 Business negotiations , allegations of sexual impropriety , alcohol and non @-@ prescription drug use were sources of tension between the Maharishi and the Beatles . Aspinall was surprised when he realised the Maharishi was a sophisticated negotiator , knowing more than the average person about financial percentages . Evans told Saltzman that the Maharishi wanted the band to deposit up to 25 % of their next album 's profits in his Swiss bank account as a tithe , to which Lennon replied , " Over my dead body " . Mardas pointed to the luxury of the facility and the business acumen of the Maharishi and asked Lennon why the Maharishi always had an accountant by his side . Mardas said the Maharishi offered him money to build a high @-@ powered radio station . Lennon later told his wife that he felt that the Maharishi had , in her words , " too much interest in public recognition , celebrities and money " for a spiritual man . According to her sister , Pattie Boyd had dreamt that " the Maharishi wasn 't what he seemed " . Cynthia Lennon , Cooke de Herrera and authors such as Barry Miles have blamed Mardas for turning Lennon against the Maharishi but Mardas denies this . Meanwhile , the weather , which had been quite cool in February , was growing hot and the Maharishi was planning to move the whole group to Kashmir , at a higher and cooler altitude in a week . 
