Post

In 1968, The Beatles came to this ashram in Rishikesh looking for peace, clarity & a break from the chaos of fame. George Harrison was the most spiritually curious of the group and really connected with Maharishi Mahesh Yogi & his whole Transcendental Meditation thing. 🧵

While they were here, they wrote close to 40 songs. A bunch of them ended up on the White Album: Dear Prudence, Blackbird, Sexy Sadie etc. So yeah... pretty solid case for meditation unlocking creativity 🧘🏽📿

Also, stereotypically, there can’t be an Indian spiritual guru without a little drama. This story’s no exception 🥲 Rumors started floating around that Maharishi was getting a bit too flirty with some of the women there - including Mia Farrow.

Lennon wasn’t thrilled about homeboy allegedly getting naughty and making moves, so he and George packed up and dipped. John was so pissed, he wrote the song Sexy Sadie, which was originally called Maharishi, but George convinced him to chill and change the name.

Fun fact: Sexy Sadie was one of the earliest diss tracks and it's funny that it was aimed at an Indian guru by a bunch of white english dudes 😆 The meditation caves you see in the video were built from stones gathered along the Ganges, but they were constructed after The Beatles’ visit in 1968.

So while they likely didn’t use these exact ones, the originals were probably pretty similar... same vibe, same river rocks. They’re all abandoned and crumbling now with post-apocalyptic vibes, tucked inside Rajaji National Park next to a Tiger reserve.