George Harrison Told The Monkees’ Songwriter a Book Had ‘A Miracle on Every Page’
A classic spiritual book had a major impact on George Harrison. One of The Monkees‘ regular songwriters recalled discussing the book with George. During an interview, the quiet Beatle discussed the text’s meaning.
A Hindu yogi was a major influence on 1 of The Monkees’ chief songwriters
Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart wrote songs together under the name Boyce and Hart. They penned several Monkees songs, including “Last Train to Clarksville” and “Valleri.” Hart is a very spiritual person.
He dedicated his 2015 book Psychedelic Bubble Gum: Boyce & Hart, The Monkees, and Turning Mayhem Into Miracles to Hindu yogi Paramahansa Yogananda. Hart said his life would not be the same without Yogananda’s teachings. In Psychedelic Bubble Gum, Hart recalled meeting George. When they met, the quiet Beatle was having lunch with a manager named Alan Pariser.
The connection between George Harrison and Paramahansa Yogananda
“Alan stopped me as I walked by the sidewalk table where they were having lunch, and we chatted for a while,” Hart wrote. “I mentioned to George that he and I shared a love for our chosen spiritual teacher, Paramahansa Yogananda, and his face lit up. He told me that he had personally given away hundreds of Yogananda’s Autobiography of a Yogi and always kept a stack of copies in his car.”
Hart discussed the connection between Yogananda and The Beatles. “If you look on the cover of The Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band album, there in the paste-up crowd of luminaries you will find the faces of all four fully enlightened gurus of the path of Yogananda’s, Self Realization Fellowship: Mahavatar Babaji, Lahiri Mahasaya, Sri Yukteswar, and Paramahansa Yogananda,” Hart said. “[George] told me that day that he always handed out the books with this verbal endorsement: ‘There’s a miracle on every page.'”
What George Harrison had to say about Paramahansa Yogananda’s ‘Autobiography of a Yogi’ in an interview
That was not the only time George discussed Autobiography of a Yogi. According to the book George Harrison on George Harrison: Interviews and Encounters, George mentioned the book during a 1967 interview. He said it revealed that anyone could attain a relationship with God through yoga. He opined that some yogis had become so good at yoga that they could walk on water like Jesus Christ.
George added that performing miracles is not the point of spirituality. His goal was to be a good person so that he would reincarnate into a good situation. George believed his place in life resulted from actions he took in his previous lives.
George might not be associated with The Monkees — but he and Hart followed similar spiritual paths.
