Pop Music: The Messengers

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the taste of drink is like.

We have found something now which fills the gap. Since meeting His Holiness, I feel great."

The feeling is mutual. Says His Holiness: "I can bring them up as very practical philosophers of their age. They can do a great deal for the youth which they lead." Precisely what marvels the yogi has in store for his disciples is a good question. Yet for openers he has persuaded the Beatles to renounce drugs. Paul claims that he now realizes that taking drugs was "like taking an aspirin without having a headache." Says John: "If we'd met Maharishi before we had taken LSD, we wouldn't have needed to take it." Skeptics notwithstanding, the Beatles could well be on to something fruitful again, which may find expression in who knows what strange new musical forms.

And what, after all, could be a more fitting philosophy than transcendentalism for the Beatles, who have repeatedly transcended the constricting identities foisted on them by press and public, whose whole career has been a tran scendent, heel-clicking leap right over pop music's high Himalayas? On the basis of what they have achieved so far, it would be rash to dispute George when he says: "We haven't really started yet. We've only just discovered what we can do as musicians, what thresholds we can cross. The future stretches out beyond our imagination."