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Harrison's Hare Krishna passion revealed

By Samanta Sen, with additional material by Asia Times Online

LONDON - For former Beatle George Harrison, the East was never a passing fad of the '60s. An absorption with forms of Hinduism and with Indian music remained a part of his life to the very end.

Harrison was more than ever before a private, and apparently religious, person in his later years. Now after his death some of his closest friends have begun to reveal just how close his involvement with India and with Hinduism always had been.

"George Harrison made several unannounced trips to India," confirmed Radha Mohan Das from the temple of the International Center for Krishna Consciousness (Iskon). Harrison always visited Vrindavan, about 100 kilometers east of New Delhi, believed to be the birth place of the Hindu god Krishna.

Harrison's continuing faith in the Hare Krishna sect of Hinduism came to the fore last year at the trial of Michael Abram, the man who had attacked him in his home. The ex-Beatle told the trial that the attacker "stopped in the center of the kitchen and started shouting and screaming. I made a decision to shout back at him. I shouted at him 'Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna'."

"George Harrison had met Swami Prabhuprada, the founder of Iskon in the '60s," said Das. "He was greatly inspired by him, and it changed his life." Soon after, Harrison donated his manor house set in 17 acres to the Hare Krishna group, and gave also a large amount of money for printing books on Krishna.

"George Harrison kept his own Krishna shrine at home," Radha Mohan Das said. "He did not talk much about his faith outside because he was a very private person." His closest friends up to the end remained Hare Krishna devotees.

The world came to know of his devotion to the Hare Krishna sect through his post-Beatles hit "My sweet Lord", which included the Hare Krishna chant. Later in 1973 Harrison made a gift of his manor house in Watford just north of London to the Hare Krishna group. That temple today attracts one of the biggest gatherings of Indians outside India. The gathering on Janamashtami, celebrated as the birth date of Krishna, draws an estimated 50,000 devotees.

Harrison himself said he once chanted "Hare Rama Hare Krishna" continuously for 23 hours while driving from France to Portugal. He said: "It gets you feeling a bit invincible."

In the Beatles Anthology, Harrison remarked: "When you've had all the experiences - met all the famous people, made some money, toured the world and got all the acclaim - you still think 'Is that it?'. Some people might be satisfied with that, but I wasn't and I'm still not." He found his solace in Hindu beliefs, and in Indian music.

Harrison once remarked: "I always felt at home with Krishna. You see it was already a part of me. I think it's something that's been with me from my previous birth."

Harrison met the Indian sitar maestro Ravi Shankar in the 1960s, and his interest in Indian music remained strong from then on up to his last days. Harrison, a great guitarist, learned to play the sitar a little from Ravi Shankar. He and his then wife, Patti Boyd, flew to Bombay and checked into the Taj Mahal hotel under a false name. That set the style for the many visits to India that followed.

Harrison kept his interest in Indian music alive in London with artists at the Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, an institute for Indian culture. Last year Harrison wrote to the Millennium Commission on behalf of the institute and succeeded in securing for it a US$750,000 grant.

"He used to drop in to our summer school classes," said the director of the Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan Dr M Nandakumara. "He would like to come unannounced, and he would just sit quietly at the back of the class and listen." Harrison would drop in at concerts at the Bhavan, he would drop in on occasions like India's Republic Day celebrations.

Convalescing after the attack on him two years ago, Harrison asked to see Balachandran, a teacher at the Bhavan, and an artist Harrison greatly respected. Harrison had been planning a concert with Balachandran at his house in Friar Park, Henley, about 60 kilometers north of London, but his health never did quite permit it.

In recent years, Harrison became a serious devotee of Swami Paramhans Yogananda, an influential Hinduism teacher. "Harrison used to keep books by the Swami at home and studied them very closely," Dr Nandakumara said.

Harrison was rarely seen in public in his later years. But he remained a close friend of many Indian artists, Dr Nandakumara said. "He was so simple, so friendly, so unassuming, that you would forget he was such a superstar."

Prasannatma Das of the Varanasi chapter of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) has revealed that Harrison left 700,000 pounds (US$1 million) to build a temple in Varanasi, India. Das said that Harrison loved the city for its mysticism and cultural riches discuss the plan for the Radha Krishna Chandra temple when he visited Varanasi a few months ago.

Fans have been gathering in the city, awaiting the arrival of Harrison's family who are expected to scatter the star's ashes there. But so far there has been no indication from the family of their plans.


source: atimes.com, December 8, 2001