Harrison’s ashes to be sprinkled in India’s Ganges River

By Beth Duff-Brown

Associated Press

NEW DELHI, India – The ashes of George Harrison, long a devotee of Hinduism, will be sprinkled in the holy Ganges River, authorities of the Hare Krishna movement said today.

Harrison’s widow, Olivia, and his 23-year-old son, Dhani, will be accompanied by two Hare Krishna followers who performed Hindu rites on Harrison’s ashes with the family in London, said Maha Mantra Das, New Delhi spokesman for the International Society of Krishna Consciousness.

The society said it was organizing the rites and that its representatives in London had been in contact with Harrison’s family.

The family would not discuss any details or confirm any aspect of the reports, spokesman Gavin de Becker said in Los Angeles.

Das said Harrison’s widow and son were expected to arrive today or Tuesday to scatter some of his ashes in the Ganges in the northern city of Varanasi. He said ashes would also be sprinkled off Allahabad, where the Ganges and Yamuna converge – and according to Hindu tradition are joined by a third holy river, the mythical Saraswati.

Harrison, 58, died of cancer in Los Angeles on Thursday. Britain’s Press Association news agency reported that he was cremated hours after his death, and that his widow and son left for India with his ashes.

Olivia Harrison has asked fans for a minute of meditation as a tribute to the musician. The Press Association said the scattering of his ashes in India would coincide with that minute, which falls at 3 a.m. Tuesday in India. Das said that this was likely.

“Early morning is a very auspicious time for Hindus,” he said.

Subigra Das, the head of the Baluaghat Krishna temple in Allahabad, told The Associated Press that Harrison’s widow and son would first attend Hindu rituals in Varanasi at 3 a.m., then head to Allahabad for a procession to the rivers’ confluence.

In a tradition dating more than 3,500 years, Hindus are cremated on riversides and their ashes scattered in holy waters. Hindus believe this ritual releases the soul from the body for its heavenward journey, and frees it from the cycle of reincarnation.

Harrison, known as the “quiet Beatle,” had a long, intensely intimate relationship with Indian mysticism and music.

His sister, Louise Harrison, said George had explained some of his spiritual philosophy to her. “He said, ‘You know we shouldn’t start to think of God as a grumpy old man up in the sky that’s thinking of us as sinners,’ ” she said on NBC’s “Today” show today. Instead, he said, “God is a huge, powerful, mighty ocean and that we are each drops in that ocean.”

And now “the drop of divinity that was within him, that made him the live George Harrison, is now returned and connected with the mighty ocean,” she said.

Harrison had been close to the Hare Krishna sect of Hinduism – formally called the International Society of Krishna Consciousness – meeting its founder and donating one of his studios to the movement.

“When he was leaving his body, our devotees were chanting songs of Krishna by his bedside,” said Vrijendra Nandan, with the New Delhi chapter of the society.

Krishna is one of the most popular Hindu gods, described as a mischievous character who plotted to kill oppressive rulers and help the weak. In one of his most popular songs, “My Sweet Lord,” Harrison chants Hare Krishna.

In 1966, after the Beatles had stopped touring, Harrison came to India to study the sitar with Ravi Shankar. Shankar was present during Harrison’s final hours in California.

In 1967, Harrison introduced the other Beatles to the teaching of the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, and all four took up transcendental meditation. The Beatles went to Rishikesh, a holy city in northern India on the Ganges River, to study with the Maharishi.