George Harrison BHAJA BHAKATA & GAURA ARATI (Prabhupada)

FOR PRABHUPADA BOOKS AND DVDS: WEBSITE:
& & Bhakata & Gaura Arati from the Radha Krishna Temple Album produced by George Harrison.

George was already aware of the devotees of Krishna before meeting the movements leader A.C Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada and had purchased 20 copies of the Happening album, the first recording by Swami Prabhupada and his disciples. But it wasn't until 1969 that George was to meet Shyamasundara dasa in the London offices of Apple Records, the Beatles' recording company. "Where have you been? I've been waiting two years to meet you fella's" was how he greeted the devotee. Shyamasundara and five others had come to London to start a branch of ISKCON and they had sent apple pies and clockwork apples with the Hare Krishna mantra written on them to the Beatles at Apple. This initial meeting eventually led to the recording of 'The Hare Krishna Mantra' by the Radha-Krishna Temple with George, Paul, Linda and drummer Ginger Baker all in the studio helping. George produces the song and is believed to have played harmonium and guitar on the "Govinda" and "Hare Krishna Mantra". Harrison also attended the Radha Krsna Temple's Top of the Pops appearance when they performed the single "Govinda", although he did not appear in front of the cameras. It reached the charts in twenty countries it was even sung one afternoon by 40,000 people at Wembley!

Swami Prabhupada made a deep impression on George: "Most of these yogis say 'Look at me, I am the divine incarnation, let me help you,'" he explained, "Prabhupada said: 'I am the servant of the servant of the servant.'" When George once asked Srila Prabhupada if he should also shave his head and join the temple, Prabhupada replied that he could do more for Krishna through his music. Many years previously, the great-grandfather of the Hare Krishna movement, Bhaktivinode Thakur, had predicted a day when the Maha Mantra and songs of Krishna would be sung throughout the world in the local musical style and in the local language. George would be one of the first to help towards making that prediction come true. When Prabhupada heard George's orchestrated version of the Govindam Prayers for the first time he was moved to tears and asked for it to be played every morning in each of the movement's temples which still happens to this day.