Former Beatle George Harrison died amid chants and prayers of Hare Krishna practitioners with whom he had been close since the 1960s, a source from the Hare Krishna Movement said.

The spiritual musician was surrounded by old friends from the Hindu-based religious movement, which he embraced at the height of his fame in the 1960s, Gauda Chandra of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness said

"He had some close friends that he has known since the 1960s with him at the end. There was chanting and praying and he was at peace," he said.

The Hare Krishna followers at his bedside in the home of a Los Angeles friend of Harrison were Shyamasundar Das and Mukunda Goswami.

"During his last days, Krishna devotees were by his side and he left his body to the sounds of the Hare Krishna mantra," they said in a statement obtained here.

"Harrison probably did more than any single popular cultural figure during the past few decades to spread spiritual consciousness around the world," they said.

The two came from Britain and New Zealand to be with Harrison during his final days until he lost his four-year battle with cancer on Thursday, they said.

The bodies of Hare Krishna devotees are usually cremated and their ashes scattered in the holy rivers of the Ganges and the Yamuna, but Gauda Chandra Das said the Los Angeles temple did not know whether Harrison had been cremated or not.

"It's up to the wishes of the family and the individual," he said. "We do not know what Harrison and his family decided."

Media reports said the family had held a private funeral on Thursday night.

Gauda Das said the movement was "deeply saddened" by Harrison's death.

Harrison led the other three Beatles to dabble in eastern religion in the 1960s after he and Jo-hn Lennon met Krishna founder A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada. Harrison paid for the printing of the movement's Krishna book in 1970 and wrote its foreword.