George Harrison‘s wife, Olivia, claims he never “belonged” to any spiritual organization. The former Beatle made friends with the members of the Hare Krishna Temple in the late 1960s, but never took the step to become one of them.
George Harrison embarked on his spiritual journey in 1965
A few things catapulted George into his spiritual journey. First, he heard Indian music, which sounded familiar, on the set of The Beatles’ Help! Then, he took LSD, which made him God-conscious. Next, he met sitar legend, Ravi Shankar, who became his musical guru and taught him that God is sound.
In 1966, George traveled to India with Shankar and learned about many different gurus and deities. In 1967, he started learning Transcendental Meditation from the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi.
During The Beatles’ 1969 Christmas party, George met a devotee of London’s Hare Krishna Temple, who later introduced him to all of the devotees in the temple.
He made sure devotees in the Hare Krishna Temple could set up a temple in London by helping them lease a building. Before that, he let them stay at Friar Park. To help bring their cause to the Western world, George produced the devotees’ album, The Radha Krishna Temple, and published their guru, Bhaktivedanta Swami, a.k.a. Prabhupada‘s book, KRSHNA Book.
George often visited Prabhupada, who taught him many great things. In the early 1970s, all George did was chant to Krishna, even if it meant alienating himself from his friends and wife, Pattie Boyd. Into the late 1970s, George’s spiritual obsession cooled, but he never left it behind.
George Harrison’s wife claimed he never ‘belonged’ to any spiritual organization
Despite all of George’s involvement with Indian religion, his wife, Olivia, said he never “belonged” to any spiritual organization.
In Harrison, she wrote, “The power of his convictions was as strong as a hundred men, all right. As Arjuna asked Krishna for guidance on the battlefield, so George faced the many battles before him with spiritual courage and unwavering conviction…
“George was so generous and ‘grateful to anyone that is happy or free.’ A good moment to him was always worth making better.” Olivia explained George had an ability to “see” the true person inside the bodily form.
However, he didn’t associate with any religion.
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“George said he felt closest to God in nature, and some may assume his passion as a landscape gardener was founded solely on his immense love and knowledge of plants as well as his extraordinary vision.
“But the driving force was his desire to know God. ‘If there is a God, we must see Him: if there is a soul we must perceive it. Ocherwise it is better not to believe. It is better to be an outspoken atheist than a hvpocrite,’ as he used to remind us!
“Though he often quoted spiritual greats in this way, George did not, contrary to popular belief, ‘belong’ to any spiritual organization, although many claimed him as cheir own.
“George also said, ‘He who tells all that he knows, tells more than he knows.’ This usually applied to those who declared they knew the very private George’s innermost beliefs. In fact, his spiritual knowledge and experience was many faceted.
“Still, he managed to dive deep to the heart of each practice, never content to skim the surface. He embraced the essence of all religions although he had little patience for organized religions or dogma that espoused guilt, sin or mystery. For George, there was no mystery, and he would gladly spend hours discussing God with an interested person.”
The former Beatle was glad he found his goal in life, even though people didn’t like it
George was spiritual to get closer to God. That was his life-long goal, and he felt fortunate he’d found it instead of living in ignorance. However, people didn’t always like when George talked about spiritual things. They doubted his spirituality.
“Basically I feel fortunate to have realized what the goal is in life,” George said. “There’s no point in dying having gone through your life without knowing who you are, what you are or what the purpose of life is. And that’s all it is.
“People started getting uptight when I started shooting off my mouth and saying the goal is to manifest love of God – self-realization. I must admit, there was a period when I was trying to tell everybody about it; now, I don’t bother unless somebody asks specifically.
“I still write about it in my songs, but it’s less blatant, more hidden now. I’m a very poor example of a spiritual person. I don’t really want anything in my life except knowledge, but I’m not a very good practitioner of that.”
Still, George was more of a spiritual person than most. He tried to teach his grateful friends as much as he could. It was easy for the Hare Krishna Temple, for example, to claim him as their own. Who wouldn’t want him part of their community?
