January 23, 2021

The Beatles in India. Want to Visit The Ashram?

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The Beatles Ashram:

Address: The Beatles or Swarg Ashram, Rishikesh 249304 India. It is also known as Chaurasi Kuti, just to make it that BIT more confusing for you.

THIS POST: will include a little info on The Beatles in India (not too boring) if you should visit the ashram, what you can expect, how to get there and top tips. Finishing up with a little dose of everything is not quite as it seems….

The Beatles in India

The Beatles have got some banging tunes, to be fair. I can’t claim to be their number one fan but I do love the odd sing-along as you will see later on in this post! But the Beatles in India… bit random, no?

Built in the early 1960’s, the ashram was designed to suit Westerners. It had been described as both “luxurious” and “seedy” Not off to the best start, bless it… In retrospect, Ringo Starr even described the ashram as “a kind of spiritual Butlins.” Harsh. But maybe true? I guess we will never know…

Should you Visit The Ashram?

I would say yes! I found it very interesting, and think most others would feel the same. And no, I’m not a huge Beatles fan, so that’s not a prerequisite! Things I enjoyed the most? The SICK Street art. The ashram is very dilapidated and I have heard people say it’s so sad that it’s not looked after properly, etc. I personally think a bunch of well-kept buildings would be much more boring than this, to be honest!

You still get a map/brochure/info signs etc so you feel like you’re getting some good knowledge. However, it’s interspersed with incredible street art, unique architecture, and a slightly eerie, deserted-zombie-town vibe where you can just feel that shit went down here.

It REALLY felt to me as though it was a film location from The Jungle Book and a ginormous King Louie was going to appear at any moment, singing “I’m the king of the swingers oh, the jungle VIP.”

A Look Inside The Beatles Huts

Alas, that didnt happen. BUT. You do get to explore inside The Beatles stone huts. The ashram is also known by the name Chaurasi Kutia, which is Hindi for “84 Huts.” This is likely because when the Beatles’ arrived at the ashram in early 1968, they were shown to four bespoke-built small stone domes or caves. These individual “caves” included an internal mezzanine, accessed by a ladder, for solo advanced meditation. There’s loads of them dotted around the place to explore!

How Do You Get There? Top Tips!

The ashram address is at the top of this post. We got a taxi from Rishikesh to the ashram, and the driver waited there for us until we were done. I think we were there around an hour and a half?

The ashram is in the middle of nowhere so don’t make the mistake of thinking you can easily grab a taxi from outside or something. There was also no service on our phones so don’t rely on those either!

We ended up sharing our cab back with a couple of other tourists who were stranded outside with no way of getting back to Rishikesh. So make sure you plan your return journey as well as your outward one!

Why Did The Beatles Go To India?

The Beatles came here to study Transcendental Meditation, a type of silent meditation involving mantras. Their time here proved to be one of their most productive periods as songwriters. It was at the ashram that they wrote most of the songs for their “White Album” which was a self-titled double album released in 1968.

Trouble in Paradise?

Whilst The Beatles were at the ashram, it is rumoured that their spiritual teacher, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, displayed impropriety with some of the female students.

Ringo and his wife left after just ten days, McCartney after five weeks, and the most devoted of the bunch, Harrison and Lennon departed sixteen days later. The Beatles formally renounced their association with the Maharishi in June 1968 as a “public mistake.” ….