Was George Harrison a member of ISKCON?

Answer 1

George Harrison was never an initiated member of ISKCON; the guru, Srila Prabhupada told him that he could benefit the movement more as a "plainclothes devotee". Harrison never really could follow the austerities necessary to become a fully-initiated devotee.

He was a longtime supporter, however, of Swami Prabhupada's International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON), the source of the Hare Krishna movement. Along with the Gita-oriented songs in his solo albums ("Awaiting On You All", "It Is He (Jai Sri Krishna)", "The Lord Loves The One (That Loves The Lord)", "Living In The Material World"), Harrison produced two albums with devotees singing and chanting (released as The Radha Krishna Temple and Goddess of Fortune), and bought the English mansion that became Bhaktivendanta Manor. He financed the first printing of Krishna, The Supreme Personality of Godhead, a trilogy about the life and lore of Krishna. When Prabhupada passed away in 1977, he took a ring from his finger and said "Give this to George Harrison. He was my archangel." Harrison gave an interview (his last, before taking a long break from music and public life) to introduce Chant and be Happy, a 1982 ISKCON book about the Hare Krishna Mantra and its spread. As he was dying of cancer, the Hare Krishnas chanted to facilitate his passing from the material world to the spiritual world; Swami Mukunda accompanied him in his last days.
George also supported other Hindu-influenced movements such as Maharishi Mahesh Yogi's Natural Law Party, and mentioned the Self-Realization Fellowship's Paramahansa Yogananda in one of his album liner notes. These groups were not associated with ISKCON; the official teachings of the Hare Krishnas are quite critical of both these groups.
While it was believed he might leave a large bequest to ISKCON in his will, he did not.

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Please, accept my respects Carayoshi, and allow me to add some observations.

Truelly George Harrison was not initiated by any parampara guru. But since Harrison found out about the Krishna Consciousness, he began to have a higher love for spirituality and God itself. The fact is showed when he asked his Beatle's companions to retreat for a period of time, giving a break in the music road, in India and learn a little about the peace and knowledge of a cientific concept of God teached by old sanskrit scriptures. That's when they transformed internally and changed his music composition.

Passed some time, the splited. In that moment, Harrison was the only one that continued in the process of devotinal practice. Before split, Harrison composed a music dedicated for Prabhupada, entitled "Here Comes The Sun". The theme of the music is that Prabhupada was bringing up the light of knowledge to overcome the ignorance about material world and open up the eyes for the spiritual living. After the Beatle's ended, Harrison has helping and supporting the Krishna Consciousness Movemet in the Western World and others groups that brought the self-realization practice. Being that said, we have reached the explanations that you gave above. But it goes on.

Harrison showed more appreciation for the teachings of Krishna and the bhakti-yoga practice. The exemples is his continuous correspondences and meetings with Srila Prabhupada. He has chanting the maha-mantra Hare Krishna sixteen rounds of japa (108 Hare Krishna per round) every day untill he died. Besides you have explained, in a conversation with Prabhupada, he asked if he needed to shave his head and move to living in a temple to become a devotee and asked for initiation to Srila Prabhupada. In response, Srila Prabhupada said that it was unnecessary do that because he was already initiated have being named Harrison, or Son of Hari (one of the Names of Krishna), and that he was already being a higher devotee that was practicing devotional service, or bhakti-yoga, with his music career. Thus, he was already was a devotee named Son of Hari, that was doing his work to carry the message of Krishna. Here is an interview with him in 1982 (see the comentaries too for more information): krishna.org/george-harrison-interview-hare-krishna-mantra-theres-nothing-higher-1982/

Between time that he learned about Krishna Consciouness and died, he has some undevotional activities, like the period that his got back to drugs use when a close friend had died and some affairs cases, that much seems a speculated issue from the show business gossip because his popularity. For more information about his life, there is a good documentary "Living in the material world" by Martin Scorsese, imdb.com/title/tt1113829/

I hope that I could add some additional informations about the life of this great personality. He trully was trying to do his best in the material world to carry some words of peace and goodness to the persons that liked his music.

Thank you to allow me to tell about George Harrison. Best wished for all. Be safe and be happy.

Regards,

Rafael Bezerra

bezerra.rafael@hotmail.com