Originally, Prudence (Mia Farrow's sister) had planned to attend the (Transcendental Meditation) course. Mia only got interested after hearing The Beatles might also be there. Before this she had shown no interest in spirituality. The rumor we had heard was not true. Prudence had not flipped out on drugs, but had landed in an institution where she had undergone shock treatment for depression. After a month in Rishikesh (by this time Mia had left), she had let her appearance deteriorate, dressing sloppily, not combing her hair. By two months she became almost comatose; she could not feed herself. Now she screamed day and night, "Maharishi save me! Everyone go away! Help! Help!
I begged Maharishi to send the girl to a hospital in New Delhi, worrying that the press might hear of her madness and claim that he had driven her crazy.
"But how could I send her away? She is in no condition to travel. This is the price I have to pay for wanting publicity from her sister, Mia," he (the Maharishi) said, "If I send her to a hospital, they will just put her on drugs and give her more shock treatment. That way she will never recover. This is what she is afraid of and pleads against." He sighed, "I will work with her."
An he did. Every day, Prudence was brought to his house, literally led by the hand. In her pajamas, with a vacant look on her face, she looked like a mad Ophelia. I doubted that anything could be done for her. Nevertheless, it took Maharishi only three weeks to bring her back to normal, making her again a responsive, happy looking young woman. (Today, Prudence is married and has two children. With her husband, she is active in the (TM) movement in New York.)
One by-product of Prudence's illness was a song by The Beatles. When her screaming fits started, Maharishi asked us to take turns sitting outside her room so she would not feel lonely. John Lennon took his guitar along when his turn came and sat cross-legged on the ground outside her door strumming. Trying to cheer her with his company, he picked out the tune that became famous as "Dear Prudence (Won't You Come Out and Play?)."
Rik (her son) and INancy Cooke) stepped from our elephant's back on to a small raft-like machand. Rik was given a light gun with a telescopic lens - a gun for deer or other small animals...A second later, the tiger broke in front and like a streak of lightning leaped at us. Rik's gun went off instantaneously, hitting the animal's head and stopping its charge. At almost the same instant, Avi fired, hitting it also near the ear and killing it. For a second, all was quite and there was a tiger lying two feet from our ladder.
"Rik, I'm so proud of you!"
...The next day, on returning to the ashram, we went directly to see Maharishi. John Lennon, Paul McCartney, Jane Asher, and George Harrison were there with him. Rik was worried about his killing the tiger, "Is that bad karma for me, Maharishi?"
The answer was, "You had a desire, and now you have satisfied it and will no longer have the desire." (Maharishi must have been right, for Rik hasn't been hunting since.)
"But wouldn't you call that slightly life-destructive?" sneered John.
"Well, it was the tiger or us," I volunteered, getting into the act.
Paul, with Jane sitting alongside, her head on his shoulder, asked, "Tell us the details, man - what an experience." He always went out of his way to be friendly to everyone.
Later on, John wrote the song, "Bungalow Bill" - its lyrics telling the story of the tiger hunt: "Hey, Bugalow Bill, what did you kill?" It described Rik as "an all-American, bullet-headed (his crew cut), Saxon mother's son (who always dragged his mom along)..." Everything was gist for John's writing.
He (George Harrison) stayed and talked for several hours. He told us about the two seances they went to after Brian Epstein died. Being very spiritual - quite a mystic - he loved every minute of the (TM) course.
One night he and Donovan took their guitars and went to play for Maharishi. Donovan sang for hours, his voice an etheral breeze floating over the ashram. (His real name is Donovan Leitch, so like my maiden name of Veitch.) He and The Beatles had all written special songs for Maharishi - "Happiness Runs" was Donovan's, and Cosmic Consciousness" was by Paul.
Actually George (Harrison) said they had written ten new songs in the five weeks they'd been there...
These excerpts are from All You Need Is Love An Eyewitness Account of When Spirituallity Spread from the East to the West by Nancy Cooke de Herrera copyright 2003 published by Jodere Group, Inc.