In 1968, the Beatles were at the peak of their fame, enjoying the mammoth international success of the hit album Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967). But that spring, the four members of the group stunned the world by announcing that instead of recording another album, they would fly to India to study transcendental meditation at a secluded mountain retreat.
Their guru in India was Maharishi Mahesh Yogi (1917–2008), a well-known Hindu sage who popularized transcendental meditation and toured the world for five decades touting its benefits. Part spiritual guide, part celebrity—and, to critics, part huckster—the Maharishi was, for a brief period, one of the world’s best-known mystics.
Boosted by his association with the Beatles, the Maharishi’s list of followers would eventually included an impressive roster of famous musicians, artists, and politicians, including Beach Boys singer Mike Love (1941–) and director David Lynch (1946–).
Mahesh earned a physics degree before going to work as a secretary to a Hindu holy man. After his mentor died in 1953, Mahesh moved to the Himalayas, where he developed his meditation technique and founded an ashram, or religious retreat.
The technique, which Mahesh began promoting in 1955, is intended to eliminate stress, improve health, and help the user achieve inner fulfillment through silent meditation and the repetition of sacred mantras. Until his death in the Netherlands at age ninety-one, Mahesh—always wearing a white robe and garlands of flowers—was the movement’s leader and chief spokesman.
The Beatles stayed at the Himalayan ashram for about two months and composed many of the songs that later appeared on The Beatles (also known as the White Album) while there. But singer John Lennon (1940–1980) became disillusioned with the Maharishi, and the group’s infatuation with the guru ended a few months later.
ADDITIONAL FACTS
- The 1968 Beatles song “Sexy Sadie” was originally a satire called “Maharishi” that Lennon wrote after he grew disillusioned with the guru.
- The Maharishi’s top representative in the United States was Harvard-educated physicist John Hagelin (1954–), who ran for president three times on a platform of solving national and international problems through transcendental meditation.
- Maharishi Vedic City was established in 2001 just outside Fairfield, Iowa. In accordance with the guru’s teachings, all buildings in the city face east, Sanskrit is the town’s preferred language, and nonorganic food is banned within the city limits.
