Remembering the Revolutionary Sound That Helped Bring Meditation to the West
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
MUSICBY JENNIFER DAVIS-FLYNN Remembering the revolutionary sound that helped bring meditation to the West. n October 1966, 18-year-old practitioners could achieve became the it theme in popular Prudence Farrow Bruns was “pure bliss consciousness” culture. Life magazine dubbed Ikneeling at the foot of the and live from a place of love 1968 “The Year of the Guru,” Apparition Grotto in Lourdes, rather than in the prison of featuring the Maharishi and his France, praying for a miracle. their minds. famous disciples in a colorful She desperately wanted But it wasn’t all peace and eight-page spread. By the mid- to study Transcendental love at the compound. The 1970s, TM had an estimated Meditation (TM) with her guru Beatles famously left after 600,000 practitioners and was Maharishi Mahesh Yogi in two months amid rumors gaining up to 40,000 more Rishikesh, India, but students of sexual misconduct by the per month. at his TM teacher training were Maharishi (no suits were ever “One of the things that the required to be at least 24 years filed and some of the attendees Maharishi started having us do old. When her older sister, later denied that anything was meditating in these large actress Mia Farrow, was invited inappropriate had taken place) groups to put peace out into to the Maharishi’s ashram a but not before they penned the collective consciousness,” year later, the younger Farrow 48 songs, including the White says Farrow, who at 72 has only was desperate to join her. “It Album’s “Dear Prudence,” a nod recently retired from teaching was my dream!” she recalls. to the young Farrow’s reclusive TM after more than 51 years. As fate would have it, dedication to her meditation “From my perspective, today’s Prudence got her miracle, and practice while at the ashram. yoga practitioners are my in January 1968, she traveled Even without the endorse- children and grandchildren and with her sister Mia to the ment of his star pupils, the great-grandchildren. You’re small Himalayan town where Maharishi and the TM move- the future of this revolution her guru made camp when ment were catching fire in in consciousness in the West. he was not traveling around the West. TM was a welcome It started with us, but you will the United States and Europe contrast against the backdrop carry it on.” lecturing about elevated of the turbulent 1960s. The In the famed words of consciousness and the joys of Vietnam War was taking hun- American psychologist and inner happiness. There were dreds of lives per week. A spate writer Timothy Leary, “Turn more than 60 people staying of high-profile assassinations on, tune in, drop out” as we at his ashram at the time, and violent protests rocked the travel back to the 20th-century including the Beatles, Scottish evening news, and the specter music and counterculture pop star Donovan, and the of war with the Soviet Union that spawned a quest for Beach Boys’ Mike Love—all and nuclear annihilation fright- self-inquiry and brought seeking enlightenment from ened the nation as the world Eastern spiritual practices a shaggy-haired pacifist whose watched. Mantra meditation West—setting the stage for battle cry was that with just and the Maharishi’s mes- the contemporary New Age PHOTO: MIRRORPIX / ALAMY STOCK PHOTO PHOTO MIRRORPIX / ALAMY STOCK PHOTO: PHOTO: TKTKTK PHOTO: TKTKTK PHOTO: 20 minutes of TM a day, sage of love and world peace movement we have today. 82 YOGA JOURNAL YOGAJOURNAL.COM 83 IN TIME ’52 ’59 ’67 ’68 1950S ’55 ’68 ’65 MUSIC JANUARY 1952 APRIL 1955 laughter, visited the US, Europe, Material World. “I’d never thought 1967 Yoga” thanks to its hundreds of CLASSICAL VIOLINIST YEHUDI INDIAN CLASSICAL MUSIC and Asia to teach Westerners about them for the rest of my THE BEATLES MEET THE ashrams and temples and the flocks MENUHIN TOURS INDIA HITS AMERICA about Transcendental Meditation, life, but suddenly [they were] in MAHARISHI of seekers who sought to learn American-born Yehudi Menuhin, Classical sarod player Ali Akbar a type of mantra meditation he the back of my consciousness,” Harrison and the rest of the meditation and yoga at its source considered one of the greatest Khan traveled to America for the learned from his guru Swami Harrison said. In 1965, the group Beatles traded LSD and other and bathe in the holy Ganges violinists of the 20th century, was first time for a series of concerts Brahmananda Saraswati. was also introduced to Shankar’s mind-altering substances River that flows through the city. invited by the Indian government for the Living Arts of India Festival Calling 1959 “The Year of Global music while hanging out with for meditation. Pattie Boyd The Maharishi’s ashram, built with to play a series of concerts. at MoMA in New York. One of the Awakening,” Maharishi gave David Crosby of the Byrds (and discovered TM in a newspaper funds donated by American heiress There, he was introduced to concert recordings became Music lectures on his technique in later Crosby, Stills & Nash) in Los ad, and the rest is history. When Doris Duke, was built on a cliff celebrated sitar player Ravi of India: Morning and Evening community centers, private Angeles. Harrison met Shankar a the Maharishi visited London above the Ganges, surrounded Shankar and guru B.K.S. Ragas—the first Indian classical homes, and churches, catching year later while touring England later that year to give a lecture at by jungle. Despite the Maharishi’s Iyengar by then-Prime Minister recording released in the United the interest of Hollywood A-listers and began taking sitar lessons the Hilton hotel, Harrison, John recommendations to meditate for Jawaharlal Nehru. Menuhin States. (Akbar Khan also became such as Shirley MacLaine and from him. Shankar simultaneously Lennon, Paul McCartney, and their at least eight hours each day, music became a champion of Indian the first Indian musician to appear Clint Eastwood and socialites like nurtured Harrison’s interest in wives attended. The group was was everywhere at the ashram. classical music, recording the on US television that same year.) tobacco heiress and philanthropist Hindu tradition and spirituality. so entranced that they dropped Without other outside distractions, Grammy Award-winning album The concert received rave reviews Doris Duke, who called TM “life- “Ravi and the sitar were kind of everything to leave the following the Beatles were even more West Meets East with Shankar from the New Yorker and the New changing.” Maharishi completed like an excuse trying to find this day for a 10-day spiritual productive than usual, reportedly and performing with Hindustani York Times. Its success set the 13 world tours by 1971. spiritual connection,” Harrison conference led by the Maharishi writing dozens of songs during classical musician Ali Akbar stage for Ravi Shankar’s first US said in an interview with the BBC in Bangor, Wales to learn TM for their time in India, most of which Khan. He became a lifelong yoga tour, on which he played to small 1965–1966 World Service radio network. themselves. In a press conference, appeared on the White Album. practitioner, even inviting Iyengar but intrigued audiences. Shankar THE BEATLES GET SPIRITUAL Harrison and his then-wife, model they famously swore off drugs. to join him on a European tour would eventually connect with By the mid-’60s the Beatles Pattie Boyd, visited Shankar in NOVEMBER 22, 1968 in 1954 so he could learn directly producer Richard Bock of World had begun experimenting with India in 1966. Taking an interest FEBRUARY 1968 THE BEATLES’ WHITE ALBUM IS from the master. The two would Pacific Records and release 12 psychedelics and integrating in Harrison’s spiritual journey, THE BEATLES TRAVEL TO THE RELEASED remain friends until Menuhin’s albums over the next decade. their experiences into their Shankar and his brother Rajendra MAHARISHI’S ASHRAM IN INDIA The second track on the seminal death in 1999, and Menuhin music. George Harrison gave him certain books, including Together with their wives, the double album, “Dear Prudence,” eventually wrote the foreword for 1959 described dropping acid for Parahamsa Yogananda’s Beatles headed to Rishikesh, India had been written at the Maharishi’s Iyengar’s bestselling book Light THE MAHARISHI BEGINS HIS the first time in 1965 and Autobiography of a Yogi, which to study TM with a slew of other ashram and paid homage to on Yoga, which is still in print FIRST WORLD TOUR experiencing visions of yogis Shankar claimed in a 2008 celebrities, including Hollywood Farrow’s day-and-night devotion to today and has sold more than Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, known in the Himalayas in Martin interview “was where [Harrison’s] film stars and pop and folk her meditation practice. In a 1980 3 million copies worldwide. as the “The Giggling Guru” due Scorsese’s 2011 documentary interest in Vedic culture and musicians. Rishikesh had earned interview, John Lennon recounted to his penchant for spontaneous George Harrison: Living in the / CBW PHOTO, MIRRORPIX / ALAMY STOCK PHOTO, / ALAMY STOCK COLLECTION EVERETT PHOTO, / ALAMY STOCK CBW FROM LEFT: CLOCKWISE PHOTOS IMAGES GETTY MICHAEL OCHS ARCHIVES / STRINGER/ PHOTO, / ALAMY STOCK MARKA PHOTO, / ALAMY STOCK ANTONYM PHOTO, ALAMY STOCK Indian-ness began.” the moniker “the Birthplace of the story behind the song: 84 YOGA JOURNAL YOGAJOURNAL.COM 85 ’70 ’01 ’05 2000’S ’69 ’71 ’98 ’02 ’20 “[Prudence] had been locked in at Apple Records in February Things Must Pass, which featured since 1973, the foundation teaches for three weeks and was trying to 1968, and the pair became the hit single “My Sweet Lord” OCTOBER 20, 1998 NOVEMBER 29, 2001 TM to both children and adults reach God quicker than anybody friends.