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[gentle music]
[Freeman] India.
Once a far away and mysterious land.
A place of Mahatma Gandhi and non-violence,
and ancient traditions of spiritual enlightenment.
What happens when a young, 23-year-old Westerner
who realizes he needs to change
goes there in search of himself
and he finds The Beatles are there too?
Four of the most loved and famous people in the world,
and they're there to meditate and to write music,
and they also want to find out who they are
on a new and deeper level.
[music continues]
[Saltzman] My name is Paul Saltzman,
and this story happened to me in 1968
when I met The Beatles in India
at the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi's ashram
on the banks of the Ganges River.
The Maharishi founded TM, Transcendental Meditation,
and The Beatles, Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr,
George Harrison, and John Lennon,
were there to study with him.
I took these photos at the ashram
and when I got home,
I put them away and forgot about them.
[garage door opening]
[Saltzman] But I'm getting a little ahead of myself.
Personally, I was confused, a bit lost.
I went to India and learned meditation,
which changed my life.
And I met The Beatles,
which set me on a creative path I'm still on today.
Haven't done anything with it in about 30 years.
I'd like to tell you how it all happened,
and invite you to come with me
and see the ashram as it is today.
[Freeman] We'll meet Patty and Jenny Boyd in Liverpool.
Pre-eminent Beatles historian, Mark Lewisonh in India.
We'll also meet Emmy award winner
and Academy award nominated film composer,
Lawrence Rosenthal.
And Paul's daughter, Devyani Saltzman,
without whom his Beatles photographs
would still be forgotten in his basement.
And celebrated film director and screenwriter,
David Lynch, in California.
And while The Beatles were creating hit songs one after the other,
society was changing.
[people shouting]
[Freeman] And during the turbulent '60s,
with the violence and the American Civil Rights movement
and the worldwide demonstrations against the Vietnam war,
something was missing,
and Paul's generation was also keen to find inner peace.
And it was during this time of chaos
that The Beatles, Paul, George, Ringo, and John,
met the Maharishi, a holy man from India.
He spoke of inner peace
and invited them to his ashram in Rishikesh.
[jet engines roaring]
[slow Indian music]
[camera shutters clicking]
In February 1968,
The Beatles arrived in New Delhi
and the world's press followed.
[car horns honking]
[Freeman] Later, when Paul first got to the ashram,
he met New York journalist, Lewis Lapham.
[Lapham] I was a contract writer for theSaturday Evening Post.
I had lunch with the editor,
he said, "What do you wanna do next?"
And I said, "Send me to Vietnam."
And he said, "No, the more important story is in Rishikesh.
- [Saltzman] Wow. - [Lapham] I want you to go
and see if you can get to talk to The Beatles
or find out what it is that they are up to."
The Beatles, at that point and time,
were the... probably the biggest celebrities in the world.
Top of everybody's chart, not only for their music
but also for their personality.
And ha, Beatlemania!
Yay.
And then of course, Sergeant Pepper
and Rubber Soul, amazing.
Let It Be.
Every one of these remarkable, mind blowing.
And Revolver.
And boy, was that life changing.
So with Beatles albums, we'd rush down to the record store
to get them 'cause if you didn't buy them
in the first two or three hours, they would sell out
and then you'd have to wait two or three weeks
'til another order came in.
So in 1966 withRevolver, rushed down, got it, came back,
and took a little stereo out on the lawn
and lay down with my girlfriend, Trisha, and listened to it.
And I remember like it was yesterday,
the last song, "Tomorrow Never Knows," and they're singing
"Turn off your mind, relax and float downstream,
it is not dying, it is not dying,
lay down all thoughts,
surrender to the void, it is shining, it is shining."
And they sang that peace and real being is within ourselves
and that life is all about love,
and wisdom is knowing this.
And I remember when the song ended
I thought, what are they talking about?
Void?
Floating downstream?
Turn off your mind?
And it was the first time I'd heard anyone talk to me
about an inner place of peacefulness,
and I remembered a little while earlier
I'd read something that Christ had said.
He said, "The kingdom of heaven is within you."
And I remember reading that and I stopped and I thought,
what does that mean?
'Cause if there's a kingdom of heaven within me,
I want to know about it and how do you get there?
So here are The Beatles talking about something within you
and something within you that's glorious, that's shining,
that's calm and peaceful.
So that was my first curiosity
about is there an inner journey?
And aha, The White Album, of course.
Yeah, "Back in the USSR," "Dear Prudence," "Glass Onion,"
"Ob-La-Di," "The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill,"
who we're going to meet.
Just a remarkable album.
"Blackbird," one of my favorite songs ever.
"Rocky Raccoon."
I think that's what was amazing about The Beatles
for so many of us, it's like almost all of them
are a favorite.
And many of these songs were written over 50 years ago
at the ashram.
So this is what they sent over
from The Beatles Story Museum.
This is the installation they're gonna do...
- [woman] Okay. - For the 50th anniversary.
Right, so 15 feet wide, about seven feet high.
We're gonna print two of them up.
[Saltzman] The Beatles Story in Liverpool
covers the history of The Beatles
and will be opening a new exhibit
on their visit to Rishikesh and the ashram.
[Jodi] Can you tell me a little bit about this day?
[Saltzman] So this is, kind of, the Maharishi's kinda class photo
and I say affectionately.
The people in the background, there were 60 people
from all over the world who were there
to become TM teachers, and then The Beatles and the others,
the famous folks, were not part of that course
but they were there also to learn meditation.
Maharishi was very humorous.
He was, um, had a lovely sense of humor.
Kind of a high pitched giggle.
And Ringo, Ringo was very dear.
He was pretty quiet.
Paul was the most overtly friendly, warm.
George, George was the one who sort of inspired their going to India.
He and his wife, Patty Boyd,
were very much into reading about Eastern mysticism.
And John was wonderfully intense.
He was very funny.
He was very sort of wry, slightly digging wit.
[peaceful music]
[Saltzman] You know, it's hard to admit this publicly,
but I had a famous television celebrity father
who was violent.
I felt painfully uncertain, ashamed.
I looked to others for approval
and I was very hard on myself.
So I left for India and today,
I'm excited to return to the ashram
to more fully understand,
did I choose the right path for myself back then?
[cars rumbling]
The adventure begins.
I'm returning to India, which I always love,
and going to Liverpool.
Going to Mumbai and Delhi
and exploring creativity and meditation
and why did The Beatles go to India
and how come I went and how come I ran into them?
It's all a pretty magical story.
[upbeat music]
[Saltzman] But first, to Liverpool.
To The Beatles Story to honor the 50th anniversary
of The Beatles' time in Rishikesh.
- [music continues] - [woman speaking indistinctly over PA]
I took the pictures with no intention to ever use them.
It was just like, uh...
And I wasn't a photographer,
I was just a kid with a camera in my backpack, literally.
And I put 'em away for 32 years.
I just forgot about 'em.
Out of mind, out of sight, out of sight, out of mind.
And then my daughter reminded me of them
from a childhood story when she was eight,
she asked me about the first time I ever went to India.
You give me a lot of great ideas
and they're always very different than my own
which is the beauty of creativity.
And you came into my study one day and you said,
in a very wistful voice, you said, "Didn't you tell me
when I was little that you met The Beatles in India?"
And I said, "Yeah,"
and you said, "Didn't you tell me you took some pictures?"
And I said, "Yeah," and you said like, "Duh? Can I see them?"
That was where it all began.
That's... I don't remember it quite the same way.
- No? [laughs] - But that's you, Dad.
[both laughing]
U, but yeah, no, I remember you took out the photos
and they were incredible, and I think said to you,
I guess that was when I was about 16,
"What are you doing with them?"
- Right. - 'Cause you had no plans to do anything with them.
No, no, I didn't.
And I think that led to going to meet Stephen Maycock
in London when he was at Sotheby's.
- That's right. - To get them actually evaluated
just in terms of their historical significance.
[Maycock] It was a day in London like any other day
and you just walked in off the street
and said, "Would these be of interest?"
And I thought, hmm, okay.
And then when I saw them, Paul, I was just amazed.
The color is so strong.
The images are sharp.
And what I also felt was a sense of the light
and the heat of India... is amazing.
I've never been to India but I can feel it.
The shot of John, I mean that's just fantastic.
The relaxation you've got there that's captured, you know.
Here they are just away from the world doing what they did,
which is writing music.
And they're looking happy, they're looking relaxed,
they're looking creative.
They're off duty and makingThe White Album.
The ones you took of John and Paul together,
they're the standout images for me
because there are so few pictures of just the two of them.
[Devyani] And he was, like, blown away.
- [Saltzman] Yeah. - And you were strangely clueless the whole time.
- [both laughing] - How do you mean?
I don't know. [stammers] I don't know if you knew the significance
of just, kind of, really... a really important documentation
of an interesting period in history and music history.
[Saltzman] This story really begins in Montreal.
I was 23 years old and I thought I was successful.
I'd already had my own television show,
I drove a sports car, I dated.
Everything seemed great.
And I woke up one morning and I had the shocking thought
that there were parts of myself I didn't like.
I wasn't a very conscious young man.
In that moment of being shocked,
I sat up and swung my legs over the edge of the bed
and I said out loud without thinking,
"What do I do about this?"
And I heard my soul talk to me
for the first time in my life.
I didn't even believe in a soul.
I'd been brought up to believe there's no god,
there's no soul, there's no spirit,
but in that moment, I heard a deep inner voice
that was all loving, all calm, reassuring,
and that inner voice said, "Well, Paul,
if you really want to look at yourself more clearly,
you might want to get away from the environment you grew up in."
And I said out loud without thinking,
it was this odd conversation, "Where do I go?"
And that inner voice said, "India."
Now I had no knowledge of India, no connection with India.
Meditation, I didn't know anything about any of this stuff,
but I was so moved by that, was so changed
by hearing that inner soul talk to me.
I was working at the National Film Board of Canada
and I went to a film director,
and I knew he was shooting a film in India
and I didn't have enough money to get to India.
So I went up to him in the lunch room
and I said, "I'd like to work on your film,"
and he said, "Well, I'm not taking anyone from here.
I'm picking up a director of photography in London
and I'm hiring a sound person in Bombay."
And then there was silence.
In that moment of silence,
he said to me, "Have you ever done sound?"
And lying through my teeth, without a hesitation,
I said, "Absolutely."
And he said, "Okay, well, if you get yourself to India,
I'll pay you the same as I was gonna pay the Indian sound person.
And I said, "How much is that?"
And he said "500 dollars."
And I shook hands and said, "Great,"
and I went to the phone and I called the airlines
and I said how much is a ticket to India? [laughs]
And it was 550 dollars.
So I had my airfare which I couldn't afford otherwise.
And then I went to a really great sound engineer,
the best in town, and I said, "Can you teach me sound?"
And he said, "Sure, come on over."
So that's what led me to go to India.
[gentle music]
[Saltzman] So I told my girlfriend, Trisha, that I was going to India.
I knew I was going off to find a different me.
I didn't even know if a different me existed.
I didn't even know if I could consciously change who I was.
And she cried a lot, she didn't want me to leave,
and I cried a lot, I didn't want to leave her.
And I flew to India,
it was my first time out of North America.
I was scared.
I joined the film crew, the three of us,
and we worked filming for six weeks across India
and I got to Delhi and I was very excited
to get my first letter from my girlfriend,
and I opened the letter and the first line was,
"Dear Paul, I've moved in with Henry,"
and I was devastated.
I was kind of shattered and someone said,
"Why don't you try meditation for the heartbreak?"
And I said, "I'll try anything."
And he said, "I'm going to hear the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi speak
at New Delhi University tonight, do you want to come?"
And I didn't know anything about him but I said yes.
And I only remember one thing he said,
but it was the thing I needed to hear.
He said, "Meditation takes you beneath and below
your daily worries and concerns
to a place of inner rejuvenation
from which you come back renewed and refreshed."
And I thought, that's what I need.
- So I took a train to Rishikesh. - [train horn blowing]
I knew that he had an ashram at Rishikesh.
I came to a gate and there was a guard
but he didn't speak English,
and he came back with Ragvendra,
and Ragvendra turned out to be my angel.
I said, "I've come to learn meditation,"
and he said, "I'm sorry, the ashram's closed
because The Beatles and their wives are here."
I didn't even know The Beatles were in India,
and in that moment it wasn't good news.
And I said, "Can I wait?"
And he was a little taken aback and he said, "Oh, okay."
There were two army tents there
and he said, "You're welcome to sleep there
and we'll send you our simple vegetarian meals."
So this man, Ragvendra, was an angel.
I waited outside the gate for eight days.
So after eight days, he said "Okay, it's time to come in."
And he took me to a small meditation room
and he taught me transcendental meditation.
It took less than five minutes.
He said, "I'll now leave you alone,"
and I did the meditation for 30 minutes
and I transcended twice.
Transcending normal consciousness.
I came out of the meditation and it was a miracle.
Your story is incredible because you had to prove yourself
that you were serious,
and even waiting three hours,
a lot of people would have left.
- [Saltzman] Mm-hm. - Three hours is a long time.
- [Saltzman] Mm-hm. - Eight days, forget it!
- [Saltzman] Mm-hm. - You wanted this thing...
- [Saltzman] Mm-hm. - And you were gonna wait.
- [Saltzman] Mm-hm. - It's beautiful!
And then you got in because you proved yourself.
- This is the thing. - [Saltzman] Mm-hm.
And then in you went.
That's really great.
So, um, at the eighth day, what were you thinking
when you were sitting out there?
Uh, and... and... and what...
did you... did you, sort of, inside know that someone would come get you
and you were gonna get there?
Or what were you thinking?
[Saltzman] I didn't think that.
I just knew I couldn't leave
- 'cause I didn't know what to do. - Uh-huh.
[Saltzman] So I was desperate, I was in pain,
and what had replaced the agony was bliss,
and I thought if Trisha, my beloved,
was happier with Henry, I was glad she was with him
and I really meant it.
- Yeah, yeah, yeah, for sure. - [Saltzman] I really felt it.
Yeah, yeah.
When you were in Rishikesh and you were with The Beatles
and they started meditating, I had zero interest.
I thought meditation was a fad and I just wanted to work,
and I thought it was fine for The Beatles,
but, and I hoped they kept on making music,
but I didn't have any interest.
And then something happened to me.
I suddenly, like the stars turned,
and I got an obsession with spiritual things,
and I had heard this phrase...
I've told this story a million times.
"True happiness is not out there,
true happiness lies within."
And as I say, that phrase had a ring of truth to it for me,
but the phrase doesn't tell you where the within is,
nor does it tell you how to get there.
And it dawned on me that maybe meditation was a way
to go within and find that happiness.
I was very fortunate that my first meditation, as I say,
was like I was in an elevator and someone cut the cables.
Pow!
I shot within.
I was rolling in bliss.
It was incredible and I came out of that
and, um, never looked back.
[peaceful music]
[Saltzman] And then I went out of the meditation room
and I was just walking through the ashram.
The Beatles weren't in my mind at all.
I was just so relieved not to be in agony,
and at one point, I looked to my right
and about 150 feet away I see John Lennon
and he's sitting at a table,
and I can tell that Paul is sitting across from him
with his back to me.
And I walked over and I got to the edge of the table
they were sitting at and there were John and Paul
and George and Ringo, Patty Boyd, George's wife,
Maureen Starky, Ringo's wife, Cynthia Lennon, John's wife,
and Jane Asher, Paul's girlfriend,
Mia Farrow, the American actress,
Mike Love of The Beach Boys,
Donovan, the Scottish folk singer,
and Mal Evans, The Beatles' roadie.
And John looked up at me and I just said, "May I join you?"
And he said, "Sure, mate, pull up a chair."
Paul turned to me and said, "Come and sit here,"
and I sat down beside Paul
and then three magical things happened.
To my surprise, I hear this scream in my head,
eek, it's The Beatles!
And as soon as that scream inside me finished,
I heard my soul talk to me for the second time in my life.
Calm, reassuring, wise, and it said,
"Hey Paul, they're just ordinary people like you.
Everyone farts and is afraid in the night."
That's what it said.
And in that moment, John turns to me
and in that wonderful John Lennon wry humor,
brilliant man, lovely man, he says to me,
toying with me and it's not a compliment,
and he says, "So you're American then?"
And I say, "No, Canadian."
And he turns to the rest of the group
and he says, "Ah, he's from one of the colonies."
And we're all laughing and he turns back to me
and he says, "So you're still worshiping Her Highness, then?"
And I say, "No, not personally."
And then Ringo and Paul
start teasing me about having the queen on our money,
and I say, "Well, we may have the queen on our money but hey,
she lives with you guys."
- [laughter] - [Saltzman] So we're all laughing, the whole table,
at which point John turns back to the rest of the group
and he says, "Ah, you see?
They still have a sense of humor in the colonies."
And that was it.
They just took me into their group
and I just hung out with them.
[upbeat music]
[woman] Closer, yeah, that's good, yeah.
I love the quote about Chuck Berry.
[Glover] Oh, yeah.
"And without Elvis, there would be no Beatles,"
John Lennon said.
[bright music]
[Saltzman] And how old were they when they met?
[Glover] Oh, they were only about... they were about 18 at the time, 17.
I know George was the youngest
'cause they brought George in.
And how old... how old was George when he joined?
George was only 16 when he joined.
[music continues]
[crowd cheering]
Welcome to Beatlemania.
- [Saltzman] Beatlemania. - [Glover laughs]
This just gives you a little taste
of what it was like back then.
And then they arrived in America.
[music continues]
[gentle music]
[Saltzman] One day, we were all sitting at the table by the cliff
and everyone got up to leave,
and John was sitting across from me
and it was the only time in the week I spent with him
when he had his little National Health glasses from England
and he was writing in his notebook.
And after a moment he put down his pen
and he said to me in a kind way, "So what are you doing here?"
Because no one was allowed in the ashram.
And I said, "Well, heartbreak, meditation,
the miracle of it."
And he looked off in the distance and he paused
and he said, "Well, you know, Paul,
love can be very tough on us sometimes, can't it?"
And I said, "Yes," and we sat for a moment
and he looked away again.
And then he looked back and he said, "But you know, Paul,
the really great thing about love
is you always get another chance."
And in that moment,
he couldn't have said something more kind.
It was reassuring to me
that because I was coming out of a heartbreak and my life,
in terms of love, wasn't over.
And I didn't realize he was talking about himself as well,
because I read a few months later
that he and Yoko had met.
So he was talking about me
but he was also talking about himself.
[gentle music]
[Glover] You know, it's a place for reflection, it's...
[Saltzman] Mm-hmm, beautiful.
[Glover] It's just a nice, quiet tribute to a great man.
[Saltzman] You bet.
See, the John I met, and I only knew him... [laughs]
I only knew him for a week, eight days,
was so generous with me.
["Imagine" playing quietly in background]
Okay, so welcome to Beatles in India.
Oh wow, look at that!
And there is your famous photograph.
- [Saltzman] Oh, my. - [Glover] Life-sized version of your photograph.
[Saltzman] I've never seen it this big.
[Glover] Yeah, so we've offset the people forward on it.
- Right, how terrific, beautiful! - [Glover] Yeah?
And we've got information here about the famous photograph
and about yourself as well.
- [Saltzman laughs] Wow. - And the people who were in attendance.
So you're forever in our exhibition. [laughs]
[Saltzman] Oh, well that's very sweet of you, thank you.
[bright Indian music]
It is very easy for everyone to take his mind deep
within the thinking process
and thereby expand the capacity of the conscious mind
and improve his efficiency in thinking and in action.
It takes about half an hour to let a man experience
the secular phases of a thought.
His mind expands.
Sitting quietly will make the mind dull.
One has to know how to reduce the thought
below mental thinking level.
This experience is very simple and very natural,
but it has to be learned.
So they give you a word or a sound known as a mantra
which pulsates with that rhythm.
So by using the mantra rather than a thought,
because the whole idea is to transcend
to the subtlest level of thought.
So you replace the thought with the mantra
and the mantra becomes more subtle and more subtle
until finally, you've lost even the mantra
and then you find yourself
at that level of pure consciousness.
No matter what you're thinking about,
just let it go, and then you just introduce the mantra
over the vibration.
Just to take over from the thought.
You don't will it or use your willpower.
We've only been doing it for a matter of six weeks maybe,
but there's definite proof I've had
that it is something that really works.
Here they were, miles from anywhere,
and able to just be themselves.
We just sat around at the table and chatted
and had chai and ate meals together and fooled around.
I was leading quite a fabulously exciting life
with George and The Beatles and various friends,
and we seemed to be running here, running there.
Just generally having too much fun all the time,
and life was wonderful, it couldn't have been any better.
Before India, I was this 18-19 year old
who was searching for something.
Having done the modeling and all that,
'60s London style, swinging '60s,
and then one day I looked at this book.
Just flicking through it
while I was listening to whatever records were going on
and it was a book called Karma and Rebirth,
and as I was looking through it,
I saw this one line that "life goes on
within you and without you."
So I called Patty and George immediately
and George answered the phone and I said, "Listen to this,
'Life goes on within and without you.'"
He loved it and then of course,
that inspired him to write that song.
Yes, I remember George wrote "Within You, Without You."
He was very in that mood of, um,
understanding our true souls
and it was quite... it's a very spiritual song, really, and very beautiful.
So there's a combination of songs like that.
[upbeat music]
[music continues]
[boat horn blaring]
[bell ringing]
[indistinct chattering]
[engines rumbling]
[Lewisohn] The first time The Beatles came to India was July, 1966.
- [Saltzman] Mm-hm. - But prior to Rishikesh, which was February '68,
George Harrison made his next trip here
to record the soundtrack for a film called Wonderwall,
and George at that point was very much into Indian music,
deeply into it.
He booked time at the HMV studio in Bombay
and that's exactly where we are now and in fact,
if you look up there, do you see that?
- [Saltzman] Ah. - [Lewisohn] His Master's Voice.
And they recorded here for five days.
Right, and that was... "The Inner Light"
was one of them, wasn't it?
One of them is what became "The Inner Light," yeah.
He didn't do the vocals, that was done back in London,
but the instrumentation was done here at this studio.
So a Beatles B side.
Everyone thinks The Beatles recorded only at Abbey Road
but one of the Beatles' singles, the B side,
was recorded here in Bombay.
Cool. And that was the one that Hariprasad Chaurasia played the flute on,
- is that right? - That's right.
- On "The Inner Light." - Yes.
[Saltzman] Tell me about your friendship with George.
I cannot explain with my words what the love
and the emotional friendship and the music he used to play,
and we used to enjoy playing together.
He was a saint, musical saint.
So that's why I used to listen to him
and that's what I got.
And he loved, you know, flute sound.
[Saltzman] And do you remember what you played
for "The Inner Light"?
It's a long time. [laughs]
And I'm getting old so it is difficult.
[flute music]
I miss... I always miss him.
So maybe I have a memory glitch here.
So when George was playing it, when we went to see the Maharishi
and then The Beatles all came in,
his voice came out of the tape recorder.
Maybe it was a guide track and he started singing along.
Although the instrumental track was recorded here,
George took the tapes back to London
and just before they flew out to India,
they had some sessions, recorded "Lady Madonna,"
"Across the Universe," "Hey Bulldog,"
- and the vocals for "The Inner Light." - Oh, okay.
So of course, it's a gorgeous song.
To have traveled so far across the world
and then to find yourself in a room with the four Beatles
and George singing a song that you hadn't yet heard
and wouldn't hear for a while
because it didn't come out for another month.
[slow Indian music]
- [train whistle blowing] - [train rattling]
[indistinct chattering over PA]
So, what do you think?
I've never been in a station like it.
Oh, look at this. This is fantastic.
[Saltzman] Yeah.
Have these people been here all night?
[Saltzman] Well, they're waiting for trains
and they may have been here all night
because of connecting trains.
So how long since you've been wanting to come to the ashram?
Uh, about 50 years. [laughs]
- Yeah? - I was a child when you were there
with The Beatles in 1968.
Can't believe we're actually going to Rishikesh.
[Saltzman] When did you first become aware of The Beatles yourself?
[Lewisohn] I was only five years old.
[Saltzman] Wow!
[Lewisohn] But I really hadn't heard anything like it.
There hadn't been, I now realize it,
there hadn't been anything
that sounded quite like that before.
"She Loves You" was a new sound and it was a joyous,
happy, so uplifting sound.
I was just swept away
and it just went straight into my... into my heart
and into my bloodstream.
[upbeat Indian music]
[no audible dialogue]
[train horn blares]
I think number one is that nobody... they only listen to themselves,
and they had an unerring sense of right
or what was right for them, and it turned out
that what was right for them was right for all of us,
and this is why they have sustained so long
because they were pure and true, and key ingredient,
no artificiality whatsoever.
The Beatles didn't preach any message,
and those who eventually read messages into their work
were barking up the wrong tree
because they were not message givers particularly,
they were just writing for themselves
but what they did was empower people.
They empowered people to think for themselves,
to express themselves differently.
[slow Indian music]
[Bhojwani] And then I remember
when the first Beatle album came our way.
- It was Please Please Me. - [Bhatia] Mm-hm.
I think that came out in '63.
- October. - And some guy came from England
and said you've gotta hear these guys.
The album '64, but the single in '63.
The single.
We loved the sound and we said, "This is it.
We gotta do this kind of rock and roll."
It changed the scene completely.
There was no band here who had ever heard a sound like that.
Although I must say, talking about their trip to Rishikesh,
they came there probably looking
for some kind of...
higher evolution of spirit,
largely prompted by George Harrison.
Whereas here, we're kind of born with it.
You were there.
What did you see?
What did you see when you saw them together as a group?
So, I was... I was with them for a week,
- about every day for a week. - Yeah.
And what was completely obvious was they were brothers.
They were like this, they were family.
- Yeah. - [Saltzman] You know, there was so much joy,
which is of course what, to me,
is always there in their music, whatever they do.
[Lewisohn] Absolutely right, yeah, and the humor.
The fantastic humor that they had between them
that worked every time no matter how, who was saying what
and in what circumstance, they were funny.
Well, they were four brilliant guys.
- Yeah. - Crazy, it's crazy.
Yeah.
[ehthereal music]
Well, Paul, what do you say we promenade by the Ganges?
[laughing]
[Lewisohn] I've been waiting a long time to come here.
It's such a wide river.
It comes down from the mountains pretty much here, right?
This is where it enters the plain.
Well, on the Ganges, Gangama,
the holy... the holy river that people come to bathe in
and clean up your sins, so to speak.
[Lewisohn] Right, okay.
Well, I'd better go for a long bath then, hadn't I?
[Saltzman] You want to deal with your sins?
[both laughing]
[Saltzman] Do you want to deal with your sins now or later?
[Lewisohn] We'll get 'em over with now, I think, yeah, okay.
[Saltzman] In fact to clean up your karma.
- [Lewisohn] Yes. - [Saltzman] You know, lifetimes of karma.
[Lewisohn] Have you bathed in it before?
- [Saltzman] It's cold. I don't bathe in it often. - [Lewisohn laughing]
[gentle music]
[Saltzman] Well, I can see you getting more pure.
[Lewisohn] By the second.
[Saltzman] Well, you've just been kissed by Gangama of the Ganges.
Ashram is actually right across there in the hills.
So we'll just come down, get a boat.
[Lewisohn] The footbridge must be around here then.
[Saltzman] There it is right there.
[Lewisohn] This is the one that we have photographs
of Paul and Jane and Ringo and Maureen walking across.
[Saltzman] That's right. When they first arrived.
[bright Indian music]
[water splashing]
[indistinct chattering]
This is the strip that leads to...
- To the ashram. - To the ashram.
So they would have had to walk down here.
They would have walked, yeah.
[bright Indian music]
[Saltzman] This is the new gate.
- [Lewisohn] The new gateway. - [Saltzman] Yeah.
[Lewisohn] Not at all like this back in '68 then?
[Saltzman] No, '68 was a very plain wood picket fence.
- [indistinct chattering] - [Saltzman] Hey!
- [Gusain] Hey, how are you? - How are you?
- I'm fine. - [Lewisohn] Hello.
This is Mark, this is Raju. Raju Gusain, Mark Lewisonh.
Oh, my god.
- [Lewisohn] We're going to be garlanded. - [Gusain] Yeah, yeah.
Thank you very much.
Shukriya.
- This is for you. - Thank you.
Raju got in touch with me in 2004.
It was you that kept writing...
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Kept saying to the government, you have a gem here,
you should fix it up, not just 'cause the Maharishi
and his movement of meditation came out of here,
which was world-changing, because The Beatles came,
which was world-changing, and the government didn't notice,
didn't notice, and finally, you did it enough times
they noticed and now it's happening.
Well, well done you. Put it there.
[slow Indian music]
Meditation in the morning and then meeting me
to understand the experience of meditation,
and then lunch and then meeting me again, afternoon,
and then meeting me in the night
after their evening meditation.
It's a mutual thing.
The whole world movement
has to be a complimentary enterprise. [laughs]
The whole point of this course
is to come to do long meditation.
Normally people don't do meditation this length of time
because they're too involved with day to day activity.
So when we go back home,
we meditate just maybe an hour in the morning,
an hour in the evening, or whenever we have the time.
The Maharishi's philosophy of action
is particularly good for us.
It's to get maximum effect with minimum effort.
[John whistling]
[Lapham] When I first arrived, I had announced myself to Ragvendra.
Tell him I was from theSaturday Evening Post.
I never got to really talk to George Harrison or Lennon.
Harrison inclined to stay in his own bungalow
and work very seriously at the sitar,
but the person I got to talk to most often was McCartney,
whom I really liked.
He had a sense of humor and he also smoked cigarettes
which was, God forbid, not looked upon
as the right thing to do by the Maharishi people.
I can remember we had a good time
sitting on the roof of the bungalow
and admiring the view of the Ganges,
and I think that's where I met you.
You had come on a mission of your own.
[slow Indian music]
[Saltzman] As I walk through the ashram,
I feel the impact of my time here years ago.
I discovered I could find a different me.
I could consciously change who I was
by discovering a deep inner peace.
Instead of looking for approval outside myself,
I now feel a deep inner approval in sync with my soul.
[Ross] So yesterday, we had a beautiful opening
and it was attended by the Minister
- of the Forestry Department. - [Saltzman] Right.
[Ross] So this is the exhibition,
The Beatles Visit Maharishi in Rishikesh.
A photographic journey by Paul Saltzman.
Great to see them all up on the wall.
Interesting how The Beatles and their partners
were put there front center.
Maharishi obviously wanting to capitalize
on the fact he had such well known disciples now.
My own take is it's an innocent effort
to have people come to meditation...
- Yes. - Come to the inner journey, and of course,
we know that The Beatles' visit to the ashram
was actually a turning point in 20th century consciousness.
And then "Bungalow Bill," which of course, in a way,
was a bit of a joke although it was quite serious.
[Saltzman] Mm-hmm, and we went to Moloka'i, Hawaii
and we sat and talked with Bungalow Bill.
- No! - [Saltzman] Yes.
I... do you know, I've always wondered if he ever realized
that that song was about him.
So he's alive, is he?
[gentle rock music]
[Cooke] I didn't go to India to go to the ashram,
I went to India to go hunting
with a white hunter friend of our family.
I remember sitting there in the tree and all of a sudden,
uh, you can hear the banging of the elephants
and they're walking in the bushes,
and there's monkeys, there's mongoose, there's... every... every small animal
in the jungle started to come out in front of us,
and that's because the tiger's coming.
And then the tiger did come out in a flash
and I remember, you know, shooting.
I can still remember just the color of the tiger
through the scope.
It turns out Avi, who was quite a ways away,
we had both shot at the same time.
So we really never knew who shot the tiger.
At this point, we returned to Maharishi's ashram.
Mom so wants to tell the story to Maharishi.
We see him in that afternoon
and John Lennon is already in there,
and her version of the story and my version of the story
are probably a little different.
Her phrase was, you know, "It was us or him."
You know, she thought, you know, tiger never saw us,
but to her, it was charging us
and it was just trying to get away.
Mind you, there's these two sort of real strong paths in my life.
One is hunting and meditating, and they're both very strong.
I remember John Lennon said,
"Oh no, this is life destruction."
This is... you know, this is... he was just horrified at this story,
and I remember Maharishi, incredibly cold,
about one of the only times I've ever seen Maharishi
with really cold demeanor, saying,
"Life destruction is life destruction."
You know, so, like, end of story.
[Saltzman] How did you feel in that moment?
I have no idea.
I mean, you know, it's 50 years ago.
I was a different human being then.
I never owned a gun after that.
I grew to photographing animals was far more challenging,
and I would say about a year later, my sister tells me,
"Oh, you know there's a song on TV and... I mean, on the radio
and it's called 'Bungalow Bill'
and it's all about, you know, your tiger hunt."
And, you know, I was staying in the bungalow next to The Beatles
and I guess, being, you know, he describes me as white,
Anglo-Saxon bullheaded or whatever, son with my mother,
you know, and definitely a very strong mother. Uh...
Total antithesis to everything
that The Beatles represented at that time,
and so I became Bungalow Bill in their eyes.
- And, uh... - And what did it feel like to hear the song the first time?
It's kind of a catchy tune.
- [slow music] - You know, I mean...
- It is. - You know.
[Saltzman] And he became a conservationist
and aNational Geographic photographer.
He learned meditation and he loved hunting,
but after the ashram,
I suspect that was when it all changed for him.
How wonderful.
How wonderful!
I'm very happy to hear this.
[Saltzman] That's a lovely picture of him.
And we also have, over here,
the famous songs that talk about TM.
From Stevie Wonder and The Beatles
and Donovan and other things.
He was responsible for about six million people
to learn transcendental meditation.
[Saltzman] So you have something on the David Lynch Foundation.
[Ross] Oh yeah, oh yeah.
You know, Maharishi was very concerned that his knowledge
not be just, not be thought of as some abstract,
mumbo jumbo kind of thing.
He was coming to the West, the West are intelligent,
rational people, and so he wanted to open this to science,
and when he did, the results that came back
were quite striking.
For example, the National Institute of Health
in the United States have already given
about 24 million dollars just to study
one benefit of transcendental meditation.
It's effects on cardiovascular disease.
- So that's pretty impressive. - And does it effect it?
Yes, yes!
It's the only studied meditation technique
that has been shown to reduce high blood pressure,
- normalize high blood pressure. - Mm-hmm.
Improving a man so that he may have direct support
from nature and at the same time,
he should unfold his inner potentialities.
And this transcendental meditation
is a very direct to the inner involvement
and also gain support from nature.
Maharishi, I always say, has two missions.
One, enlightenment for the people, peace on Earth.
And he will use anyone and anything to get this job done.
[slow Indian music]
[Saltzman] So this was where [indistinct]
and had a beautiful view of the [indistinct].
And I heard that he would come out in the evenings.
[Lewisohn] So this was the Maharishi's bungalow.
[Ross] Mm-hmm.
[Lewisohn] Was this where you told that story of "The Inner Light"?
That George would have said? Was that here?
Yeah, after a couple days, Ragvendra came and said,
"Okay, it's time to meet the Maharishi."
So we went to the Maharishi's bungalow
and we took off our sandals outside
and we went into the large meditation room,
and there was low dais with an antelope skin on it
where the Maharishi would sit.
Ragvendra and I sat down in front of the dais
and as we were waiting, I hear voices outside
and I hear people taking off their sandals,
and in walked John and Paul and George and Ringo,
Cynthia, Patty, Maureen, and Shane,
and we all say hi and they sat down.
So now the 10 of us are all clumped
in front of the Maharishi's and the Maharishi came in
and he said namaste and we all said namaste back,
which is a greeting of recognition.
And George had brought in a little black tape recorder
and the Maharishi, who had a lovely sense of humor
and had a lovely laugh.
He said to George, "Is that a new song
or would you like me to recite the Bhagavad Gita?"
Which of course is a very long book
and he laughed and we all laughed, and George said, "No,
it's a new song," and he leaned over
and he pressed the play button
and out of the little tape recorder came "The Inner Light,"
which I learned later he had just recorded in Mumbai
in the EMI studios, and he starts singing along.
So this new song, George is singing it,
he's singing along with it, he's sitting right next to me.
The Maharishi never did notice me
and I never did have a conversation with him,
but it was okay 'cause here was this amazing
new Beatles song of George's
and a beautiful, beautiful moment.
[upbeat piano music]
[Saltzman] So you're 91 and to me, you look 70.
- [laughing] - [Saltzman] And to me you feel like 50.
So maybe 91 is the new 50, as they say.
I don't know.
Maybe I've just got good genes.
[piano music continues]
One doesn't want to feel the generation gap
with one's children.
One wants to relate to them,
and The Beatles really brought us together
because I could unconditionally admire them.
I didn't say well, it's okay for them
and I can kind of say it's nice, but I didn't feel that.
I was, I waited for Rubber Soul.
I waited for The White Album, you know?
With this expansion of consciousness,
these three states that we live in at the moment,
like sleeping and waking and dreaming,
they're all known as relative states
because it's all relative.
Transcendental meditation takes you
to that transcendental level of pure consciousness
but by going there often enough,
you bring that level of consciousness out onto this level.
I'm always fascinated by the fact
of their endless creativity, their endless invention.
So you could immediately name 10 famous Beatles songs
and they could have been written by 10 different groups
because they're so different, and yet,
they embraced a huge world that was the kind of amusing,
slightly primitive songs that Ringo wrote,
the wonderful songs of George.
I mean, I think...
[playing "Something" on piano]
[humming]
[vocalizing]
Wonderful song.
And Paul had such an incredible melodic gift
you know, like "Yesterday" and "Michelle,"
and then also such wonderful ideas like "Eleanor Rigby."
What an idea for a song!
Who writes songs like that?
It's just, they... they...
Well, you're looking at a fan. [laughs]
[bell ringing]
[Saltzman] On another day, we were all sitting
at the long table by the cliff and everyone got up to leave
to get ready for dinner except George and I,
and the monkey in the tree above us
dropped down onto the table, grabbed some food,
and darted off, and George and I had a great laugh.
And I said to George, "I love the way
you brought the sitar into "Norwegian Wood"
and into Beatles music," and he just lit up
and he told me about how he had first found a sitar
on the set ofHelp.
How he then started studying with Ravi Shankar,
the world's foremost sitar maestro.
George Harrison's relationship with Ravi
was an extraordinary one.
It went very deep very quickly.
They're like father and son, wrapped in the same shawl,
and you have Ravi, the man of the East looking West,
and George, the man of the West looking East.
George called himself Ravi's disciple.
On another level, George's embracing of the sitar
made the instrument suddenly popular in a new way
amongst young people in the Western hemisphere.
[Saltzman] And then George said, "I was just gonna go practice,
do you want come?"
And I said, "Great."
I didn't even think of getting my camera,
but we went to a small meditation room
and it was just futons and we sat quite close together,
and he picked up the sitar and he started to play.
[sitar music]
[Saltzman] And I closed my eyes and I honestly don't know
if he played for 10 minutes or for 40 minutes.
Time shifted and I just was transported
on the sounds of the sitar, and after a while,
when I heard the last note fading into nothing,
I slowly opened my eyes and I was buzzed.
I was stoned.
I was in a state of bliss again
like after the first meditation.
I could see the energy in the room and in that moment,
George and I had a really amazing conversation.
Just two young men.
I was 24, he was 24.
He said, "I get higher meditating than I ever did on drugs,"
and I knew what he meant 'cause I'd already experienced it
a couple of days earlier.
And then he said something to me life changing
and that explained exactly why The Beatles were in India.
With profound humility, there was this superstar
and he was so centered and so modest and so kind,
and he said, "Like, we're The Beatles after all, aren't we?
We have all the money you could ever dream of.
We have all the fame you could ever wish for.
But it isn't love, it isn't health,
it isn't peace inside, is it?"
And it was life changing for me.
[gentle Indian music]
[Saltzman] Sharing time with George, I discovered not a star
but a truly gentle man.
His thoughts helped me see that my father's lack of love
was his own failing.
An insight that helped me see myself as worthy
of having my own child
and loving her without reservation.
How did you interact with them
and what kind of experience was it for you?
They were very generous. They were very kind, playful.
[stammers] Not a whiff of fame and fortune in terms of any...
Somehow they remained remarkably down to Earth.
From what I saw, there was no swelled-headness at all.
There was no attitude.
There was no I'm a Beatle and you're not.
I worked with Disney once and a senior executive
actually said to me in seriousness, actually said,
"Well, after all, we're Disney and you're not."
[everyone laughing]
So there was no Beatles, we're Beatles and you're not.
Negativity is the enemy to creativity.
Ideas, you know, I picture ideas falling through a conduit
and stress and negativity squeeze that conduit
and the ideas can't get through.
And so when you start meditating, that conduit just opens up
and ideas start flowing more and more.
When you talk about The Beatles in Rishikesh
and that period of time, I'd like to go on my own retreat
and sit in an ashram and be in creative flow,
and I think it's so important.
I men, I think David Lynch talks about kind of, you know, creating space
to fish for the big fish in terms of ideas,
and I think to get that big fish,
here we are sitting at Santa Monica Pier,
you do need to be in some form of creative meditative state.
I, you know me, that I sometimes think
your meditation stuff's slightly hokey but I love you.
[Saltzman laughing]
But I do agree with you, that there's some magic
in time and space to delve into the unconscious
and search for that big fish.
There. Right next to the building.
This is, this is the bungalow...
- Yep. - [Saltzman] ...where I shot those pictures.
Who was staying in this bungalow?
[Ross] Our Dear Prudence and John and George
and Mike Love and Donovan.
[Saltzman] One afternoon, I was walking back to my tent
and I passed the bungalow where Ringo and John
and Paul were staying, and they were sitting
on the front steps and Paul and John
had their Martin D28 acoustic guitars and they were playing,
and I went and got my camera and I came back
and I took a shot through the gate
of the three of them sitting there,
and I went through the gate and we said hello.
[gentle guitar music]
[Saltzman] And then John went to scratch his ear
and I just lifted the camera instinctually
and just fortunately, luckily, I got it in focus
'cause in those days, there was no automatic focus
and there was no automatic exposure.
And then I went over and I sat down beside Ringo,
and they started singing, "Ob la di, ob la da bra,
lala how the life goes on."
And they were singing it over and over again
and they were playing with it, they were bending it.
They were going faster, slower, they were laughing,
they were having fun.
They were in joy and in that moment,
I had another understanding of where their music came from.
It came from that joy 'cause creativity is a joyful state,
and joy is state of creativity.
So they're singing it over and over again
and I looked down and under Paul's sandal
is a little piece of yellow paper that's torn at the edges
and it says, "Ob la di, ob la da, bra la la,
how the life goes on," and Paul was looking down at it
as he's strumming because he clearly
hadn't yet memorized the words.
So it was new to them, and they sing it over and over again
and then I took a picture of Paul,
and as I took that picture,
they paused and they took a little break.
They went back to it but Paul looked up at me and he smiled
and he said, "That's all there is so far,
we don't have any of the words yet."
So that was really lovely, lovely moment.
And do you know who was in what room?
I believe that Prudence was in this room,
Our Dear Prudence.
I believe George was in this room.
- Right. - [Ross] And I believe Paul was in that room.
- [Saltzman] Uh-huh. - [Ross] And John was apparently in this corner over here.
- [Saltzman] Right. - And I think Mike Love and Donovan were on this side.
- [Saltzman] Right. - Yeah, so the song "Dear Prudence,
won't you come out to play," which was sung to her
depending on whose account you observe,
either through the door
or actually they went into the room
and sang it to her in person, that was here?
- [Ross] Yeah. - That's right in the corner.
[upbeat Indian music]
[instructor speaking indistinctly]
[music continues]
[Saltzman] The time at the ashram here with The Beatles
seemed to be their single most creative capsule of time.
My understanding was that they wrote 48 songs
in about 48 days.
[Lewisohn] The Beatles themselves, when they got back to England,
John and Paul separately, a couple of weeks apart,
both said they had written 30 songs here between them.
So I reckon 30 is about the right number
and obviously, I wasn't here, but what I do have access to
is pretty much everything they've ever mentioned
about their songs in any interview at any time.
I guess that's the challenge of being a historian,
about who says what.
I know that when I met Denis O'Dell in New Jersey,
he had been the head of Apple Films
and he came actually the day I left,
and I said to him, "Do you know how many songs
The Beatles wrote at the ashram?"
And he said, "I know exactly how many songs,"
and I said, "How many?"
And he said, "48," and I said, "How do you know?"
And he said, "Well, as soon as John and Paul
were back from India, I was sitting with them together
and I said, 'How many songs did you guys write at the ashram?'
And Paul said, '48.'"
- Right. - [Saltzman] So that would seem to be a truth.
Now, from the historian point of view,
you're trying to find what they are
and then it becomes murky.
It does become murky, yeah. I mean...
Memories are fallible.
That one sounds quite precise and obviously,
one respects the fact that Denis, who I know,
that he remembers that, but at the same time
as they were telling Denis 48,
they were saying 30 to the press and it is about 30 songs
that can be found.
Now, I have here the catalog of a John Lennon Museum
which opened in Japan a few years ago
with items from his personal collection,
and this is John's Rishikesh notebook
in which he wrote the lyrics to the songs he wrote in it,
and it reads as follows:
"Julia," "I'm So Tired," "Child of Nature," "Cry Baby Cry,"
"Take it Easy, "Mean Mr. Mustard," "Goodnight,"
"The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill,"
"Polythene Pam,"
"Give Me Some Truth," "Yer Blues," "Dear Prudence,"
but also "Revolution."
George, let's look at George's songs.
"Circles," "Deharadun," "Sour Milk Sea."
Paul's notebook can be seen
in the book of The Beatles Anthology.
"Back in the USSR," "I Will," "Jump," "Martha My Dear,"
"Silly Girl," "Mother Nature's Son," "Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da,"
which is the one you saw them writing, "Rocky Raccoon,"
"Teddy Boy." There are some possibles.
"Cosmically Conscious," "Honey Pie,"
"Why Don't We Do It in the Road?".
People often look at The White Albumand say
those are the songs they wrote in Rishikesh
but in fact, it looks to me like 16 of the 30 were here,
12 were not, and two may or may not have been.
[Saltzman] And what do you make of their creativity here?
[Lewisohn] So I think the number of songs is not surprising.
Undoubtedly the atmosphere here
and the fact that they weren't going
to London nightclubs, you know, in the evening,
they weren't going into the office in the daytime.
You know, they had almost nothing else to do here but meditate,
read, sleep, and write songs.
[Jenny] We would sit on the rooftop of our bungalow
and John would come sometimes, you know, there'd be Paul
and George and John mostly with their guitars,
and what I was aware of
is that the things that they were finding words to describe,
what they were describing, was everyday things
that were going on at the ashram.
Um, so they would take anything and make a song of it.
So John, the fact that he didn't sleep well at night
or a particular night, that became a song.
Or Prudence, you know, trying to get her out of her, the state
that she was in, that became a song.
And so that's what I was aware of then,
that it was the everyday things
that were going on around us
that were inspiring them to create.
They just couldn't not.
So in that way, I mean, how often does one get two months
where there are no distractions?
And especially for them.
You know, especially for The Beatles.
That would have been probably
something they had dreamed about.
We've always done a lot of work
and we've always had very little time, free time.
So the meditation helps us
because we can do more work in less time.
Get more free time to relax.
[Interviewer] Do you plan to possibly have
any active part
in the propagation of transcendental meditation?
We'll do everything we can, anything that's possible.
Everything we can.
And we might be able to do a lot.
[birds chirping]
[Lewisohn] How did the group photo happen, Paul?
At one point, I just noticed that there was a gathering
and I went and got my camera 'cause everyone was dressed up
and everyone was wearing garlands
and someone put a garland over my head.
And then Mal Evans said, "Can you take some pictures for me, Paul?"
And gave me his camera and then George and Patty
seeing that said, "Can you take some pictures for us?"
And then Ringo said, "Can you take some pictures?"
So I had four cameras around my neck.
I had my pretty cheap, bottom of the line Pentax,
which I could afford, and their four high end Nikons,
which was quite appropriate.
So I just took quite a bit of shots.
[slow Indian music]
[Lewisohn] I can't think of anywhere else other than here
where the famous group photograph was taken.
Such a great photo.
See all the plants in front there.
That is just like the Sergeant Pepper album cover
where they had an array of plants in the front.
[Saltzman] Sure.
Ringo was shooting film to promote meditation,
but he was always behind the camera.
So he taught me how to use his camera
and I shot for a couple of days
so he would also be in the film.
[music continues]
[Saltzman] When I first saw them taking pictures,
it was like a family outing.
You know, they took pictures of each other.
I did ask them each individually,
and it was literally like I wasn't thinking of Beatles.
Within 30 seconds of sitting down with them,
The Beatles went away, and as odd as it sounds,
they really were there just themselves.
And I think that's one of the reasons
they were so candid with me,
- was that I didn't want anything from them. - [Lewisohn] Yeah.
You know, when you're that famous and that rich
and everyone wants a piece of you, you're on guard.
You must be very, very strong or you'll get kind of caught up in it.
[Lewisohn] So there was an element of trust.
They must have sussed you, as the English would say,
they sussed you out.
[birds chirping]
[Saltzman] The day I left the ashram,
Ringo and Maureen also headed home.
I asked them, "Hey, how come you guys are leaving?"
And Ringo said, "We're missing the kids
and Maureen doesn't like the flies."
They'd been there 11 days.
Paul and Jane talked about visiting the Taj Mahal
and left after five weeks.
And George and John stayed for 55 days.
[Lewisohn] It seems that when they got back to London,
that things were never quite the same again.
From what everything we can see and that they've said,
that they were never as close again post-Rishikesh
as they were pre-Rishikesh.
You know, it's pretty esoteric stuff.
To talk about god or goddess and meditation
and what happens.
I think it's about being able to ground it
in something... something more real.
So do we really have a soul? Does it exist?
And if so, what's our relationship with it?
You're speaking to a cynic, dad.
[Saltzman laughing]
I love you, but you know my response to this.
Go ahead, what is your response?
I think proselytizing one stop shopping
around spirit is scary.
Well, no, I'm not... [laughs]
I have to be your daughter. This is me.
Do you think there's an argument
for never having children?
- No! - Because they get to be smarter than you!
No, because they challenge you, it's great.
Yeah, and they get to be smarter.
The kingdom of heaven is within you, yeah.
That's all it means. You can have a peep inside.
- [Interviewer] Anybody? - All you've gotta do is be interested in it,
whether you're interested in it to knock it
or to do anything, but if you just want to try to find out,
that's all you need. You know.
The full potential of every single one of us human beings.
It's our birthright to one day enjoy supreme enlightenment.
It just needs unfolding and it's time, on this planet,
to start enjoying life, unfolding that full potential,
and, you know, getting along.
Having a peaceful, beautiful world
where people are just happy campers.
Just zooming into a beautiful future together.
[slow music]
[Freeman] And what of the now 24 year-old
who went in search of himself and found The Beatles?
[Saltzman] As I sit here looking out over the Ganges,
I know without India, I would never have learned
to embrace my inner self and I'm filled with much gratitude
to Paul and Ringo and George and John
for opening their hearts and taking me in.
I realize that seeing them embrace the joy of creativity
infused my own courage as a filmmaker to explore and trust.
As Mark said, they weren't message givers,
but their music and their words
have enlivened so many of us.
They encouraged me to receive what the world offers
and learn from it.
Like the privilege of having a lovely daughter
who reminded me I had these photographs.
And my soul asks, knowing what you know now,
do you wish you had taken another path?
Sitting here, I know I took the right path.
In their words, "And in the end, the love you take
is equal to the love you make."
The Maharishi and The Beatles helped me
wake up my ability to love and it's been the greatest gift.
[upbeat Indian music]
[no audible dialogue]
[music continues]
[slow Indian music]