Beatles with the Maharishi

Beatles with the Maharishi
Beatles with the Maharishi

Wednesday, March 30, 2011

My Sweet Lord

I think with George it started off as traditional, as if it were a Christian song referring to the Lord as Jesus Christ. However, as in the Beatles tradition common with John and Paul, George's song takes a bit of a twist in the middle, saying that the Lord is Krishna and not Christ and in doing so making it a Krishna rather than a Christian song.
It could have been symbolic in the way in which George was raised as a Christian and later rediscovered his own spirituality in Krishna.
George had developed an interest in Indian philosophy in the mid 1960s. He had experimented with drugs, particularly LSD. Many users of LSD have a religious experience while intoxicated. They feel a oneness with God. George's wife, actress and model Patti Boyd, was also interested in transcendental meditation and convinced George to try TM with the Maharishi. In the spring of 1968 all of the Beatles went to India, but it was George who became the most influenced by TM.
My personal opinion is that the Hare Krishnas are very aggressive in converting people to their religion. In the 1960s I can remember the Hare Krishnas were in the city converting hippies and this song came out in 1971 at the height of all of that.
I like the Beatles like twist of the song. It starts off as Lord as in Jesus, but then it changes, twists into opening up the listener to other lords such as Krishna. You can think that Jesus and Krishna are one and the same or different. Whether it is hallelujah or hare krishna it is all the same.
It is not anything sinister like getting people hooked on Hare Krishna. It is about showing how we are basically all the same, despite the outward appearances of being different.
So you don't have to cover your kid's ears when it comes on the radio. And if they want to sing along with Hare Krishna they are not going to run off to an ashram. But they might be a bit friendlier to the Indian kids in their class and not treat them like they are strange and unusual. So it's not about getting a person hooked on anything but about recovery from the addictions of hate and preset prejudices.

3 comments:

  1. You know, I've got to admit, it's the aggression of the Hari Krishna people -- and George's doctrinaire views, that put me off this song.

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  2. I can't stand the way that some Christian musicians have turned it into a strictly Christian song. One singer actually substituted "Jesus Christ" for "Hare Krishna." Talk about indoctrination and brainwashing. The Cult of Christianity. Yikes.

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