Beatles Pilgrimage Pt. 2, or, Everybody's Got Something to Hide Except Me and All These Fiercely Territorial Monkeys

C'mon... y'all know the real reason I came to Rishikesh! This is where the Beatles came in 1968 to study Transcendental Meditation under the legendary Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, at his ashram not 500m from Parmarth Niketan, where I spent a week with my own ballyhooed guru.

Story goes Ringo left after a couple weeks 'cause he missed his kids and wasn't diggin' the food. Paul followed two weeks later 'cause Paul is just generally lame (see: Wings; entire solo career). John and George hung on past the two month mark, supposedly in meditation eight hours a day, until a rumor linking the Maharishi romantically with one of his students caused a general disillusionment and they also left.

No matter the tenure, each of the Beatles used their time in India to tap a wellspring of killer songs, later to be compiled on the eclectic 30-song opus known as The White Album. ('Dear Prudence', for example, refers to Prudence Farrow, actress Mia Farrow's sister, who refused to leave her meditation quarters to 'come out and play.')

Surprisingly, the legendary site has been abandoned for years, annexed to a pack of fiercely territorial monkeys and a solitary guard with a slingshot. An underhanded twenty Rupees ($0.50) gets you past the guard and into the inner sanctum, where I seemed to have interrupted a monkey during his rectal exam (pictured). A bit of hissing and they took their business elsewhere, whereupon it was free reign for photos. Had to get one next to the stone 'pods' the Fab Four reportedly stayed in. A far cry from backstage at Ed Sullivan, each pod has hardly room enough to stand and a squat toilet downstairs. Quite nice acoustics, though.