Chapter Seven - Didn't Get to Bed Last Night

Rumours begin to get back to John and George about Maharishi's behaviour.

"It's true, I'm telling you!" Alexis was shouting, red faced and defensive. George had become very confrontational, getting close to Alex's face jabbing the air with his pointed finger. George was not just fighting for his own sake but also for Pattie. Pattie had initiated contact with Maharishi and husband George, followed by the rest of the Beatles had quickly fallen under his spell. George was quick to realise that if Alex's allegations were true, both Pattie and he would be blamed for leading the band astray.
"How?" hissed George "How can you know any of this?"
"I've been following him" Alex was practically screaming as he raised his arms in exasperation and turned away from George's piercing gaze.
"How could you follow him?" George's curiosity quickly turned to anger "How dare you spy on a guru!" The clear inference from Alexis was that he had been a witness to sexual impropriety on Maharishi's part. In the bungalow seated on cushions were John and Cynthia, Pattie and Jenny Boyd, all summoned by Alex for him to deliver his revelation.

After a long pause John spoke "I've heard rumours too" he said looking directly at an incredulous George.

Just a few days earlier, after meditating with Prudence John's doubts about Maharishi started to harden into genuine concerns. They talked until dawn, sharing an intimacy that John had been craving for longer than he could remember.

"I saw my mother again." John spoke quietly while running his fingers through the mop of black curls falling across Prudence's forehead. John's exhausted body was slouched against the wall of the Kutiya, his sandalled feet splayed out in front of him. Prudence rested her weary head on John's outstretched thigh.
"When?" she asked after a cosmic pause.
"I hallucinated again and I saw my mother"
"What was she doing"
"I don't know, I couldn't get to her to find out"
"Are you missing her?"
"I've tried not to think about her, but she's been dead ten years this year"
Prudence raised her head and turned to look at John, the piercing blue of her eyes still visible even though in this darkness she couldn't make out John's expression.
"I'm so sorry, I didn't know" she said offering sympathy.
"I don't know why she's come back into my mind, I've even written a song for her"
"Maybe it is because its ten years, John" she offered, adding "My father died when I was 15."
John peered at Prudence through his thick lenses, wondering if this was another pre-ordained moment. He'd bonded with Paul McCartney who'd also lost his mother in his teenage years and Cynthia had also lost her father shortly before they met. Death seemed to draw people to him and him to them. At times John felt cursed.
"Not only my father, but my older brother too" John sat himself up straight moving slightly away from Prudence, enough that she sensed something like revulsion from John.
Blinking, John asked "How do you feel now about it?"
"I feel at ease, I feel bliss. Maharishi has taught me that in order to gain enlightenment, one has to let it go"
Prudence became more animated, feeling suddenly energised by her need to share her knowledge with someone she perceived was incredibly astute. Sitting up, perched on her knees, her hands clasped together on her lap and speaking in her high pitched, languorous, Californian tones she began to share her story.

"I've always been drawn to the spiritual" she said "but in my family I was always seen as the rebel." John allowed a slight smirk to cross his lips, he was certain his idea of rebellion and hers were wildly different.
"I'm one of seven children" she added "there was always a fight for our parents affections and my way to get attention was to be the naughty one. I was brought up a Catholic and I remember being five years old and realising I was about to attain the age of reason and that meant I could go to hell. I was so frightened. So I always made sure I said the rosary every morning like a good little Catholic girl and did as the nuns told me at boarding school. I just had a natural interest in religions and I soaked up as much information as I could about them."

John nodded for Prudence to continue while tapping and then lighting another cigarette.

"I got a phone call to tell me that Dad had died" she continued "it felt almost like a near death experience for me also. I was sitting on a bed in the back bedroom. My thoughts turned to my father and the image grew and turned into a god, the threads of all my family intertwined, stretching out into the ether and becoming a mass like one huge entity. One giant oneness."

John, paused for a moment tugging on the cigarette before speaking. "You've just reminded me of something" he said.
"Tell me" suggested Prudence
"A memory just came back that I've probably just buried up till now" said John. "We were in America for the first tour and Paul and I got to share a room, which was unusual. I guess our manager was trying to get us together more to write more hits for him. Anyway, we'd been to a club and got back to the room really late and I had this bottle of Scotch with me."

Prudence took the cigarette from John's fingers, as it was burning down close to his knuckles and drew on it as he continued.

"So we stayed up talking and drinking this Scotch and somehow the subject of our mums came up. I found myself opening up to him about my feelings for the first time. It's funny, but we didn't really speak about our mums dying before this even though they'd both died around the same time. It's weird. I started crying. I mean really crying, tears streaming down my face and I look up at Paul and he's crying too. I began to see that it's all connected, his mum, my mum, Uncle George, Cyn's dad, Stu. Like you, I could see threads connecting me to Paul, to my mum, to Julian everything in my life becoming part of me. It took me about a year or 18 months to use that in a song too when i wrote about all the people in my life, some dead, some living."

"That's why we need Maharishi in our lives" said Prudence. Thinking about the guru's earlier demands for money John was less inclined to lavish such praise. "I guess so" was all he could offer.
"When I first met Maharishi he exuded so much bliss, I didn't feel it was possible to be so divine" Prudence continued undeterred. "From that moment I committed myself to being totally immersed in the divine"
Prudence's eyes flashed with enthusiasm as she gave witness to John about her profound feelings for Maharishi. John could sense something of the divine about Prudence also, meditating with her had been a more intense experience than any acid trip he'd had. John was happy in her company and he believed in the maxim 'Be around any enlightened person.' Perhaps, he thought she had gained sufficient Karmic credits in her former lives to merit being a guru herself.

"I met Maharishi in Boston, I'd opened a Yoga school there but he didn't think I was old enough to become a TM teacher." Prudence at the time of the meeting had been only 19. "I was interviewed several times before I was allowed to attend this course"
"That must have been hard" said John, who was now becoming suspicious at how it had been so easy for the Beatles to attend this course if it was so difficult for others.
"Like I said, part of the spiritual path is to let go. Afterall, all prayers are answered if they are sincere. But I was so anxious. Mia was accepted before me can you believe that?" Prudence spluttered out a surprisingly raucous laugh that made John chuckle along almost in ridicule but not quite.

"Mia didn't finish the course though" said John as Prudence sprung to her feet and began pacing the floor of the Kutiya swinging her arms.
"She didn't take the classes" said Prudence. "She's like your wife or Pattie, I think she was interested in the meditation but not in becoming a teacher."
"To be honest with you, I didn't want to take Cyn with me but I couldn't find a way to tell her" said John. "I mean, at first I only really took the course because George wanted to. Now, I think it's a great chance for us to spread the word about meditation through our music and our personal appearances." John stopped for a second as a thought crossed his mind and then, curiosity aroused asked the question 'Why did Mia leave?"
"Oh that" said Prudence "that was just a misunderstanding"