 In his 1980 autobiography, I, Me, Mine, George Harrison credits the influence for his song "Living in the Material World" to A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, founder and leader of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON), commonly known as the Hare Krishna movement. Harrison adds that the song specifically espouses the message that "we are not these bodies, we are in these material bodies in the physical world." His friend Ravi Shankar once observed that Harrison exhibited tyagi, a trait meaning non-attachment or renunciation, a point to which Shankar added: "He had everything – all the wealth, the fame, whatever he wanted. But he was not attached to it ... because he was searching for something much higher, much deeper. It does seem like he already had some Indian background in him [from a previous life]." Harrison later said of life in the material world, referring to the need to break the cycle of rebirth associated with reincarnation: "The whole point to being here, really, is to figure a way to get out."
