Last Chance and The Beatles Ashram in Rishikesh

Heya folks,

Today I'm remembering the time I spent in Rishikesh, India in 2008. I arrived in Rishikesh in a bad way, dealing with a mega dose of an intense subcontinental flu. I thought I had arrived in paradise. The Ganges flowing was so emerald green and blue and fresh, it seemed like the most beautiful thing I had ever seen. I felt that I had recovered just by seeing that great and beautiful river...

Anyway, I found my way over the famous bridge to Ram Jula, and ended up all the way at the end of town. There was a Backpackers there called Last Chance, literally a 100m or so from the famous "Beatles Ashram" that marked the very end of town, and I made Last Chance my home for two months while I lived there next to the river Ganga writing songs and living life. I befriended a crazy bearded Belgian fella who walked around with a Krishnamurti book in his back pocket, and a group of friendly French folk who were at Last Chance..

I had many amazing, hilarious and mystical experiences while living in Rishikesh, not least because Derek and I hung out with a colourful 30 something year old 'babaji', Baba Tilaknath, who happened to be about the best friend to have in a place like that. He never asked us for anything now that I think about it.. And he was expert at 'coining a phrase'. His favourite saying was 'Happy life good life". Baba also revealed to me a small cave that he had lived in for many months deep in the jungle. I went there alone with supplies intending to stay for a week or so. But on the first night, between smoking myself out in the cave while attempting to make fire, the sounds of large animals outside (tiger are still in the jungle) and the spiders closing in on me while trying to sleep I reckoned one night was exhilarating enough! And I wanted to get back to the Ganga...

By chance I took my bath every morning at exactly the same spot that this picture was taken of George and John!

So "The Beatles Ashram", as it is now known in those parts, was of course the same ashram that in the 1960's had been run by the well known founder of TM or Transcendental Meditation, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. He invited The Beatles to his ashram along with other celebs of the time like Donovan, Beach Boy Mike love and others.

But what has become of the ashram? It has long ago been abandoned and left to ruin, which really means it is once again becoming wild jungle in those parts. Entering into that space is an uncanny experience. The buildings are still erect but the final merger with the jungle is coming closer every day.

While they were there, the Beatles lived in individual meditation huts. I thought them a wonderful and innovative design, self contained circular units with a small meditation dome on the top.

Together with our local friendly babaji, Baba Tilaknath and the French, we spent a night in one of the huge meditation domes of the ashram singing and chanting..

When The Beatles arrived in Rishikesh, they were in the middle of a great turning point in their career. They had stopped touring and George Harrison and John Lennon specifically were weary of the screeching mobs of fans and never ending "Beatlemania". Experiments with LSD had left them unfulfilled, their 32 year old manager died of an overdose, and they were now on a search for truth.

At Maharishi's peaceful ashram in the beautiful surroundings of the Rishikesh forests, where they would daily practice meditation and eat only pure vegetarian food, the boys from Liverpool experienced a profound creative impetus. Most of the songs on their self titled double album also known as the White Album, were composed in Rishikesh.

George said at the time: "I get higher meditating than I ever did on drugs. We’re the Beatles. We have all the money you could ever dream of, we have all the fame we could ever wish for. But it isn’t love, it isn’t health, it isn’t peace inside, is it?”

Of course Ringo and Paul left early, Lennon wrote 'Sexy Sadie' about the Maharishi thereby hinting that the yogi was into the girls a little too much for a supposed holy man, and George Harrison found his bliss chanting Hare Krsna after meeting AC Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada.

Still, The Beatles in Rishikesh remains an iconic era in the history books, and I feel most fortunate to have gone there, soaked up the mood and written a few of my own tunes in that space..

Thanks for reading!
Namaste...

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