George Harrison Said the Only Way to Find Your True Self Is by Meditating or Doing Yoga
George Harrison claimed the only way to find your true self is by meditating and doing yoga. The Beatles guitarist embarked on his spiritual journey in the mid-1960s because he wanted answers. He wanted to discover his place in the universe. More importantly, George wanted to connect with God.
George Harrison started meditating during the mid-1960s
Spirituality came to George after a series of coincidental events. First, he heard Indian music on the set of The Beatles’ Help! When he started learning sitar, friends told him about Ravi Shankar. As George listened to the sitar legend’s music, it sounded familiar to him, “not intellectually but emotionally, as though
calling him back to a place he already knew,” Joshua M. Greene wrote in Here Comes The Sun: The Spiritual And Musical Journey Of George Harrison.
Around this time, George took LSD for the first time. He said it opened his mind up to “God-consciousness.” However, he didn’t know what that meant.
In 1965, George met Shankar, who immediately wanted to teach George everything he knew. The most important lesson Shankar taught George was that God is sound and that by playing the right notes, one can connect to God.
In 1966, George, his wife, Pattie Boyd, and Shankar took a six-week trip to India. George began learning about meditating and yoga. A year later, George learned Transcendental Meditation from the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi.
In Raja-Yoga by Swami Vivekananda, Geoge learned “all people possess innate and eternal perfection. ‘Tat tvam asi—That thou art,’ Vivekananda declared.’You are that which you seek. There is nothing to do but realize it,'” Greene wrote.
George also “discovered that the word ‘yoga’ meant ‘to link,’ as in the English words ‘yoke’ or ‘union.’ In its early stages, George read, yoga involved physical exercises, but its goal was to link the soul with the Supreme Soul or God.”
Soon, all George did was meditate and do yoga. “He read essays on how meditation could lower metabolic levels, increase spiritual awareness, and eventually help the soul escape further reincarnations.” George knew his mission was to find his true self through these practices. It was the answer to all his questions.
George learned that meditating and doing yoga can show your true self
During a 1967 interview on The Frost Programme (per George Harrison on George Harrison: Interviews and Encounters), George explained that you could see your true self by doing yoga and meditating.
“Because the thing is, your true self isn’t on this level; again, it’s on a subtler level,” George said. “So, whatever the true self is, the way to approach it is through that meditation or some form of yoga. We’re not saying that this meditation is the only answer; it’s obviously not.
“Yoga incorporates lots of different techniques, but the whole point is that each soul is potentially divine, and yoga is a technique of manifesting that, to arrive at that point that is divine.”
During an interview with his former sister-in-law, Jenny Boyd, George added, “Meditation is only a means to an end. In order to infuse energy and power and get it flowing through our bodies, we have to meditate. You infuse that energy into your being, and so when you are in activity, it rubs off onto that creatively. To really
be in touch with creative energy, you will find that it lies within the stillness.”
George said it’s possible to have everything in life and still find your true self
Despite everything in life, finding your true self is still possible. George believed that.
During a 1988 interview, The Journal asked, “Can you live in the world, work in the movie industry, be a musician, and at the same time, hope to become more peaceful?”
George replied, “You can, actually. In one way, it’s very simple, but in another way, I may not be the best example of this, but God is living in everybody’s heart and all you have to do is try and meditate and go inside and get in touch with the self.
“Self-realization. Find out that we’re all truly potentially divine and the goal in life is to manifest that divinity. Now, it’s not easy when you’re in a crazed rock ‘n’ roll band.”
No, it certainly wasn’t. That’s why, deep down, George was happy outside of The Beatles. He could meditate for the rest of his life without worrying about anything else. George once said his main goal in life was to be God-conscious. He lived up to that.
