In his autobiography, "I, Me, Mine", George Harrison recalls that he was inspired to write "The Inner Light" by Juan Mascaró, a Sanskrit scholar at Cambridge University. Mascaró had taken part in a debate, televised on "The Frost Programme" on 4 October 1967, during which Harrison and John Lennon discussed the merits of Transcendental Meditation with an audience of academics and religious leaders. In a subsequent letter to Harrison, dated 16 November, Mascaró expressed the hope that they might meet again before the Beatles departed for India, where the group were to study meditation with their guru, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. Mascaró enclosed a copy of his book "Lamps of Fire", an anthology of religious writings, including from Lao-Tzu's "Tao Te Ching". Having stated his admiration for the spiritual message in Harrison's composition "Within You Without You", Mascaró enquired: "might it not be interesting to put into your music a few words of Tao, for example no. 48, page 66 of "Lamps"?"