Headline August 18, 2018/ '' 'BEATLES' -SPIRITUAL- BEARINGS' ''

'' 'BEATLES' -SPIRITUAL- BEARINGS' ''

FIFTY YEARS  after the Beatles came to India, the bungalows where they had lived, the post office where John Lennon sent Yoko Ono postcards and the giggling guru's house are all ruins.

Maharishi Mahesh Yogi's ashram, where the world's most famous group sought refuge and spirituality in 1968 and wrote much of their seminal White Album, fell into disuse in the early 2000s.

But thanks to the efforts of locals the site has been reclaimed from the jungle and tourists now roam where tigers and snakes were until recently the most common day trippers.

''Before, people used to sneak in, which could be dangerous,'' said journalist Raju Gusain, instrumental in rescuing the area overlooking Rishikesh in northern India.

''There used to be leopard paw marks and elephant dung. Now we have erected a fence to stop animals getting in from the tiger reserve next door.''

By 1968, following the death of Beatles manager Brian Epstein the year before, fissures were beginning to show between John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. But they found a new mentor :  the magnetic Maharishi who promised them happiness and enlightenment without drugs, through transcendental mediation.

The bushy-bearded sage persuaded them to travel to his spiritual retreat and so, in February 1968,  they fetched up their partners, not knowing quiet what to expect. A world away from ''Swinging London,'' the band appeared to reconnect, penning almost 50 new songs.

Others there included fellow musicians Donovan and Beach Boy Mike Love, actor Mia Farrow and her reclusive sister Prudence, inspiration for Lennon's song Dear Prudence.

The local wildlife - although the song is also supposedly about heroin Yoko Ono - inspired   Everybody's Got Something to Hide Except Me and my Monkey as well as Blackbird. Love's presence sparked Back in the USSR, a pastiche of the Beach Boys' California Girls.

The band - except Starr, who left after 10 days - enjoyed the break and the mediation too. ''I felt like I actually was a feather floating over a hot-air pipe,'' McCartney recalled later one session, ''and I reported that to Maharishi, and he giggled, ''Yes, this is good!''

One local old enough to remember is Ajit Singh, the owner of a music shop - still open - in the nearby town of Dehradun, who fixed Lennon's guitar and performed at Harrison's 25th birthday.

The 86 year old recalls the band wandering into the store one day pursued by a crowd outside and him inviting them home for tea. ''They were polite, not haughty or something,'' he said. ''I always said to people that they were good.''

After a while though, relations worsened between the Beatles and the Maharishi, the atmosphere soured by the yogi's rumoured sexual advances and his evident desire to make money from his famous new pupils. McCartney left after five weeks and Harrison and Lennon after two months.

But still, the Beatles helped put Rishikesh on the map for Westerners, and popularised meditation and Eastern spirituality. The Maharishi even made the cover of Time magazine in 1975. His ashram initially thrived but then went into decline and was abandoned in 2001.

Nature slowly reclaimed the site, while parts of the buildings were removed and people snuck in and left graffiti

But in 2016, paths were cleared, a fence was put up and some of the structures repaired. Ruins they remain, however, a few new murals have been added. The site now boasts a cafe and a small photo exhibition and some information signs.

One recent visitor was Prudence herself, revealed Raju Nautiyal a ranger with the Rajasthan Tiger Reserve who has helped in the clean-up. ''I used to sing Dear Prudence and one day,  Prudence came to play,'' he said.

American visitor Atta Curzman, 68, a ''great Beatles fan'' inspired to take a lasting interest in Indian spirituality, said she hoped the site would not be restored too much.

''I hope they don't make it too lovely and perfect because you want to see that antiquity, that part of that shows history.''. 

With respectful dedication to Millions by millions of  Beatles fans the world over, and then the Grandparents, Parents, Students, Professors and Teachers of the world.

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SAM Daily Times - the Voice of the Voiceless