The Beatles filming the cycling scenes for Help! in the Bahamas on 24th February 1965. On this day, George had his first significant brush with the philosophy which would shape the rest of his life.
“I suppose that was the start of it all for me. It was a chance meeting - the guy had a little place on Paradise Island, and somebody just have whispered in his inner ear to give us his book, The Illustrated Book of Yoga. We were on our bikes on the road, waiting to do a shoot, when up walked a swami in orange robes: Swami Vishnu Devananda, the foremost hatha yoga exponent. It was on my birthday.”
[George]
As I was putting this post together, I only just realised this happened on George’s birthday which seems quite cosmically serendipitous (and maybe other forces are at play!) In the quote above, I’m not sure which of George’s birthdays he’s referring to. It’s from the Anthology so it’s after George discovered he had two(!) As far as I can tell from my research the Beatles filmed the cycling scenes on the 24th and not the 25th (George’s actual birthday, but not his official one), although its possible they were filmed over the two days.
Either way, doesn’t it feel like destiny?
Happy actual birthday, George!