Something Forever

- Chapter 4 Part 4 -

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Autumn 1969 - the crunch mode

Looking back, autumn 69 really appears as the crunch mode of the seventies, not only of the Beatles and George Harrison, not only at the Harrison-devotees in London, no, also in my life there was a lot of change back then, there was crunch mode at many private fronts. I'm just saying the fall was really something, just when I think back, I just turned seventeen in summer and had taken the hard way of discipline for my education, which I only could endure by a strong private and love life, which I needed to survive the madness, it also was the summer and autumn, in which, fallen in love with Angel Angelic, I wandered through a dream land, grazing the soul on the meadow of love, in delectation and sparkling desire for the lover, longing for these sacred moments, which thus led me in a realm of grateful joy, quite beyond space and time .





With Hari & Son, Back To Godhead.

As far as I can remember, my private autumn of 1969 was filled with many new sounds, a lot of work and so much with my queen of hearts Angelic that I am still amazed at my strength that I made available to fulfill all the many claims that every story brings with it, which is experienced and undergone deeply.

This mood, which I found in the music of George Harrison, touched me twice, and both times the feelings and insights for me were stunning. They promoted the approach to the nature and desire of the poetry in the music of George Harrison, he talked me out of the heart. First I only heard the mood of the soul speaking to me in the artistically appealing way.

Later, after studying the texts and the wondrous deeds of the master, the music became a revelation of God, inside it the spirit of God was active, and by real seriousness in the quest for the meaning of life George had reached the point where only wished to praise and musically celebrate God. Master Harrison did this always clearer because he learned to integrate the Indian version into the Western pop music, very nice succeeded on the master's works "Wonderwall", and in his commitment to Indian Krishna consciousness, while in autumn of 1969 he published the first single with two trendy songs, produced under his name, and, as already described, he conquered the western world with his confesstion of My Sweet Lord Krishna, for a lifetime.

Simultaneously, in the summer and autumn of 1969 there was published such a lot of good new music, who does not remember the legendary soundtrack "2001: A Space Odyssey," or Dylan's "Nashville Skyline" and "Lay Lady Lay" by Dylan in summer of 69, what a song, and then Jane Birkin and Serge Gainsbourg, with "Je t'aime". These were all evergreens, one could also say, 1969, the year of the Evergreens. And those are just a few of the highlights of the year, Deep Purple caused the the newest pop rock genius in the venerable Royal Albert Hall and worked with a whole orchestra, or Creedence Clearwater Revival Band with "Bad Moon Rising," and Stevie Wonder shined with "My Cherie Amour", or George Harrison's good friend Billy Preston who had a huge hit with "That's The Way God Planned It", just to name a few. Among the many was Leonard Cohen's "Songs From a Room ", or Fairport Convention, then, of course, Donovan and Jeff Beck with" Barabajagal ", plus Blind Faith and Moody Blues. And as if that wasn't enough, in October 1969 there came the classic Abbey Road by The Beatles, as icing of the year, to make this year not only that of the evergreens, but also the year of new consciousness. Foremost master Harrison with his clear focus on yoga, Indian meditation and religion of the ancient Vedic Hinduism, also known as Sanatan Dharma, meaning eternal religion or duty of the living being since the dawn of time.





From Beatles to Hermann Hesse

As teenagers, we were in contact with good music and much more revolutionary messages in every respect, but, to explain it once, at that time I did not even understand the deeper content of the songs, by the listening experience alone I was impressed so much that I just liked the whole song or not, it was decided by my feelings to music, from the gut, heart, or determined out of the soul what was good and what fell flat, so Rolling Stones titles didn't create the stimulus or the deep feeling I felt by the Beatles songs, although at the time I judged both just by the musical and not by the texts. And with just 17 years, such impressions are of such formative nature as we know now. Even then, the way between Stones and Beatles fans separated clearly, and often also humanly, because by which should you be inspired, if not by the music of the own heroes, and in my case these weren't the Stones and all the music that followed them for sure. This music, to put it bluntly, was always very self-centered to me, too much dedicated to the dark forces, a kind of seduction of the young people in terms of a strong egomaniacal I-Me-Mine-consciousness, what I understand as destruction of the idea of peaceful coexistence. This music culminates in their own narcissism and self-destruction. One could also say that the divine and the demonic forces where used by the respective groups to transport their deep feelings and impressions of life through music to the outside. Both the music of the Stones, as well as that of other heavy metal bands, only create ill deadheads. At least in my opinion. It's extremely rare that Stones fans comment on God or spiritual issues, I mean comment positively, that should give pause to us ....... or has it, during the general materialization of the humanities, become uncool to talk about God.?

Sweet stoned Deadheads were only happy when they shook their long hair to thunderous sounds, but was that enough, was that what all the youth wanted from music to freak out wildly and to get rid of all their deep repressed frustration, by gladly bawling out loud "I can not get no satisfaction." Whence should they, could be asked at this point.! The bands and their only pleasure-oriented music so often had not processed any deeper message, very little spiritual, loving, or charity causing, in their melodies and lyrics for their fans. Either all these bands had swallowed the wrong LSD , or their spirit and their wishes simply were material and only fixed at the crudest form of Sex and Drugs and Rock & Roll, rather than on others and or God's love. Charity just arises by understanding that all life, as we experience and live it daily, is sacred, and by the understanding that we all are individual parts of a great sacred whole.

For us Europeans, for example, Francis of Assisi has set an example and a template, there would be many more to name, but this great person is enough for us as a symbol of charity and thereby again resulting love of God, beautifully readable at Hermann Hesse. The Island publishing house, next to many great works of H. Hesse, published just this beautiful little book, in which H. Hesse deeply looks into the person's character of Francis of Assisi and miraculously brings that person closer to the reader, by his example we can understand very well what charity and love of God can mean, if measured against the ideals of the holy Jesus of Nazareth. As always with Hermann Hesse, we find the characters described wonderfully intense and spiritually clear. Now Hesse fans are indeed spoiled readers of a beautiful lyrical language, right? Here we have a starting point, it is always the question, do we really want to change something, or is the pure enthusiasm for the mystery of God-sonship only a temporary trial of the here-and-now self-realization for us?

At this point, I gladly would like to leave it to the great poet Hermann Hesse to speak himself and to let him show us what he has to say about love and charity.





Love thy neighbour

"If the sayings of the New Testament are not taken as commandments, but as manifestations of an unusual deep knowledge of the secrets of our soul, then the wisest words ever spoken, the brief epitome of the art of living and teaching of happiness, is that word "love thy neighbour as thyself ", which incidentally also is written in the Old Testament. One can love one's neighbor less than oneself – then you're an egoist, the rake, the capitalist, bourgeois, and while you can collect money and power, you can't have a quite happy heart, and the finest and most delicious pleasures of the soul are closed for you. Or you can love your neighbor more than yourself – then you're a poor devil, full of feelings of inferiority, full of desire to love everything fully and yet full of resentment and drudgery against yourself, and you are living in a hell that is heated daily by yourself. By contrast, the balance of love, the skill of love, without being guilty here or there, that love for oneself that isn't stolen from anyone, this love of the other which doesn't shorten or rape the own self: the secret of all happiness, of all bliss is contained in this word. And if you want, it can be turned on the earthly side and be given the importance that states: Love thy neighbour as thyself, for he is like yourself! "


So the question is, how great is our hunger for spiritual experience and how big and wide has our heart thus become, how much love do we have developed for our fellow human beings and those entrusted with the cleansing process of loving devotion to God – bhakti yoga, for example.
This question of self-analysis one bears repeating, especially when we are on the path of self-realization, because, enlightenment doesn't care how you obtain it .......
Please call your local "Vaikuntha Embassy" for further information about how to travel, thank you.





(John Lennon "Come Together" at YouTube)








Abbey Road from a incredible string band

With the latest release of this masterpiece of the four heroes, the music gods were crowned, and the distance of musical genius at innovation to the rest of the field was at new heights.

According to Vedic interpretation, music gods are reincarnated demigods, or archangels of the Lord, descended on a mission on behalf of the Lord, and they mostly need some time before they become aware of their role, but the most religious among them then are the greatest artists, poets and philosophers under the sun.

People's desire for knowledge and spiritual experience, and to search for the meaning of life, was based on the spirit of the times, and God created several religious patterns, giving each seeker his master, depending on the seriousness of each student, each found then what he was looking for.

Exactly that had its beginning in an effort by the Beatles to search for mysterious self-knowledge, which prompted many of the younger generation to also search for the meaning of life, in places which previously remained unknown, or only retained in vague recollection by Hermann Hesse's Siddhartha. But still it shone on the horizon.!

The Beatles brought the first real ethno-groove on LP for us, since Sgt Pepper we know master Harrison's "Within You Without You", the ethno-ambient-blues mantra piece of winter 1967, where it all began to appear colorful and censed. Now, with Abbey Road, the ultimate Beatles sound was created, again under the direction of the 5th Beatle veteran George Martin, who gave the pieces of the Fab Four elegant perfection of a modern classic, which was without equal, he who was a veritable godsend to the Beatles' history. But with the filling of the Lord, the good qualities and the helpers also came likewise.

Who didn't know "Here Comes the Sun" or "Something," "Come Together," "Oh Darling" or "Sun King", yes those were real howlers in the sky of good musical taste, songs that should go down in music history of the world for a long long time. "Come Together" even was the song of the global peace movement. The famous Harvard professor of his time, Dr. Timothy Leary, asked John Lennon to write a song for the election of the alternative scene in California, where Ronald Reagan was preparing to become governor.

This Ronald Reagan had found out during the election campaign that Dr. Leary, as the spokesman of the young guns, represented a real problem for him and his party of the Republican goals. What prompted him to use his good relations with the court, which had just to decide on one small claim about marijuana against Dr. Leary, who had admitted possessing a small amount in order to provoke the worst case, and to reduce the sentence as a celebrity. Ronald Reagan's good relations managed that the sentence against Dr. Leary wasn't pronounced on probation, but instead he spent the whole primary campaign in jail and couldn't lead his campaign against the Reps. But John Lennon kept his word and wrote "Come Together" for him. Only once for comparison, Big Arnold in 2004 had no opposition. Politically, both of them are not far apart indeed, Reagan was Arnie's big Rep. idol in the political spectrum, but nowadays that doesn't bother anyone, Big Arnie has already proven many times how the world is saved, we all know him sufficiently as Terminator, and somebody like that the Americans do trust, who has dueling scars, teaching the ins and outs to the rest of the world, and also selectable for the women.

We see, it has come to that in our world. 42 years ago, however, and, to be exact, it was during one of her bed in's, that John Lennon and Yoko Ono were performing from London, Amsterdam, Madrid, Rome to New York, San Francisco and Montreal, wanting to make aware on the world's problems, because a Beatle whatsoever, whether in 24-hour continuous-bed strike or not, always represented a good lead story for any newspaper in any city , and thus for the two then-Beatles there was a welcome opportunity to explain their vision of a fair world.

During their bad in, in Montreal as said, they were attended by Prof. Leary and some Hare Krishna monks, it was a long afternoon with a lot of conversations, laughter and the singing of Krishna's friends with John and Yoko of all kinds of Vedic mantra-trance music, so to speak a real spiritual happening.

All together they sang the Hare Krishna mantra and "Give Peace a Chance", they talked about how a hippieeske sunny California could be saved from the claim to power by the Republicans and Ronald Reagan. In this context, Prof. Leary expressed the desire to create an action-direct-song as anthem against the rigid Civil Front in California who wanted to be tough, after an election victory, for example against marijuana and many citizens' facilitations and renewals of the Democrats, who had taken the side of the new-age movement. That was an afternoon's vision between a musical god, an LSD guru and a handful of Hindu priests of Krishna-line 1. Out came the song "Come Together" which became lead song of the album Abbey Road, and thus a loyal sign of the Beatles in the direction of peace.

But also it became a standard-bearer for the growing protest movement against war, hunger, and racial discrimination all over the world. The song and the whole new album were a milestone for the movement of an entire generation. "Come Together" was sung loudly on all the peace marches and demonstrations of the time by all the youthful demonstrators, students, hippies and happies. Nothing, I think, demonstrates the spirit of those days better than this song because it reflects the most revolutionary thoughts and dreams of people that a living being is able to wish himself. It spoke out the people's heart, it spoke about liberation from the norms and formalities, or just about simply living – high thinking, to mention one example.

This song was a product of the counter-cultural atmosphere of those days and went into every room, into every family. In this song, John Lennon let the wise hippie guru and shaman speak, who consisted of the archetypes of the then gurus, Ken Kesey, Timothy Leary, Carlos Castaneda's fictional character Don Juan, as well as imaginative and wise Mullah Nasruddin, or Robert Crump's Mr. Natural, Baba Ram Das, and the wise old guru of the Krishna movement, Bhaktivedanta Swami.

John Lennon fitted to the image of a modern wise by stressing the guru-image, an high, detached jet-set hippie and counter culture rebel and Saviour, who questioned all the standards, saying the real-blasphemous, heretical sentence, the Beatles are probably more famous as Jesus Christ at the present time. What indeed somehow matched the image. For if it were up to the younger generation, 70 percent would vote yes and 30 percent say no. So the Beatles were more famous than Jesus .... and that of course rankled the church, and they called the Beatles simply the Antichrist and bugbear. What should bear fruit decades later ...... by the killers of two Beatles appealing, technically seen, on ancient Semitic visions of the Bible, and thought they could see the Antichrist in the Beatles, who indulged in the old archaic gods and, inspired by strange Hindu gods, danced joyfully. With great enthusiasm, the song was received by many in the campus and underground circles, it became the song of the decade's turning ....... yes the hippie also becomes environmentally conscious and politically aware, the time of free love, drug-inspired hippie happie flowerpower came to an end. The youth of the free world goes at critical distance to the establishment of modern knowledge and modern ethics and questions the so-called peaceful exploitation of mother earth and the animals by the rampaging crowds and their profiteers, racketeers, and the therein entangled institutionalized religions .... ... and called "The muff of hundreds of years under the robes must escape", develop, redesign ...... fresh wind which brings the new! The ultimate wisdom, then, since everything is relative, you should not be locked up in luxury hamster wheel, as long as there are open fields. Why strive for material superiority, if all this is all relatively small and insignificant in the face of God. It was rather to live and to heed the vision of the great Mahatma Gandhi, all problems of the people would fall off like annoying diseases, and a satisfied happy state would occur in this our present life, this the Beatles promised us, and we thought it only too happy .

This approach to life, of course, since then undermined the whole of Western society idyll, of total consumery total. And even if I want to celebrate just one glimpse the truth here, everybody realilses that any song on this Fabulous Beatle Boys could loosely fill a book, but I only take the freedom to look at two songs a little more closely, from this masterpiece of modern pop classic on Abbey Road





(George Harrison "Something" at YouTube)








Something forever in my mind

The second song on the album of superlatives, which reached the sky of modern pop classics, is the best pop song of love poetry, the song that nevertheless is a tribute to all women, although it also illustrates the spiritual realm of the Bhakti love for God, by replacing "He" with "She", one can identify the precursor of My Sweet Lord and feel it. And as we know master Harrison until now, it is rather impossible that he wouldn't have thought about this, too. Especially since the summer of 1969 yet knew a different story, which I already addressed. Namely the fact that George Harrison used the late summer of 69 to produce and record two songs with his Hare Krishna friends, this took place at EMI in the famous Abbey Road Studios and was celebrated as a kind of spiritual happening and celebrating there. Fans in front of the Abbey Road Studios welcomed the Krishnas as stormy as the arriving Beatles ..... and yes, apple scruffs all over the place.

"Something" should really reach the hearts of millions and, besides "Come Together". was the only hit single taken from the album Abbey Road. In the U.S. the single was traded to number 7 for 4 weeks. Written in mid-July 68 at the recording sessions for the White Album, not included, but further developed in mind, in the now ready made song there shines the deep beautiful way of free, unconditioned charity. It is the second most covered Beatles song, by very different performers, a real breakthrough for singer and songwriter Harrison. Frank Sinatra called "Something" even as a very extravagant love song, caressed by taste and feeling, for him it was the best and biggest love song of the past 50 years, and he hoped master George O' Harrison liked his own interpretation.

Some commentators say about the song, it probably would be the deepest and most elegant love song lyric of the Beatles, even Lennon-McCartney wouldn't have been able to formulate something compareable beautiful and to implement into sound. John Lennon called "Something" the best song on Abbey Road, and rightly it would be the best A-side on the only released single release with "Come Together" as B-side. This single wasn't released before the end of October 69, one month after publication of the Abbey Road album.

This is also a novelty and magic trick of the Beatles, once again, they relativized the traditional standards. Because singles usually appear before an album, to tune in fans and lovers on the upcoming release of other good songs. But here we are dealing with a double helix, two century songs are fetched from the stall and again sent into race, and lo and behold, the fans knew to appreciate this and, out of pure curiosity and for sure out of properly understood fan spirit, bought these two songs again as a single.

As decade hits and evergreens for the whole sixtees, Something and Come Together will go down in history. In this and similar foresight, the four heroes acted, and once again proved their magical-mystery-music, twilight of the gods as a kind of magic, a sort of love-pulse energy, which only true demigods and avatars of God can cause in humans, what will remain an unique experience for many.

If we look at "Something," but through the eyes of a Krishna facing soul, it sounds just like this:



Something in the way he moves me, attracts me like no other Lover.
Something in the way he woos me,
I don't want to leave him now you know I believe in him.
Something in his smile he knows that i don't need no other lover.
Something in his style that shows me,
I don't want to leave him now, you know i believe in Him.
You' re asking me, will my love grow? I don't know, i don't know.
You stick around now, it may show, I don't know, I don't know.
Something in the way he knows and all i have to do is think of him.
Something in the things he shows me,
I don't want to leave him now, you know I believe in him.





("Something" with Susan Cadogan at YouTube)






Of course this wasn't pronounced this way then, but the beauty, they say, always is inside the eye of the beholder, and so there always will be a mystery of this song, of his duplicity and his force thus created, which moved into the hearts of millions and left a feeling of security there. With "Something" an entire generation had found its expression ..... well, we were young 17 & 18 year old teenagers at that time, who completely immersed in a kind of Beatles religiosity and, yes, only inhaled the vibes of the songs at first, but only much later completely understood and really got the lyrics. So strong the songs worked on all of our young youthful mind, which longed for love and attention and thus seemed to be well cared for in the love poetry of the Beatles music, that it joyfully tried something completely new, to conquer life.

Something that appeals to us and reaches our heart, is most certainly, with almost absolute certainty, something very special, just Something forever, a stroke of fate, of destiny and enlightenment.

And Abbey Road is still so much more, but most of all the songs speak to us, on closer examination we find real answers to the big questions of life. Or you could say it better than "Here Comes The Sun", a song expressing joy and confidence in life, a lovely and warm melody that broadcasted on us and left a good taste of all listeners.

The photo showing the four heroes crossing Abbey Road shows, remains, like the record itself, a much-debated cult object. It exudes the charm of the end-sixties, and shows the Beatles and their very different attitudes to life even in clothing. Gone are the days of the uniforms, vive la difference and individualization. Brave pop stars became wise hippies and modern gurus, even heroes of labor, heroes of the working class they wanted to be. Lennon wanted to rouse the masses as a wise loud enlightener, McCartney was the modern-Beethoven, Ringo Starr was the jet set VIP, Harrison the yogi & ascetic on the way to transcendental meditation on the all-attractive Hindu love god Krishna.

This LP probably stood in every room of teens all over the world, one could say without lying. Many authors have said everything to the Abbey Road music event so long and wide, and, I think, I also could fill a book about the songs and my experiences with it. All those who slowly turn 60 today, will probably be able to feel with me, if they then were the proud owners of a record player and had the necessary pocket money to be able to buy the LP or singles. In any case, we loved the sound of Abbey Road, as we loved the sound of the Beatles the last seven years, in every nook and corner, once a fan always fan. In the Beatles, we young people saw the reincarnated saints from the East, they were the true gods of our new religion, this was "Give peace a chance, All You Need is Love ...... Something" – just a summary in a few words of desire for love, peace and brotherhood for all people and animals.





(John Lennon "Give Peace A Chance" at YouTube)















harifan


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