inside,

1432
01:27:05,178 --> 01:27:08,598
through Maharishi and Ravi Shankar
and Indian music.

1433
01:27:10,642 --> 01:27:13,311
And as for the others,
well, they all warmed again

1434
01:27:13,603 --> 01:27:16,398
to the culture and the spirituality of India.

1435
01:27:17,023 --> 01:27:20,527
The only way we can change the system
is by changing it non-violently,

1436
01:27:20,819 --> 01:27:23,488
because they've done the violent kick
for millions of years, you know?

1437
01:27:23,780 --> 01:27:25,907
I think the only way to do it is Gandhi's way

1438
01:27:26,199 --> 01:27:28,034
and that's non-violent, passive, positive,

1439
01:27:28,326 --> 01:27:29,911
or whatever they called it those days,
you know.

1440
01:27:31,580 --> 01:27:35,041
John Lennon spoke kindly of Maharishi
in other interviews.

1441
01:27:35,333 --> 01:27:37,794
Ringo and Paul have both said the same.

1442
01:27:38,086 --> 01:27:41,089
Everything became okay again in the end.

1443
01:27:42,215 --> 01:27:44,843
Years ago, we studied meditation
with the Maharishi.

1444
01:27:45,135 --> 01:27:46,803
He was one of the ones that wasn't a fake.

1445
01:27:47,095 --> 01:27:50,182
There were a lot of them around that time
that were into Rolls-Royce and chicks

1446
01:27:50,474 --> 01:27:51,725
and he wasn't one of them.

1447
01:27:52,184 --> 01:27:54,102
I actually met him quite recently.

1448
01:27:54,394 --> 01:27:55,479
He lives in the Netherlands now,

1449
01:27:55,771 --> 01:27:59,191
and I took Stella, my daughter
and James, my son with me...

1450
01:27:59,483 --> 01:28:00,609
THE CHARLIE ROSE SHOW I 6 NOVEMBER 2001

1451
01:28:00,901 --> 01:28:02,778
...and he is a spry old codger,

1452
01:28:03,069 --> 01:28:05,864
he's in his 80s and he's still working,
he's still going.

1453
01:28:14,664 --> 01:28:18,835
The day when the Maharishi died,
there was a big storm.

1454
01:28:20,796 --> 01:28:24,341
The water from the River Ganges
came whirling up,

1455
01:28:25,634 --> 01:28:27,803
and it showered in this pandal.

1456
01:28:28,094 --> 01:28:32,098
The local folks, who came here to pay
their tributes to Maharishi MAHESH Yogi,

1457
01:28:32,390 --> 01:28:34,684
were amazed
to see this supernatural thing.

1458
01:28:34,976 --> 01:28:38,647
It was the power of Maharishi
which brought Ganga

1459
01:28:38,939 --> 01:28:40,982
on this top of mountain.

1460
01:28:41,983 --> 01:28:46,696
MAHARISHI MAHESH YOGI

1461
01:28:49,282 --> 01:28:50,951
When I first came here 10 years ago,

1462
01:28:51,243 --> 01:28:53,870
this was just jungle, ruins and jungle.

1463
01:28:54,162 --> 01:28:55,539
And you would sneak in through the back.

1464
01:28:55,831 --> 01:28:56,748
There were cracks on the wall

1465
01:28:57,040 --> 01:28:59,668
and you would smoke pot
and see leopards at night.

1466
01:29:00,460 --> 01:29:02,003
This is what people did.

1467
01:29:02,295 --> 01:29:03,964
So I take tourists into the ashram...

1468
01:29:04,256 --> 01:29:05,006
DANIEL
Ashram tour guide

1469
01:29:05,298 --> 01:29:07,926
...I show them everything
and I'm trying to bring them back into 1968

1470
01:29:08,218 --> 01:29:10,804
and give them some of the experience
of the Beatles here.

1471
01:29:11,972 --> 01:29:14,015
Tourists that come here,
they really appreciate it.

1472
01:29:14,307 --> 01:29:19,938
They really appreciate to have the sense
for the Beatles as a historical entity.

1473
01:29:23,066 --> 01:29:27,362
My experience when I went
to the Beatles' ashram was super magical.

1474
01:29:27,654 --> 01:29:32,659
These huge superstars, you wouldn't
really think they would go to a simple,

1475
01:29:32,951 --> 01:29:36,246
no frills ashram in RISHIKESH.

1476
01:29:36,538 --> 01:29:37,664
ROLLING STONE
MONICA DOGRA

1477
01:29:37,956 --> 01:29:38,790
ROLLING STONE INDIA

1478
01:29:39,082 --> 01:29:40,917
The most exciting thing about music

1479
01:29:41,209 --> 01:29:44,838
is the way it has the capacity
to shift cultural norms

1480
01:29:45,130 --> 01:29:46,423
and expand people's minds.

1481
01:29:46,715 --> 01:29:47,507
A BiT 'OFF' BEaT

1482
01:29:47,799 --> 01:29:49,259
And in India,
that's exactly what the Beatles did

1483
01:29:49,551 --> 01:29:51,970
by bridging the gap between East and West...

1484
01:29:52,262 --> 01:29:53,013
MONICA DOGRA
Musician & Actor

1485
01:29:53,305 --> 01:29:57,684
...in a country that was very much, you know,
under this dark cloud of colonial rule,

1486
01:29:57,976 --> 01:30:02,981
which, in many ways, created
a culture of apology for being Indian

1487
01:30:03,273 --> 01:30:06,651
and a reverence for whatever was foreign.

1488
01:30:06,943 --> 01:30:12,324
That what was so powerful,
is for the most powerful band in the world

1489
01:30:12,616 --> 01:30:14,993
to come and revere our culture.

1490
01:30:16,161 --> 01:30:18,455
They had descended in our part of the country

1491
01:30:18,747 --> 01:30:21,374
and they had embraced
the spiritual narrative of India

1492
01:30:21,666 --> 01:30:22,751
and they had come to RISHIKESH...

1493
01:30:23,043 --> 01:30:23,710
MAHESH BHATT
Film Director

1494
01:30:24,002 --> 01:30:26,922
...and they have images of them
with MAHESH Yogi

1495
01:30:27,213 --> 01:30:32,594
and then suddenly, we felt,
"Look, they are one of us."

1496
01:30:34,012 --> 01:30:36,890
As kids... As Indian kids, you know,
we're always rebelling against our culture

1497
01:30:37,182 --> 01:30:40,894
and then you realise that, like, something
that is so influential in pop culture

1498
01:30:41,186 --> 01:30:42,896
took a lot of influence from India.

1499
01:30:43,188 --> 01:30:46,858
My introduction to them was,
I happened to be part of the age

1500
01:30:47,150 --> 01:30:49,819
of illegal downloading
at the time of Napster and stuff.

1501
01:30:50,111 --> 01:30:50,737
TEJAS & MALI
Singer/Songwriters

1502
01:30:51,029 --> 01:30:53,615
We used to have The White Album on CD.

1503
01:30:53,907 --> 01:30:55,992
That was my first introduction
to the Beatles.

1504
01:30:56,284 --> 01:31:01,331
We still felt its influence even though
we were born in, like, the '80s or '90s.

1505
01:31:01,957 --> 01:31:03,792
India is considered this place

1506
01:31:04,084 --> 01:31:06,920
where you can go for spiritual awakening,
for meditation.

1507
01:31:07,379 --> 01:31:09,923
So I think the Beatles came to India
to look for that

1508
01:31:10,215 --> 01:31:12,050
and in some ways, they really did find that.

1509
01:31:16,137 --> 01:31:20,225
I guess that's the small gift that India
gave the world through the Beatles.

1510
01:31:24,145 --> 01:31:27,565
The happiest time of my life,
one of the happiest times was in India.

1511
01:31:28,191 --> 01:31:30,276
And it was just such a groove.

1512
01:31:30,568 --> 01:31:32,320
You know, it was such a pure thing.

1513
01:31:32,612 --> 01:31:34,906
Everything is slightly more in perspective.

1514
01:31:36,324 --> 01:31:38,535
The whole of life
should be a spiritual experience

1515
01:31:38,827 --> 01:31:42,664
because we are spirits
who are just encased in bodies.

1516
01:31:42,956 --> 01:31:45,333
People forget
and think they're just this body,

1517
01:31:45,625 --> 01:31:48,503
but we're actually spirits in bodies.