GEORGE HARRISON SPEAKS WITH GEOFFREY GIULIANO

Hambilden, Oxfordshire
Winter 1984

Geoffrey Giuliano: How do you remember Prabhupada?
George Harrison: Prabhupada always used to say he was ‘the servant of the servant of the servant of Krsna.’ He was very, very humble. The thing about Srila Prabhupada, he was more like a dear friend than anything. We used to sit in my house and talk for hours.
Geoffrey: I understand on his deathbed he called you his archangel, took a ring from his finger, and instructed his disciples to make sure you got it. Did you?
George: Yes, I’ve got it. I have it.
Geoffrey: Were you his disciple?
George: As far as being a full-fledged devotee, no. I was never really into it that far. I liked him and his philosophy, though. I never followed all the rules and regulations that strictly, however. Except for maybe a few months.
Geoffrey: Anything else to say about the Hare Krsna movement?
George: Well, I love the food. When I visited their place in India [Mayapur] last year, I got up with them at four in the morning and after mangle arty [early morning prayers] they brought me a forty-course breakfast, all on silver. I was the honored guest. Which, of course, is better than being the un-honored guest!
Geoffrey: What is your attitude towards spiritual life these days?
George: I was at the airport in Honolulu and I met a guy dressed in these old saffron corduroys. He approached me with a book and said, ‘My guru wants you to have this.’ I couldn’t make out if he recognized me or not. I said, ‘What do you mean, your guru wants me to have this? Does he know I’m here?’ The book said, ‘Something Something Guru, the World’s Spiritual Leader.’ I read the book and this guy doesn’t like anybody. He ran down Sai Baba, Yogananda, and everybody. Although he did quote Prabhupada’s books (and everyone else’s for that matter). It seemed very dogmatic. I’m just not into that. It’s the organization of religion that turns me off a bit. I try to go into myself. Like Donovan said, ‘You’ve got to go into your own temple once a day.’
Geoffrey: How do you feel about the Beatles’ myth today?
George: All this stuff about the Beatles being able to save the world was rubbish. I can’t even save myself. It was just people trying to put the responsibility on our shoulders. The Beatles saved the world from boredom. Even when we got to America the first time, everybody was running around with Bermuda shorts on, brush cuts, and braces on their teeth. But we didn’t really create any great change, we just...
Geoffrey: Heralded it?
George: Heralded that change of consciousness that happened in the sixties. We went along with it, that’s all.
Geoffrey: Gave it a voice, maybe?
George: Yeah, I guess.
Geoffrey: I met Yoko recently. She seems fine, you know. She seems to be trying to carry on with life, her and Sean, who, by the way, is a very bright kid.
George: Yeah. I’d love to meet Sean. I bet he is. I don’t know, the whole Beatles thing is like a horror story, a nightmare. I don’t even like to talk about it. I just hate it.
Geoffrey: Sorry. What about gardening? I know you love that. Don’t you have all kinds of exotic plants and trees from around the world up at Friar Park?
George: No, not really. I get all my stuff from a local nursery here in Henley. I’ve got a few gardeners working the place. Trying to spruce it up a bit. It was let go for years, but it’s coming along, little by little.