TIME MAGAZINE ON PRABHUPAD & GEORGE

[Guest guest]

"Harrison had found a new spiritual

mentor, Srila Prabhupada.."

 

 

Harrison came by this interest, which would become the driving force

in his life, when the script of the second Beatles film, Help!,

called for chase scenes involving cartoonish Hindu villains, and

Indian sitar players were brought in to provide some zippy chase

music. George started noodling on a sitar--if indeed one can noodle

on a sitar--and asking questions. This led to exotic instrumentation

on the Lennon ballad Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown) and later

to an apprenticeship with master sitarist Ravi Shankar, who gave

Harrison lessons on the instrument and in life itself. "He was a

friend, a disciple and son to me," said Shankar, who visited

Harrison for the last time on Wednesday. "George was a brave and

beautiful soul, full of love, childlike humor and a deep

spirituality. We spent the day before with him, and even then he

looked so peaceful, surrounded by love."

 

The bulky boxed set went to No. 1 in 1971, propelled by such hits as

My Sweet Lord and What Is Life. Harrison had found a new spiritual

mentor, Srila Prabhupada of the International Society for Krishna

Consciousness, and Hindu sentiments and sounds permeate the record,

further spurring sitar sales and causing many listeners to

investigate Eastern religions. In the early aftermath of the Beatles

demise, Harrison, the revelation, rivaled Lennon or McCartney as a

pop icon, and Shankar realized his friend might be the perfect front

man for a good cause. In August 1971, Harrison and friends Dylan,

Starr, Leon Russell and Eric Clapton staged two concerts at New York

City's Madison Square Garden to raise money for the flood- and

famine-ravaged Indian subcontinent. The Concert for Bangladesh

established Harrison as a pioneering rock philanthropist, and set a

model for future celebrity fund-raising efforts like Live Aid, the

We Are the World record and the Concert for New York City, starring

McCartney, at Madison Square Garden six weeks ago for victims of the

World Trade Center attacks.