George Harrison with Shyamasundar Das; Harrison and Paul McCartney with Shyamasundar Das in the background.

Shyamasundar Das (Sam Speerstra), one of Srila Prabhupada’s first disciples and a friend of the Beatles, recently spoke to “The Fest for Beatle Fans” convention, the oldest and largest annual Beatles gathering of its kind. This year was their 50th anniversary.

The event, held in Chicago from August 8 to 10, featured an impressive lineup of famous figures connected to the Beatles and contemporary figures who continue to be inspired by the iconic band. Syamsundar, who joined the fest on August 10th via Zoom, spoke on the topic “The Beatles and the Krishnas: The Untold Story!”

In his remarks, Shyamasundar noted, “From late 1968 onwards, the London-based Krishna people lived in the Beatles’ orbit, feeding them spiritual information that subtly shaped their worldviews and many of their greatest songs.”

Remembering their first meeting, he recalled, “It’s December 1968; we’d been in London for a couple of months, trying to survive and spread a little Hare Krishna cheer around this vast and unfamiliar city. We lived in a derelict abandoned warehouse in Covent Garden. Suddenly, some of my San Francisco friends from the Haight-Ashbury came over as a group to London, guys like Ken Kesey and Peter Coyote and Rock Scully, manager of The Grateful Dead (who had been my college roommate), Sweet William from the Hell’s Angels–. They needed a place to stay, so we put them up at our place in Covent Garden.”

He continued, “These guys had been invited to the Apple headquarters on Savile Row for the 1968 Apple Christmas party.  So I tagged along, and it was there I met George. The place was crowded with about fifty people drinking and talking—rock stars, elegant women, Carnaby Street hippies, guys in suits, and our motley San Francisco crew spread out among them.

“Finally, one by one, Paul, John, and Ringo each stick their head out of one of the doors and then bolt for the exit, not pausing to speak to anyone. A few minutes later, George pokes his head out, too, and those famous, intense dark eyes scan the room and light on me. Before anyone could react, George shoots out the door, crosses the room, and comes straight at me, grinning, ”Hare Krishna! Where have you been? I’ve been waiting to meet you!'”

He concluded the presentation by saying, “The Beatles were, and they always will be, the most vivid examples of musicians striving for transcendence, for going beyond and getting to the heart of our brief and rather comical existence in this material world. I would say that the Beatles and Krishna Consciousness are both forever ideas, and they are somehow inextricably linked in this eternal dance of time. To read the full transcript of his presentation, click here.

Shyamasundar, 82, shows no signs of slowing down as he continues to narrate his personal experiences with ISKCON’s Founder-Acarya.  His popular three-volume series, “Chasing Rhinos with the Swami,” spans nearly 1,500 pages of memories and includes over 600 unique photographs. To learn more about this three-volume series and the newest audiobook for Volume 1, visit his website.