 At Boyd 's suggestion , the Beatles attended the Maharishi 's lecture at the London Hilton on Park Lane on 24 August 1967 . The Maharishi had announced his intention to retire , so this was expected to be his last public lecture in the West . Some band members had seen him on a Granada TV program years earlier . The Beatles were given front row seats and were invited to meet the Maharishi in his hotel suite after the lecture . During the ninety @-@ minute meeting , he invited them to be his guests at a training retreat in Wales . 
