On our fifth day in Rishikesh with Tao Journeys, we will visit the famous Beatles ashram. The English rock band sensation The Beatles also known as the Fab Four In February 1968, travelled to Rishikesh in northern India to take part in an advanced Meditation training course at the ashram of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. The visit followed the group’s denunciation of drugs in favour of meditation, and received widespread media attention. Led by George Harrison’s commitment, the band’s interest in the Maharishi’s teachings changed Western attitudes about Indian spirituality and encouraged the study of Meditation. The visit was also the most productive period for the band’s songwriting.
The band members arrived in India in mid February 1968, The Fab Four arrived at the ashram with their wives, girlfriends, assistants, and numerous reporters. They joined a group of 60 people who were training to be meditation teachers; among the other celebrity meditators were musicians Donovan, Mike Love and Paul Horn, and actress Mia Farrow. While there, Lennon, Paul McCartney and Harrison wrote many songs, and Ringo Starr finished writing his first. Eighteen of those songs were recorded for The Beatles (“the White Album”), two songs appeared on the Abbey Road album, and others were used for various solo projects.
After the fame the Beatles brought Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, he would soon after move the the USA and the ashram in Rishikesh was pretty much abandoned.
In the years that followed, the forest would swallow up the ashram’s crumbling buildings, obscuring traces of celebrity from their halls. The famed and once thriving ashram was now long closed to the public. Yet some would venture out on their own, finding the ashram and leaving a scribble of song lyrics or artistic graffiti on the walls. Many of those you will see in these pictures taken by me when we visited the ashram in 2016, when it officially reopened. When I first visited Rishikesh on a solo trip in the year 2000, like many others, I wanted to venture out and find the ashram. I’ve always been fascinated by it’s history and the people who once meditated there. However at that time I was told it was not safe at the time, as a tiger was spotted in the area and was known to be prowling around the abandoned buildings of the ashram. Now days the ashram is being given a revival and makeover. With many of the buildings under renovations and a museum of the Beatles time with the Maharishi.