Maharishi & Me

by Susan Shumsky

  However, Maharishi had made the same promise to someone else.

  In August 1967, Charlie Lutes (president of Maharishi’s Spiritual Regeneration Movement—SRM) gave TM meditator Alan Waite permission to film in Rishikesh, under the assumption the Beatles would be there. Alan contracted the rights to David Charnay of Four Star Productions of Hollywood.

  Guru-who-knows-all-but-blatantly-ignores-the-obvious, Maharishi rebuffed warnings from sensible people who saw blinding, flashing red flags. He seemed to be setting the scene for an interesting drama.

  On March 20, Neil Aspinall (manager, Apple Corps) and Denis O’Dell (producer of A Hard Day’s Night and Magical Mystery Tour) arrived in Rishikesh to negotiate the Apple Corps film contract. Aspinall’s agenda was to thwart the project, since the Beatles were under contract with United Artists for a third picture. O’Dell’s agenda was to convince the Beatles to make The Lord of the Rings (John wanted to play Gandalf).

  During the meeting Aspinall noticed this little bearded man in a robe haggling about his 2.5 percent. Wait a minute, Aspinall thought, Maharishi knows more about making deals than I do.152

  On March 26, Aspinall, Paul McCartney and Jane Asher left Rishikesh for Jane’s theatrical commitment in England. Paul expressed gratitude to Maharishi and told a student, “I’m going away a new man.”153 He said, “I will continue to meditate and certainly feel it was a very rewarding experience.”154

  John Lennon and George Harrison, the two Beatles remaining in Rishikesh, proposed a musical event in New Delhi starring sitarist Ravi Shankar, Donovan, and the Beach Boys. A Festival of Peace in Britain was planned for May 1969, featuring the Beatles and Maharishi.

  A cable was sent to London telling Aspinall to return to Rishikesh, bring a film crew, and begin shooting the Beatles’ Apple film. Again Maharishi received warnings about conflicts of interest. But he paid no mind: “If Charlie has a contract, then they can all work together for the glory of Guru Dev. There will be enough work for all,”155 Maharishi said.

  Though Maharishi had been warned that contracts didn’t quite work that way, he appeared determined to incite the kind of pandemonium that seemed like an average Tuesday in his mad, mad world.

  One of Maharishi’s mind games was stirring competition by assigning two people to the same project. Was this why Charlie Lutes arrived on April 4 with a Four Star Productions lawyer and contract he’d signed as Maharishi’s power of attorney? His contract granted Four Star exclusive rights to film Maharishi for the next five years!

  Gene Corman, executive producer, arrived in Rishikesh to meet Maharishi, George Harrison, John Lennon, and Joe Massot about the Four Star film. Gene’s fifteen-man team, including cameramen from Britain and France and Mia Farrow’s brother John Farrow, were standing by in New Delhi.

  On April 9, the Four Star movie crew arrived in the middle of the night, cutting out Beatles colleague Joe Massot as well as Apple Corps. At dawn, in the Beatles courtyard, the bed-headed, bleary-eyed, half-asleep John Lennon opened his door to a cameramen and director yelling “Action.”

  Now the Beatles were expected to be two-bit players in the Four Star film. John and George avoided the lecture hall, where lights and cameras were installed. They refused to leave their rooms.

  The Beatles had basked in glorified self-aggrandizement in Guruville as honored guests of what they’d considered a great spiritual master. Ringo declared, “We never did anything for him. We never paid him one penny.”156

  Now John and George suspected Maharishi’s motive was exploiting them for publicity, beginning with his vinyl record by “The Beatles’ Spiritual Teacher” in 1967. Maharishi persisted in promising ABC a television special with the Beatles, though the band refused repeatedly. The Beatles were also requested to tithe 10 percent or more of their annual income to the Movement. Mal Evans noted John’s reaction: “Over my dead body.”157

  When Charlie Lutes (whom John nicknamed “Captain Kundalini”) railed against the 1960s hippie culture in the lecture hall, John stood and said, “Anyone who believes that has his ‘ead up his arse!”158 As John perceived Maharishi in cahoots with Charlie’s back-alley movie deal, John discounted Charlie’s miraculous tales about Maharishi as fantastic lies.

  John’s suspicions might have arisen from naïveté, gullibility, unrealistic expectations, meditation inexperience, inconstancy, insincerity, or all of the above. However, many forces were at work, manipulating the Beatles. Their disenchantment over the film contract was the first rumble in a coming volcanic eruption. More heinous powers churned in the molten crucible below.

  Enter Johan Alexis “Magic Alex” Mardas—a Beatles associate who arrived in Rishikesh the last week in March. John Dunbar, Marianne Faithfull’s ex-husband, had introduced Alexis to John Lennon on an acid trip. Dunbar extolled the Greek as Marconi/ Edison/ Bell in one convenient package. Alexis had made a seldom-functional psychedelic light box for the Rolling Stones, but Brian Jones was charmed by his banter.

  Soon after meeting John, the unshakeable Alexis seemed to have surgically attached himself to John’s hip. Cynthia was alarmed at his Svengali-like influence over her husband. She declared Alexis “made her skin crawl.”159 John introduced Alexis to the other Beatles as “my new guru Magic Alex.”160 Alexis’s harebrained schemes included drilling the Beatles’ skulls at their foreheads—trepanning to open the third eye.

  Alexis had convinced the Beatles of his genius, claiming to be designing a solar-powered electric guitar (for daytime rock concerts?), a force field to keep fans away, wallpaper that doubled as a stereo speaker, paint that made objects invisible, and a flying saucer. But his most improbable device would power a radio station, broadcast Maharishi’s message worldwide, plus supply electrical power to the entire region. The size of a trash can lid, it would consist of electronic parts from the local equivalent of Radio Shack (as if such thing existed in 1968 rural India).

  Reality check—Alexis was a TV repairman.

  “Magic Alex” described the students at the ashram as “second-rate American actresses,”161 “mentally ill old ladies, and a bunch of lost, pretty girls.”162 Yet he had no compunction about having sex with one—a short-haired blond schoolteacher from Brooklyn in her late twenties, Rosalyn Bonas.163 She’d been meditating a year. Spending her savings on the course, she hoped to become a better schoolteacher, spread TM to the world, get close to Maharishi, and absorb his vibrations, which had made her meditations deeper after she saw him at a New York lecture.

  Two Hollywood actors were course attendees: Tom Simcox and Jerry Stovin. Before Rosalyn hooked up with Magic Alex, she had an affair with Tom. Maharishi told Rosalyn to socialize less and meditate more, and then after long meditation socializing would be more enjoyable. She claimed she found this to be true.164

  Jenny Boyd said Alexis Mardas came to Rishikesh “because he didn’t approve of the Beatles’ meditating, and he wanted John back.” She noted Alexis “made friends with another girl in our party [Rosalyn].” Jenny watched them “walking the grounds of the ashram together, obviously cooking something up.”165

  No one ever reported Alexis meditating—quite the opposite. Alexis’s expressed motive for coming to Rishikesh was to end the Beatles’ obsession with this Indian guru. Maharishi was a threat to Alexis’s gurudom status. Determined to undermine Maharishi’s influence, Alexis’s first move (according to Beatles manager Peter Brown) was smuggling wine into the ashram and drinking with Cynthia, Pattie, and some Americans.

  Mike Dolan, Rosalyn’s next-door neighbor at the ashram, described her as “perkily attractive, very funny, and at times combative. She would interrupt Maharishi with pointedly uncosmic questions during his lectures.”166 Though Maharishi was a Hindu yogi in an ashram in India, she was astounded to discover Hindu beliefs underlying TM. Mike claimed Rosalyn stopped attending Maharishi’s lectures, became increasingly hostile toward meditation, and wanted to go home. But her plane ticket restricted her from leaving early.

  At night Mike
overheard Alexis and Rosalyn next-door through the thin walls, practicing the Kama Sutra—apparently her definition of taking Maharishi’s advice to “socialize less.” Whiffs of a distinct herb wafted from her room, and bottles of fermented brews appeared—definitely not on the course agenda. This behavior caused a rumble. Brahmacharya Rhaghvendra informed Mike that Rosalyn would be expelled from the ashram.

  In a statement to the New York Times in 2010, Alexis Mardas reported: “About three to four months after I had arrived at the retreat, we were attending a lecture given by the Maharishi. Also present was an American teacher, whose name I now know to have been Rosalyn Bonas. I remember the Maharishi saying that this lady had an ‘iceberg’ in her brain and was unable to understand what he was saying. In the presence of everyone there, he told her that she should come to his villa after the lecture for private tuition.”167

  Alexis further stated that a day or two later, Rosalyn approached Alexis and John on the porch of the Beatles’ bungalow, saying Maharishi had made sexual advances. Alexis also claimed Maharishi offered her chicken and invited her to return. The following night, John, George, and Alexis purportedly hid in the undergrowth at Maharishi’s bungalow to catch Maharishi and Rosalyn in flagrante delicto. They supposedly spied Maharishi trying to hug Rosalyn (who were both fully clothed) and were very upset by what they saw.168

  Was Alexis hallucinating or just drunk when he made these statements? Firstly, he feigned unfamiliarity with Rosalyn—or did he ever bother to ask the name of the woman he was having sex with? Secondly, John and George never claimed to have seen any alleged tryst. Peter Brown reported that when Alexis hatched a plot to spy on Maharishi, the Beatles wanted nothing to do with it. After Alexis and Rosalyn claimed they went through with the plot anyway, the Beatles argued with Alexis about what he allegedly saw. Third, Maharishi never offered Rosalyn chicken. The entire “chicken” controversy, which spread throughout the ashram, was fabricated. Fourth, Alexis claimed to stay in Rishikesh three or four months yet never saw Paul, Ringo, Donovan, Mia, or Prudence. That was impossible. Figuring the dates the celebrities arrived and departed, and assuming no one ever saw Prudence anyway, Alexis couldn’t have stayed more than two weeks.

  Some course participants believed Alexis conspired to entrap Maharishi in a sexual scandal to split the Beatles from Maharishi. Others believed Alexis concocted the scandal to avoid Maharishi’s pressing questions about the proposed radio station. Was this how Alexis escaped the humiliation of the Beatles discovering the truth about his spurious “inventions”?

  Whether anyone actually saw the purported “hug” is immaterial. What is real—Rosalyn reported to Cynthia, Pattie, Alexis, and Tom that Maharishi made a pass at her. The result: her accusation exacerbated John and George’s disillusion about Maharishi’s exploitation of them—a wound still bleeding fresh blood.

  Paul Horn described, “She [Rosalyn] starts all this crap about Maharishi making passes at her. Basically, there were a lot of rumors, jealousies, and triangles, and she got back at The Beatles through saying this about Maharishi.”169

  Cynthia Lennon thought Alexis had put the “young and impressionable” Rosalyn up to it.170 She said Mardas had accused Maharishi of being a blackguard, “without a single shred of evidence or justification. It was obvious to me that Alexis wanted out and more than anything he wanted The Beatles out as well.”171

  The Beatles and wives, hypersensitive and highly suggestible after two months of constant meditation, stayed up all night debating the allegation. George didn’t believe a word of it and was furious with Alexis. But Alexis swore to its veracity and insisted they all leave immediately. He warned the evil Maharishi might hex them with black magic. Finally, when George started to believe the rumor, John thought, “Well, it must be true; because if George started thinking it might be true, there must be something in it.”172

  Cynthia Lennon said, “To me it was tragic—hearsay, an unproved action and unproved statements. The finger of suspicion pointed at the man who had given us all so much in so many ways—Maharishi. Alexis and a fellow female meditator began to sow seeds of doubt into very open minds.”173

  Early morning April 10, Alan Waite and Paul Horn were meeting Maharishi in his bungalow. Alan said John and George arrived and asked to see Maharishi, who took them into his bedroom. After twenty minutes, they came out, shook hands with Alan and Paul, and said they were leaving. No one knows what happened in that room other than John, George, and Maharishi. Alexis claimed to have been in the room, but there’s no evidence he was.

  Here’s what eyewitnesses John Lennon and George Harrison reported:

  John announced to Maharishi, “We’re leaving.”

  Maharishi asked, “Why?”

  George, who’d already made a commitment to travel to South India to make a film called Raga with sitar player Ravi Shankar, said, “Look, I told you I was going. I’m going to the South of India.”174

  Maharishi, obviously not buying this explanation, asked, “What’s wrong?”

  Since Charlie Lutes often hinted that Maharishi performed miracles, John responded sarcastically: “Well, if you’re so cosmic, you’ll know why.”175

  Maharishi responded, “I don’t know why. You must tell me.”176

  John said, “Well, you’re supposed to be the mystic. You should know.”177

  Then Maharishi shot John an intense, piercing glare, which John interpreted as saying, with his eyes, “I’ll kill you, you bastard.”178

  Maharishi then told the Beatles the truth was like an iceberg with only 10 percent showing. But with Maharishi’s scorching look, John was struck with what he considered an epiphany. To his mind, he’d called Maharishi’s bluff. His reasoning was, if Maharishi knows all, he should know this. John recalled later, “I was a bit rough with him.”179

  But should Maharishi really “know all”? Are gurus gods? Such unrealistic expectations characterize naïve guru chasers. They assume silk-robed men should fulfill their ridiculous fantasy of saintly behavior: all-seeing, all-knowing, all-powerful, godly, pious, virtuous, flawless, and chaste.

  Maharishi never claimed supernormal powers, and, if he indeed possessed them, he wouldn’t prove them on a dare from a cynic. Those who attempted to worship Maharishi, he quickly dismissed and sent packing on the next plane home.

  John Lennon returned to his bungalow. He ripped up his poster of Maharishi and tossed it, face down, onto the cement floor. Alexis scrambled to find taxis in Dehra Dun to speed the group to the airport, before anyone changed his or her mind. The entourage packed in a flurry.

  Cynthia recalled, “I never packed my belongings with such a heavy heart. I felt that what we were doing was wrong, very, very wrong.” “The Maharishi had been accused and sentenced before he even had a chance to defend himself.”180

  On the morning of April 10, the distraught group ate breakfast in whispers, surrounded by a ghostly mist blanketing the morning air, while faint chants of mantras and tinkling of bells wafted across the river from the Sivananda ashram on the far riverbank.

  Maharishi’s robed form, clouded by fog, emerged like a specter from the gloom, seating itself silently in a small wooden shelter with a grass roof, about a hundred yards from the dining area. Jerry Jarvis approached the Beatles and requested on behalf of Maharishi “to talk things over properly.” He said Maharishi is “very sad and wants desperately to put things right” and wanted to convince them to stay.181

  “I wanted to cry,” Cynthia said. “He looked very biblical and isolated in his faith. To me he was a man with a quest, a dream for a better world and here were we, a group of people who had the power to influence the youth of the world, possibly squashing all the good work he had done.”182

  John and George denied Maharishi’s request to talk with them. They stood up from the table and filed past him without making a sound, as he stood under an umbrella at the ashram gate. “Wait,” Maharishi said. “Talk to me.”183 Alexis, with steely determination to win, was not about
to let that happen.

  As the Beatles loaded taxis, with wives in tow, the weeping, shaken women pleaded with John and George to reconsider. Alexis got what he wanted—his Beatles back. Did Rosalyn get what she wanted?

  She said, “I left the ashram the day after I was totally disillusioned with my guru. Up until that point I believed every word Maharishi said, and I was determined to make a difference in the world by teaching his meditation. Yes I might have missed but a few lectures because I found Alex to be quite an interesting character, but other than that I was a devoted student meditating several days at a time, studying and reading daily.”184

  However, decades later, there is evidence to support Maharishi was actually the one who got what he wanted—no more disruption of the serene atmosphere of his Teacher Training Course (see page 218).

  As they were about to leave, John sensed, “Even then, [Maharishi] sent out so much power that he was like a magnet, drawing me back to him. Suddenly I didn’t want to go at all, but I forced meself to carry on before it was too late.”185

  John described, “We thought: ‘They’re deliberately keeping the taxi back so as we can’t escape from this madman’s camp.’ And we had the mad Greek with us who was paranoid as hell. He kept saying, ‘It’s black magic, black magic. They’re gonna keep you here forever.’”186

  While waiting for taxis, John took out vengeance on Maharishi, singing “Maharishi, you little twat. Who the fuck do you think you are? Oh, you cunt.”187

  When George objected, “You can’t say that. It’s ridiculous,” John changed the lyrics.188 “Sexy Sadie” became the seductress in his song that appeared on The Beatles (White Album).