Approx 200 meters from the ashram I'm staying at is the whats referred to the "Beatles's Ashram" where they stayed with the Maharishi Mahesh in 1968. It is derelict now. The boys stayed there for a couple of months where they wrote most of the "White Album" but the Maharishi Mahesh's constant demands for money and his attitude to the women of the group eventually drove them away.- "The Beatles song Sexy Sadie was originally called Maharishi, Maharishi, What Have You Done? John Lennon wrote the song after becoming disillusioned when the maharishi allegedly made a pass at the actor Mia Farrow at his Indian ashram, but Lennon later changed the title at George Harrison's instigation. The lyrics read: "Sexy Sadie what have you done/You made a fool of everyone.""- http://www.guardian.co.uk/medicine/story/0,11381,1549269,00.html
Bogey yogi is the phrase I believe.
The place is impressive though, when you get to the gate it stirs some iconic imagery that I would associate with that era.
The gates are chained but a man comes to them from inside somewhere and we bribe him with 20rs each to let us in.
The atmosphere is really still, fires of dry leaves at the outer walls send smoke drifting through the morning air giving everything a ethereal feel.
A rare thing in India is that it is quiet here, no traffic or shouting, just a few stoned holy men hanging around the outer grounds. You can still feel the tranquility of the 60s.
Stone domiciles based on a spiral design with little meditation rooms the shape off eggs on top of them line the lanes up to a little village of them. Anyone one of these John Lennon could have sat meditating, writing, gotten high or fooled around in, probably all of them.
It must have been a lovely place back then with beautiful gardens and shady alcoves to sit in.
As I sit meditating in what must have been the central gathering point, I try to send my mind back to what it must have been like there and what the Beatles's where achieving by being there. It must have been such an amazing time to be part of.
