Rishikesh ashram, where memories of The Beatles' visit still linger

As traces of The Beatles gradually recede from Rishikesh, their followers still come looking for what the "Fab Four" had hoped to find

They believed they had got there. John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr were searching for a cosmic consciousness that would unlock their full potential. The Beatles ruled the world at the time. “We’re more popular than Jesus,” Lennon had said, “Christianity will come to an end before rock music.” Their use of drugs seemed to them a creative dead end — the “terrible comedowns”, as McCartney later noted.

But at the peak of their fame, just after the iconic rock band had reimagined itself to produce the Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band album and finished their