{"id":1211,"date":"2017-12-19T02:31:41","date_gmt":"2017-12-19T02:31:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.yogadirectorycanada.com\/community\/?p=1211"},"modified":"2021-04-26T18:50:07","modified_gmt":"2021-04-26T18:50:07","slug":"why-dont-we-do-it-in-the-road-lets-celebrate-the-50th-anniversary-of-the-beatles-trip-to-india","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.yogadirectorycanada.com\/community\/why-dont-we-do-it-in-the-road-lets-celebrate-the-50th-anniversary-of-the-beatles-trip-to-india\/","title":{"rendered":"WHY DON\u2019T WE DO IT IN THE ROAD? LET\u2019S CELEBRATE THE 50TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE BEATLES\u2019 TRIP TO INDIA"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Leslie Smith<\/h3>\n

\u201cTurn off your mind, relax and float downstream, it is not dying \u2026\u201d
\n\u2014Tomorrow Never Knows<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Fashion, music, culture, spirituality. The Beatles 1968 trip to India was a groundbreaking event across the spectrum of Western pop culture. February, 2018 marks the 50th anniversary of their visit to the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi\u2019s Transcendental Meditation Ashram in Rishikesh. And yes, dear Prudence, the monkeys are still \u201cdoing it in the road\u201d\u2014though their vigorous copulation no longer inspires songwriters.<\/p>\n

In fact, the\u00a0ashram has been abandoned for years. Just finding it is an adventure\u2026especially when navigating via a map drawn on a napkin by a yoga instructor at breakfast.<\/p>\n

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Ganges: On the way to Beatles Ashram<\/p><\/div>\n

The so-called Beatles Ashram is located at the far end of Swarg Ashram, a sort of suburb of Rishikesh on the less-trafficked bank of the Ganges. Few tourists can even find it, let alone summon up the courage to navigate the narrow, winding streets filled with donkeys, cows (and occasionally randy bulls), maimed beggars, holy men hustling for a meal, and pilgrims bathing on the Ghats of the sacred Ganges. Walk by the Last Chance Cafe & Guest House, pass a series of tin huts where a woman forcibly ejects a cow from her hovel, and shinny around the end of a wall. Walk along a ledge and over a rocky riverbed that was once a road before floods destroyed it. Dead ahead are a troupe of monkeys, sitting primly on a wall but ready to\u2026uh\u2026do it in the road, given the slightest provocation.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe went out tiger hunting with his elephant & gun; in case of accidents he always took his mum\u2026\u201d<\/strong><\/h3>\n
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