Osho wrote many letters to Sw Krishna Saraswati both in Hindi and in English, some of which were published in various letter collections. This one, in English, is dated 17th May 1971 and was published in The Silent Music as letter #11. The whole letter is written in black ink except Osho's bright red signature.
The letterhead is a standard one from Osho's days in his apartment in Woodland, Mumbai, and reads:
acharya rajneesh on top in lower-case
A-1 WOODLAND PEDDAR ROAD BOMBAY-26 PHONE : 382184 in pale blue ALL-CAPS
dear krishna saraswati,
Love. Death is every where; but everyone deceives himself that it is not for him.
This is the greatest and the deepest deception the human mind is capable of.
And unless one is constantly aware of this fact one is bound to be a victim of this deception--because the mind goes on giving very beautiful and logical rationalizations upto the very end.
I have heard about a ninety-year-old man who got into a bitter argument with his shoemaker as to how a pair of shoes should be made. "See here," said the shoemaker, "what's the idea of doing so much yapping? You are past ninety and there is little chance of your living long enough to wear these shoes out."
The old fellow looked sternly at the shoemaker and said,:" Apparently you are not aware that statistics prove that very few people die after ninety years of age."