Susan Shumsky - The Inner Light: How India Influenced the Beatles

A PERMUTED PRESS BOOK

ISBN: 978-1-6 8261-977-3

ISBN (eBook): 978-1-6 8261-978-0

The In ner Light:

How India Influenced t he Beatles

2022 by Susan Shumsky, D.D.

All Right s Reserved

Cover art by Ti ffani Shea

Front cover collage by Susan Shumsky and Chris Turner. See photo credits on page 469.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author and publisher.

Permuted Press, LLC

New York Nashville

permute dpress.com

Published in the United States of America

This book is dedicated to the heartfelt visionaries who dare to imagine a world in peace and harmony. All we nee d is love.

Image on Front Cover: Top row l. to r.: Lord Krishna, his consort Radha, Sri Yukteswar, Paramahansa Yogananda, Lahiri Mahasaya, Babaji, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, Swami Brahmananda Saraswati, Swami Vivekananda. Middle row l. to r.: Pandit Anant Lal ( shehnai ), Ustad Aashish Khan (sarod), Ringo Starr, Maureen Starkey, Jane Asher, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, Pattie Boyd, Cynthia Lennon, John Lennon, Dr. L. Subramaniam (South India violin), Viji Shankar (tambura). Front row l.: Ustad Alla Rakha (tabla), m.: Goddess Lakshmi, r.: Pandit Ravi Shankar (sitar). (See photo credits on page 469.)

CONTENTS

PART I:
EVERYBODY MUST GET STONEDEVEN PAUL

PART II:
SITARS AND HASH PIPES FOREVER

PART III:
WHY DONT WE DO IT ON THE ROAD TO RISHIKESH?

PART IV:
A PEACE OF MAHARISHIS MIND

PART V:
THE LONG AND WINDING ROAD TO DISILLUSION

PART VI:
HARRY B. KRISHNA, LT. IT. B.

PART VII:
AND IN THE END

QR Codes

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Quotations, Photo Credits, and Pseudonyms

For the sake of brevity and clarity, direct quotations made by The Beatles or others are often shortened without using ellipses. For full quotations, please check citations by referring to the Endnotes on page 472. Most photo credits can be found right under the photos. Additional photo credits are on page 469. In a few cases, peoples names have been changed to protect their privacy. These names are distinguished with quotation marks.

Maharishi and Prabhupada Lingo

Maharishi Mahesh Yogi founded many organizations and used many terms when referring to Transcendental Meditation, TM teachers, and learning TM. This book mostly uses TM, TM Movement, Initiators, and getting initiated, since those terms were in use when The Beatles were involved. Maharishis Meditation Academy in Rishikesh is referred to as the ashram.

A. C. Bhaktivedanta Prabhupada (a.k.a. Srila Prabhupada) founded ISKCON (International Society for Krishna Con-sciousness), also referred to as the Hare Krishna Movement. Members of his organization are referred to devotees or as Hare Krishnas.

T he spiritual journey of The Beatles is the story of an entire generation of visionaries. All boomers were influenced by the sixties spiritual revolution that brought Eastern culture to the Western world. The music of John, Paul, George, and Ringo furthered that revolution.

On November 18, 1963, on the nightly Huntley-Brinkley Report , Americans first glimpsed the Liverpool Lads who would soon become an unprecedented, world-shattering phenomenon. Narrator Edwin Newman described a new sound from Great Britain by a quartet of young men with pudding-bowl haircuts who spell beetles B-E-A-T-L-E-S, born during the German blitzkrieg of World War II in Liverpools Merseyside, the toughest section of one of the toughest cities in the world.

Newman mocked Beatles fans as compulsive screamers, mostly female, between age ten and sixteen, four thousand of whom camped out all night for tickets to concertsa near riot. Newman explained the Mersey sound originated in Liverpool, on the River Mersey. As screaming fans drowned out The Beatles singing From Me to You, Newman joked that the quality of Mersey is somewhat strained, and bringing the Mersey sound to America will show us no Mersey.

Despite Newmans less-than-flattering introduction, on January 10, 1964, I Want to Hold Your Hand became the first British rock song to ever top American charts. That same day, The Beatles first American LP, IntroducingThe Beatles , was issued on the Vee-Jay label. Ten days later, their first Capitol Records LP, Meet The Beatles! , was released and rocketed to first place on Billboard , remaining eleven weeks (seventy-one total weeks on the charts), and selling over four million copies in 1964.

On February 9, 1964, The Beatles debuted on The Ed Sullivan Show to seventy-three million viewers, which launched them to stardom. We boomers watched eagerly as the mop-tops performed All My Loving, Till There Was You, She Loves You, I Saw Her Standing There, and I Want to Hold Your Hand.

Beatles appear for the first time on Ed Sullivans USA variety TV show; l. to r.: Ringo Starr, George Harrison, Ed Sullivan, John Lennon, Paul McCartney.

The Beatles were not another mediocre teeny-bop band. Nothing on the radio could rival them. They were rare as twice-struck lightning. The hysteria evoked by Elvis Presley paled in comparison to the frenzy induced by The Beatles. Like every other teen on earth, I became a Beatlemaniac. The British Invasion had begun.

The Beatles could not read music. John said they composed by feel. Paul said, We just did our songs in hotel rooms, whenever we had a spare moment, John Lennon and I, sitting on twin beds with guitars. But that intuitive process spun gold out of straw.

The Beatles honed their craft playing grueling four-hour sets seven days a week for peanuts in Hamburgs red-light district from August 1960 to December 1962. Amid dockworkers, prostitutes, gangsters, and existentialists, they entertained fans at the Indra, Kaiserkeller, Top Ten, and Star-Club. At the Indra, they slept on bunk beds in a stinky unheated storeroom. They washed and shaved in cold water from the urinals in adjacent toilets. Through excessive pressure, the rough carbon of Hamburg, heated in the searing cauldron of Liverpools Cavern Club (where the band played 274 times), forged the diamond that became The Beatles.

The Beatles wearing leathers at The Hamburg Fun Fair 1960; l. to r.: Pete Best, George, John, Paul, Stuart Sutcliffe. JJs/Alamy Stock Photo.

Beatles at the Indra Club in Hamburg, August 19, 1960; l. to r.: John, George, Pete Best, Paul, Stuart Sutcliffe.