Paul McCartney said the leader of the Transcendental Meditation Movement, the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, helped “recenter” The Beatles in the late 1960s. The group needed direction, especially after their manager, Brian Epstein, died.
Paul McCartney and the group had many questions before hearing the guru speak for the first time
In Here Comes The Sun: The Spiritual And Musical Journey Of George Harrison, Joshua M. Greene wrote that the Maharishi founded the Spiritual Regeneration Movement, which taught “fundamentals of yoga, breathing, and mantra meditation.”
George Harrison had already begun his spiritual journey in 1965. He heard that the guru was speaking in London and invited his bandmates to come along. According to Paul, he and the rest of the band had also begun questioning their existence too and wanted to hear what the guru had to say.
“We’d been the Beatles, which was marvelous,” Paul recalled in The Beatles Anthology (per Rolling Stone). “We’d tried for it not to go to our heads and we were doing quite well – we weren’t getting too spaced out or big-headed – but I think generally there was a feeling of: ‘Yeah, well, it’s great to be famous, it’s great to be rich – but what it’s all for?’”
The Maharishi claimed that if everyone meditated with their personal mantra, wars and destruction would cease to exist.
He gave The Beatles a word or syllable during a retreat in Bangor, Wales. “Over time, he added more words or syllables until the pieces fit together to form one of India’s traditional mantras,” Greene wrote. “He took George aside, then his mates, and whispered a mantra in their ears.”
Paul said the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi helped ‘recenter’ The Beatles
In The Lyrics: 1956 to the Present, Paul wrote that many people believe the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi to be The Beatles’ spiritual adviser. He thought it was fair to say he was.
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Paul explained that his father had been very proud of The Beatles’ success. Jim McCartney even relished when fans recognized Paul out in public. However, constantly being recognized became a problem for Paul and the rest. It got old.
“In a strange way, it’s precisely because people had ‘got’ us, that we were no longer able to be quite ourselves, which then left The Beatles so open to the possibilities the Maharishi offered. We needed to recentre ourselves. To get back to basics,” Paul wrote.
The Maharishi Mahesh Yogi gave The Beatles direction after their manager unexpectedly died
The Maharishi believed something good would happen to the band if they meditated with the mantras. Then, their manager, Brian Epstein, unexpectedly died during their time in Wales.
The Beatles turned to their new guru for guidance. Greene wrote, “You are a powerful force, he told them. If you hold on to Brian it will stop his soul from going to its next evolution. ‘You know you have to grieve for him and love him. Now you send him on his way.’”
Shortly after Epstein’s death, the Maharishi announced another retreat at his ashram in Rishikesh, India. The Beatles signed up. The guru believed Transcendental Meditation would “bring out the depths in their talents that even they haven’t reached yet.”
Despite needing direction and recentering, The Beatles, apart from George, didn’t exactly take to the guru’s teachings. Then, they were even less interested when they discovered a rumor that he’d been inappropriate to some female devotees.
Whatever The Beatles thought of the Maharishi, Paul wrote that he “made a mark on all of us.” During that time, Paul wrote a song about the guru, “The Fool on the Hill,” but it was a “complimentary portrait.” Meanwhile, the Maharishi called The Beatles “angels in disguise.”
