Remembering George

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Remembering George

by Robert E. Martin

"Got caught up in the Material World

John & Paul in the Material World

Though we started out quite poor,

We got Richie on a tour.

I hope to see Much Clearer

after Living in the Material World."

George Harrison, 'Living in the Material World', 1973

George Harrison was as much a part of the 'material world' that he helped

to define in the 'Swinging Sixties' as he was an avatar into the spiritual

world that he voraciously pursued to resist the decadent by-products of

that era, which he inadvertently found himself trapped within.

With his passing last week at the age of 58, we lost not only a musical and

cultural pioneer, but also one of the few souls in the Rock 'n Roll world

that valued inner peace over physical excess.

Indeed, if John Lennon was the 'mastermind' behind The Beatles; Paul

McCartney the epitome of its 'heart'; Ringo Starr the incarnation the

group's 'spirit; then George Harrison was certainly the core of the group's

'conscience' and 'soul'.

Critics often refer to George as the 'Quiet' Beatle, mistakenly equating

his classic British reserve with a secondary role within the group,

out-shined by the songwriting dynamo of Lennon-McCartney.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

If you take all of the songs penned by Harrison, beginning with Don't

Bother Me' on their debut USA release Meet The Beatles, leading up through

his experimental guitar effects in I Need You on the Help soundtrack, the

soaring guitar-bridge on And Your Bird Can Sing, following through with his

introduction of the sitar on Norwegian Wood, and leading up to such

contemporary classics as Here Comes the Sun and Something, one is purely

astounded at the prolific body of work George Harrison left as a legacy.

And let us not forget this is the man that wrote Taxman!

There are many 'firsts' that George Harrison pioneered in both his career

and life, which ultimately are impossible to separate. Apart from his

well-known role of introducing Eastern Music and Religion into mass Western

culture, George Harrison was the first musician to conduct a large scale

Benefit/Relief concert (for the starving people of Bangladesh).  He also

developed the modern 'Jam Band' concept, bringing in many varied musicians

to experiment together on the Apple Jam disc included as a bonus record in

his first solo release, All Things Must Pass.  He was the first Beatle to

release an independent soundtrack project that experimented with the Moog

synthesizer, Wonderwall. And finally, he was the first Beatle to gain a

number one solo single with My Sweet Lord.

But most important, George Harrison embraced and pursued the divine essence

of human existence that his experimentation with LSD only alluded to.

In one of his rare interviews, George Harrison summed up best with his own

words the quest that has now moved his eternal spirit into the next phase:

"Allah-Buddha-Jehova-Rama: All are Krishna, all are ONE. God is not

abstract; He has both the impersonal and the personal aspects to His

personality which is supreme, eternal, blissful, and full of knowledge."

"As a single drop of water has the same qualities as an ocean of water, so

has our consciousness the qualities of God's consciousness, but through our

identification and attachment with material energy (physical body, sense

pleasures, material possessions, ego, etc.) Our true transcendental

consciousness has been polluted, and like a dirty mirror it is unable to

reflect a pure image."

"With many lives our association with the TEMPORARY has grown. This

impermanent body, a bag of bones and flesh, is mistaken for our true self,

and we have accepted this temporary condition to be final."

"Through all ages, great Saints have remained as living proof that this non-temporary, permanent state of GOD CONSCIOUSNESS can be revived in all living Souls. Each soul is potentially divine. Krishna says in Bhagavad Gita: "Steady in the Self, being freed from all material contamination, the yogi achieves the highest perfectional stage of happiness in touch with the Supreme Consciousness."

"If there's a God, I want to see Him. It's pointless to believe in something without proof, and Krishna Consciousness and meditation are methods where you can actually obtain GOD perception. You can actually see God, and Hear Him, play with Him. It might sound crazy, but He is actually there, actually with you."

Thank you George Harrison for changing, shaping, and helping to define my

own life. And mostly, for writing these words that stick with me each and

every day:

And to see you're only really very small,and Life Goes on Within You and

Without You.

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