George Harrison Has an Unreleased Song About Tragic Human Nature, Which He Wrote During The Beatles’ Trip to India
A frustrated George Harrison wrote an unreleased song during The Beatles‘ Trip to India in 1968. The Fab Four attended a retreat at the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi’s ashram in Rishikesh to learn about Transcendental Meditation.
However, George and John Lennon were the only students who completely committed themselves to learning. No one else realized the guru had given them a great opportunity, but that’s human nature.
George Harrison said people didn’t realize that they had a good thing during The Beatles’ trip to India
For her book, It’s Not Only Rock ’n’ Roll (per George Harrison on George Harrison: Interviews and Encounters), Dr. Jenny Boyd interviewed her former brother-in-law about the “conditions conducive to creating.”
George recalled The Beatles’ trip to India. Several people went off to shop and flit about. He found it amusing because the ashram had everything to offer them, yet they still looked elsewhere for pleasure.
They didn’t know they had a good thing right in front of them. The Maharishi Mahesh Yogi was offering to teach them valuable skills. However, all they wanted to do was go shopping and site seeing.
George wrote an unreleased song about the experience during The Beatles’ stay in India
However frustrating it was seeing the people go off to the shops, George realized that it was all part of human nature.
“Although we have this divinity, or creativity, within us, it is covered with material energy, and a lot of the time our actions come from a mundane level,” George explained. “There is an expression ‘beggars in a goldmine,’ and that’s what we are.
“We’re like beggars in the goldmine, where everything has really enormous potential and perfection, but we’re all so ignorant with the dust of desire on our mirrors.”
The unreleased song George wrote during The Beatles’ trip to India is called “Deradune.” He never recorded it, but he said it was about “seeing people going along the road trying to head for this place called Deradune.”
“Everyone was trying to go there for their day off from the meditation camp,” George said. “I couldn’t see any point in going to this town. I’d gone all the way to Rishikesh to be in meditation and I didn’t want to go shopping for eggs in Deradune!”
A verse in the song included: “See them move along the road/ In search of life divine/ Unaware it’s all around them/ Beggars in a goldmine.”
George was also upset at Paul McCartney for not focusing on meditation
The Beatles wrote 48 tunes, most of which ended up on The White Album later that year, during their time in India. However, George was a little upset by it.
He might’ve written “Deradune,” but George was not pleased that Paul McCartney spent most of his time at the ashram writing songs instead of meditating, which was the whole point of going to India.
Again, it was a beggar in a goldmine situation. Paul couldn’t see what a great opportunity it was to be a student of one of the world’s best teachers. Instead, he used the quiet time to write hits.
