George Harrison
The protocol for selling books or incense was to tell people that we were collecting funds for Bangladesh, as I mentioned earlier. Although I didn’t like the idea, I also practiced the fraudulent scheme, especially when we sold incense outside of the Concert for Bangladesh. It was a virtual goldmine for Krishna temples. And anyway, what the hell? I thought. It appeared as if George Harrison wanted to help spread Krishna consciousness around the world.
And the devotees loved George. He was considered like a type of savior himself with his All Things Must Pass album. And if Srila Prabupada was the divine guru of Kali Yuga, then George Harrison was the divine angel that accompanied him to planet earth. Prabhupada adored him. He said George did more for spreading Krishna consciousness than all of us put together, even though we were busy distributing thousands of books daily.
“George,” he said, “was a demigod who came to earth during this miracle age, to work out some karma and to glorify Krishna along with him.” Devotees were elated to have such a famous and talented spiritual person profess their devotion to Krishna and constantly dropped his name while selling books in the seventies, eighties and nineties.
Many years later, Martin Scorsese directed a documentary for HBO entitled, “George Harrison, Living in the Material World” in 2011 documenting the Spiritual Life of George Harrison. Even though devotees knew about George’s many contributions to Srila Prabhupada, none of us knew the extent his spirituality radiated to everyone he met and without a doubt, he met and influenced some of the most famous people and musicians in the world. In the documentary, Eric Clapton, Tom Petty, Eric Idol, Jackie Stewart, Ringo Starr, Phil Spector and others described the incredible person that was George.
We knew George met Srila Prabhupada at the home of John and Yoko just after George co-signed a lease for a temple in Oxford Circus. George would occasionally disguise himself and go to the temple in London to chant. He produced and recorded “The Radha Krishna Temple” album in the early days. One prayer on the album, “Govinda,” is played over speakers as devotees sing along in every temple all over the world, everyday, at 7am in the morning when we greet the deities as they are dressed in new garments for the day. He paid for the publication of the first edition of “Krishna Book,” helped to pay for remodeling the temple in London while devotees stayed at the home of John and Yoko and gave Srila Prabhupada a huge estate north of London, now called the Bhaktivedanta Manor.
When He recorded “All Things Must Pass,” Phil Spector picked “My Sweet Lord” to be the hit of all the songs and it did make it to the number one spot in musical charts. Phil said, “Everyone fought me on that because they said it had religious overtones in it.” But Phil insisted, it didn’t matter. He said, “It’s the most commercial song in the album and George was even nervous about it because Hare Krishna was in it, as well as ‘Awaiting on You All.’”
“It took George 12 hours to record two guitar solos on My Sweet Lord,” Spector continued, “he was more than a perfectionist. Anyone can be a perfectionist. With George, it just had to be ‘right’”.
“I thought about whether I should do ‘My Sweet Lord’ or not, because it’s really committing myself to something people don’t get and a lot of people are going to really hate me because people fear the unknown,” George said in an interview. “The point was, it felt like I was sticking my neck out on a chopping block. But nobody else was saying it. I wished someone else would say it, to represent it (this truth), because everyone was simply doing ‘be bop baby.’” George was being tested, as any aspiring spiritualist will know, the tests are always there. But he released the album and Phil Spector was right! “My Sweet Lord” went straight to the top.
George continued, “Because the mantra is transcendental, you just want to chant it and never stop. Once I chanted it for three days non-stop while driving through Europe. You get sort of hypnotized on some sort of subtle level which makes you feel so good you don’t want to stop”.
George visited Vrindavan a number of times, I would not know how many. On one of my visits to Vrindavan, one devotee named Romburu, asked me if I would like to come to her home and see her pictures of George with her family. “Are you kidding?” I said. “Of course I would like to see them.” I went to her house and spent around and hour and a half looking through albums of George with her family in Vrindavan.
He loved Ravi Shankar and Paramahansa Yogananda as well as Srila Prabhupada. From the video, you would think he loved everyone! He loved Monty Python and produced “Life of Brian” with a company he formed called “Hand Made Films” to finance the project. With the same company, George was the Executive Producer of “Time Bandits”. Both movies were spiritual satires making us think and making us laugh. I don’t have to tell you his accomplishments were amazing, and he was tested spiritually. In the end he chose spirituality over ‘The Material World’ long before he died.
George’s second wife, Olivia, was the person who initiated the project of his spiritual journey in the film directed by Martin Scorsese. She spoke about his spirituality in the video using words like ‘leaving his body,’ and as far as I know, only devotees would use that terminology. She said, “When he left his body, he lit up the room”.
What most people don’t know, maybe even devotees of Krishna may not know is, he set an amazing example for the whole world. He went through tests with fame, drugs, wealth, someone trying to murder him, with women and he also went through tests with his devotional service to Krishna. And as far as I could see, he came out on top because at the end of his life, he wanted to plant trees, garden and chant the Maha Mantra. He felt if you didn’t change, then what was the point of life. “This physical realm is meant for changing,” he explained. “If you are not God conscious, then you may be simply wasting your time.” So, he not only created amazing songs that changed the world, but he himself changed and evolved. He created amazing music, movies, poetry and gardens. He evolved to become completely Krishna conscious in this lifetime, dying with devotees around him chanting the holy names. And, he did it all without robes or a shaved head. (He looked a little like Jesus to me.) Maybe we missed the second coming! Ok, that’s a joke, but, who knows?
The word Acharya means teacher by example. Srila Prabhupada was known as the greatest acharya. George Harrison was also an acharya with his devotional songs and his personal example. After the attempt on his life, he spoke on camera saying, “When death comes close, you have to evaluate what it is that you want.” He said it was time that he start practicing what he believed in and decided he was completely done with the temporary enjoyment of the material world. He was ready to go forward to be with Krishna. He did not want to come back again to this material world. Granted, he was an empowered human being, but he was especially influential for those who didn’t want to join a religious organization to become self realized. “By chanting the names of the Lord and you’ll be free!”
In this picture, you see his right hand is in his bead bag. In every picture I saw of him in India, he held the Tulasi chanting beads in his hand. That is more than many of us. He was serious! (Pictured with Romburu, Pritu and son in1996 in Vrindavan)
