By the age of 22, George Harrison had everything the world could offer. He was wealthy beyond imagining. His fame eclipsed that of his boyhood idol, Elvis Presley. He was on top of the world.

And yet, it left him empty.

Thus began his search for something more. But what does one look for when one possesses everything?

The answer: God.

The Spiritual Journey of George Harrison

George discovered God in an unconventional manner. Frustrated in the midst of the Beatles’ success, Harrison stumbled upon God, not through argument or tradition, but through drugs and music. His first experience of God was during an acid trip. Eventually, George, seeing LSD’s self-destructive potential, became disillusioned with the drug scene, and distanced himself from the movement, preferring Krishna Consciousness to tripping.

George’s interest in the sitar also guided his spiritual discoveries. In 1965, while filming the second Beatles movie, Help!, George came across the Indian instrument. Curious about it, George bought sitarist’s Ravi Shankar’s albums. Eventually, he met Ravi, learned sitar techniques from him, and was introduced to Eastern religion.

George integrated Eastern religion with his Western sensitivities. George had been raised by a Catholic mother and Protestant agnostic father. Both were nominal in their religion; neither was a role model of religious devotion. The church’s teachings didn’t mix well with working class Liverpool. George’s father, Harry Harrison, a bus driver “shared the traditional northern working-man’s suspicion that the church was used by the rich and powerful to control the common people.”[1] “Christian virtues such as humility, obedience, and sacrifice seemed incompatible with the demands of masculinity in working-class Liverpool. Church was for the elderly (who needed comfort), women (who needed emotional succor), and children (who needed guidance).”[2]

The limited exposure George had to the church left him cynical and disillusioned. He found the church to be manipulative and fear-based – motivating people out of fear of damnation rather than out of love for God. On his final album, Brainwashed (2002), George laments dead ritualism in “P2 Vatican Blues.” Even though George was suspicious of organized religion, his childhood experiences influenced his perception of Hinduism throughout his life.

George believed in a personal God who could love and be loved in return. To him, divine love is relational and invites a reciprocal response of love. In order to truly know God, one must learn to love God. In an interview, George said, “Krishna is actually a person who is the Lord and who will also appear … You can’t understand the first thing about God unless you love Him.”[3]

George’s belief is not reflective of classical Hinduism with its many gods and goddesses, but of “the Hindu philosophy known as neo-Vedanta, according to which the one divine reality goes under different names among the different faiths.”[4] This devotion to the divine name is clear in his first post-Beatles hit, “My Sweet Lord.” In this song, we encounter George’s fervent desire to know the Supreme Being. He integrates the name of the Yahweh (using the word “Hallelujah” which means “praise Yahweh”) with Hare Krishna. This accords with Harrison’s view of Jesus.

As theologian Dale C. Allison reminds us, we must remember that “[t]he post-1967 George, in his own mind, never rejected Jesus himself, only some forms of Christianity.”[5] George accepted the teachings of Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada who “taught the Hare Krishnas to believe that the Greek word for Christ, Christos, is the same word as Krishna, which some Indians pronounce as ‘Krsta.’ For George, as for the Hare Krishnas, Jesus Christ was, like Lord Krishna, an avatar, a supreme manifestation or incarnation of the Divinity, one of the ‘saviors throughout time’ (to use the expression on ‘Tears Of The World’).”[6]

George went so far as to call Jesus “an absolute yogi” and then added: “I think many Christian teachers today are misrepresenting Christ. They’re supposed to be representing Jesus, but they’re not doing it very well. They’re letting him down very badly, and that’s a big turnoff.”[7]

Allison puts this all together to explain George’s lyrics to “My Sweet Lord”:

So when “My Sweet Lord” intermingles “Hallelujah” with “Hare Krishna,” the composer’s intention is obvious. He is not cynically replacing an empty biblical expression with a better Hindu expression. He is rather communicating that the divine reality known to Hindus as Krishna is the same reality that appeared in western history in Jesus Christ. …

In finding God in Jesus as well as Krishna, George was not just following the lazy eclecticism so typical of our modern world, with its generous acceptance of pluralism, its embracing of all different styles and tastes, and its indifference to genuine contradiction. George’s ecumenism was rather a studied doctrine learned from his modern Hindu teachers.[8]

Interestingly, in George’s autobiography, I, Me, Mine, he writes that Christ “took on others’ Karma in his own body as the ‘Saviour.’”[9]

George believed in the power of the divine name: “The most important sounds of all, however, are those of the divine name, because they are conduits by which the Infinite Divinity chooses to enter the material world.”[10] He thus devoted his life to chanting the name of God, seeking peace, and giving love to others.

George’s search was full of passion and devotion. His music was a vehicle for his spirituality. Whether George sings directly to his God (e.g., “My Sweet Lord”) or simply conveys his religious convictions, his “music is his personal testimony, his witness that God has changed his life.”[11]

George “pioneered making mainstream rock a vehicle for religious convictions.”[12] He was the first musician to organize a benefit concert for a social cause: the Concert for Bangladesh. In many ways, George unwittingly opened the door for contemporary Christian rock and pop artists to express their devotion through popular music. We continue to benefit from this in contemporary praise songs and choruses.

Regardless of what one makes of George’s unique religious convictions, one thing is certain: George Harrison could have pursued anything. He had everything the world had to offer. There were no limits to what he could have chosen to do with his life. And George chose to pursue God. Unlike the optimistic and human-centered lyrics of the other Beatles, Harrison saw a dark side to humanity. He had personal knowledge of how good things could blind us to the most important thing in life, namely, God. In many ways, Harrison is a contemporary example of one individual who chose to take seriously Jesus’ warning: What does it profit a man to gain the world but lose his soul?

The Music of George’s Journey

At heart, George Harrison was a musician. It is not surprising, then, that he chose to express his conviction and devotion through his music. Although we encounter the seeds of George’s spirituality in his Beatles’ songs, his most mature expression is found in his solo material. In order to give order to his songs, I will present them as fashioned by his “gospel” which can be expressed in three movements: (1) Spiritual reality is ultimate, (2) Our sin is that of spiritual blindness, and (3) We need to awaken to love of God through loss of ego.[13]

Spiritual reality is ultimate. George’s track on Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, “Within You Without You” expresses his belief that one spiritual reality unites us all. There is a “love we all could share” if we refuse to hide “behind a wall of illusion.” The key lies within: “Try to realize it’s all within yourself” and “see you’re really only very small, and life flows on within you and without you.” It is vital we recognize “we are all one.” Using the words of Jesus, George warns us of the danger of “people who gain the world and lose their soul.” “They don’t know. They can’t see. Are you one of them?” This warning is particularly poignant in that it comes from one of the few people in the world who could be described as someone who had truly gained the world.

Though George had everything the world could offer, he desired God above everything. As he sang in the title track of his album, Living in the Material World, he desired to transcend the material world by the grace of Lord Krishna. He speaks of this as his salvation. On the same album, George expresses regret that some people don’t appreciate his new perspective: “They live all their lives, without looking to see, the Light that has lighted the world.” The Gospel according to John also speaks of “the true Light that has entered the world, enlightening every person.”

The tragedy of spiritual blindness. To George, it is blindness to spiritual reality enforced by our dark, wayward, deceptive world that prevents us from letting go of our proud ego and embracing divine love. In other words, George believed that people suffered from a serious sin – temptation to darkness. His song “Beware of Darkness” warns people not to get caught up in the “illusions” life offers (known as maya in Indian theology). Endless distractions and human narcissism contribute to our blindness. In the title track of his final album, Brainwashed, George pleads with his Lord to lead humanity out of its captivity to technology, wealth, and politics, and brainwash us for God. We live in a world where the blind lead the blind. Big business, big education, and big government perpetuate this blindness, keeping us brainwashed to what truly matters. Against the repeated refrain of “God, God, God” George proclaims our plight and salvation incorporating biblical language: “A voice cries in the wilderness. It was on the longest night, an eternity of darkness, someone turned out the spiritual light.” He then preaches: “You are the wisdom that we seek, the lover that we miss. Your nature is eternity. You are Existence, Knowledge, Bliss.”

On All Things Must Pass, George states that although the Lord is “Awaiting on You All” it is a pity that we miss the Lord’s invitation to spiritual life: “Isn’t it a pity, isn’t it a shame, how we break each other’s hearts, and cause each other pain. How we take each other’s love without thinking anymore, forgetting to give back.” In the final refrain he sings, “Isn’t it a pity, because of all their tears, their eyes can’t hope to see, the beauty that surrounds them.” Unfortunately, most of us do not know the way to God. Thus, we fail to intentionally pursue God. Mimicking Chesterton’s saying, “When people stop believing in God, they don’t believe in nothing – they believe in anything,” George sings “if you don’t know where you’re going, any road will take you there.” George invites us to intentional pursuit of God. We must fight the good fight of faith – and the biggest struggle is with ourselves.

It is this description of the human situation that is in clear contrast to the vision of his former bandmates. While Lennon and McCartney possessed an optimistic view of human power and human potential, Harrison acknowledged the dark side of human existence. He recognized that we often fail to see the light, and thus, remain spiritual infants.

This is nowhere more evident than in his lyrics to “While My Guitar Gently Weeps.” In this song, George sings, “I look at you all, see the love there that’s sleeping.” He laments,

I don’t know why nobody told you
How to unfold your love
I don’t know how someone controlled you
They bought and sold you
I don’t know how you were diverted
You were perverted too
I don’t know how you were inverted
No one alerted you.

To George, people may be awake, but still asleep, if their eyes are closed to divine reality. Even more tragic, too often the blind lead the blind through endless escapes in diversions, and empty activities. People are “diverted,” “perverted,” and “inverted” – “that is, they have been diverted from the path to God's love and so become perverted, their natures distorted – so much so that they are inverted, by which George means they have everything backward: they neglect what they need and pursue what they need to neglect.”[14]

Loss of ego. The way back to God is by the loss of ego. The last song the Beatles recorded together was George’s “I, Me, Mine.” In this song he warns of the dangers of egoism (an ironic warning in light of the Beatles’ bloated egos). He sings,

All I can hear I me mine, I me mine, I me mine.
Even those tears, I me mine, I me mine, I me mine.
No-one’s frightened of playing it, everyone’s saying it.
Flowing more freely than wine,
All thru’ the day I me mine.

Hinduism calls for the complete loss of ego, which is actually nothing more than an elaborate illusion, preventing us from participating in one divine reality. The goal is complete absorption into the One. This is in contrast to classic Christianity which invites us, not to the loss of ego, but to the complete giving of the ego to God and others in love through participation in the Triune God. The invitation is to union – participation in God and not absorption into God. Through union with the Divine the self truly and uniquely reflects God. The ego is not an illusion but a mirror to reflect God fully. The source of glory is not the self, but God.

Regardless of the theological details, while Lennon and McCartney pursued enlightenment through self-fulfillment, Harrison pursued it through self-denial. For example, Lennon once told Harrison, “You have to believe in yourself. You’ve got to get down to your own God in your own temple. It's all down to you, mate.”[15]

The theme of self-denial is prominent in Christianity. In contrast to Hinduism, we are not God. Instead, God transcends and pervades all creation. In other words, we find our true life not by recognizing we are God, but by completely participating in the triune life of God. The scriptures clearly teach the priority of the spiritual received through the material. For example, 2 Corinthians 4:16-18 teaches,

So we do not lose heart. Even though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed day by day. For this slight momentary affliction is preparing us for an eternal weight of glory beyond all measure, because we look not at what can be seen but at what cannot be seen; for what can be seen is temporary, but what cannot be seen is eternal.

What we can’t see is more real than the “shadows” offered by a fallen creation. The spiritual is not “real” and creation is not an illusion. Rather, the spiritual has priority and creation is “good” as a sacrament of the divine presence.

Denying the self – or in George’s words, the loss of ego – leads to the appropriate spiritual response of love to God and others. In George’s Beatles’ music, this love is expressed in “Something” (although it is veiled in lyrics that speak of love to a woman). This love is explicitly expressed in “My Sweet Lord” in which we encounter George’s fervent desire to know the Supreme Being. His song, “Hear Me Lord” expresses his utter dependence on God. Finally, his songs, “The Lord Loves the One” and “That Is All” – both from his album Living in the Material World – state his belief in God’s love for humankind and our need to recognize and assent to the Divine love. Though the former is laced with warnings of judgment and allusions to Karmic retribution, it exalts love as our greatest aspiration. In short, the love we need is not merely human, but love fueled and formed by the Divine.

Significance

Though it would be naïve to argue that George’s message completely harmonizes with the Christian message, it is certainly true that much is compatible with Jesus’ gospel. His awareness that we are surrounded and pervaded by a darkness that tends to lead us away from God is refreshingly honest. He calls us to deny ourselves, pursue God, and express this God-centeredness through love of God and others.

Though we could be critical of some aspects of George’s spirituality, it is interesting to note why George had trouble reconciling his message with that of the Christian church. George rejected Western organized religion because he felt it was detached from everyday life. He said, “Religion is a day-to-day experience. You’ll find it all around. You live it. Religion is here and now, not just something that comes on Sundays.”[16] He is correct in his assessment even if his conclusion leaves much to be desired. He desired a religion that encompassed all experiences. “I believe much more in the religions of India than in anything I ever learned from Christianity. The difference over here is that their religion is every second and every minute of their lives – and it is them, how they act, how they conduct themselves, and how they think.”[17] Although this is obviously a “rose-colored” perspective of Indian religion, it reveals his frustrations with his childhood religious experiences. It is unfortunate that he never met any Christians influenced by the Christian mystical tradition. They may have helped him to see that the spirituality which he longed for could be found in Christ. At the very least, it would have been interesting to have heard his reaction to this tradition.

George’s disinterest in organized religion also highlights the dangers of nominal Christianity. He possessed just enough knowledge of the Christian message to inoculate himself against it and not enough to spur interest. It did not help that many religious fundamentalists had reacted so strongly against John Lennon’s comments comparing the Beatles’ popularity to Jesus. Perhaps if the reaction was not so hostile, the Beatles may have continued to see the Christian religion as a possible avenue to address their spiritual hunger. Regardless, there is much evidence that though George rejected organized religion, he thought highly of Jesus.

George invites us to awaken to the spiritual reality that surrounds and pervades us. He warns us that though we may be awake, we may be asleep – sleep-walkers, if you will – with our eyes closed to the most precious possibility of union with God. The sacred scriptures urge the same thing:

Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore, love is the fulfilling of the law. Besides this, you know what time it is, how it is now the moment for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we became believers; the night is far gone, the day is near. Let us then lay aside the works of darkness and put on the armor of light; let us live honorably as in the day, not in reveling and drunkenness, not in debauchery and licentiousness, not in quarrelling and jealousy. Instead, put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires. (Romans 13:10-14)

Allison applauds George’s God-centeredness: “we typically see the world as the foreground with God as the background whereas for George it’s the other way around.”[18] George’s call is to see through the illusion of our own darkness, illusions, and distortions and awaken to divine love. This recurrent emphasis on love provokes Allison to write, “It may sound quaint, but surely the world would not be a worse place if popular musicians more often invited us to pray to God to give us love and peace on earth.”[19]

It is possible to gain the world and lose our soul. Unlike most of us, George truly possessed all the world had to offer – but it was not enough. He recognized that life is ultimately empty apart from God. We benefit from “the gospel according to George Harrison” if we concur and intentionally choose to pursue union with God through Christ and express this in love to God and others.

© Richard J. Vincent, 2007