Testimonial letter from Belle Gardner
This letter is one of a remarkable series of over 2650 letters amassed in 1983 to support Osho's attempt to get permanent resident status in the US at the time of the Oregon ranch. The image is reproduced here with the kind permission of The Oregon Historical Society. Information about their collection of these letters and other supporting material -- the "Jeffrey Noles Rajneesh Collection", named for Osho's immigration lawyer Jeffrey Noles, who compiled them in 1983 and donated them to the OHS -- can be found at this page. The wiki is grateful to the OHS for making access available for these documents. For more information and links to all the letters, see Testimonial letters.
This letter is from Belle Gardner. It is "Exhibit A-1876" in the Noles collection.
The text version below has been created by optical character recognition (OCR), from the images supplied by OHS. It has not been checked for errors but this process usually results in over 99% correct transcription. Most apparent "errors" are correct transcriptions of typos already in the original. The image on the right in the text box links to a pdf file of the original letter, it has 2 pages.
 BELLE GARDNER THE RAJNEESH HOTEL (RINZAI) TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN, I AM BELLE GARDNER,56 YEARS OLD.I AM THE MOTHER OF TWO CHILDREN. MY SON IS A. BUSINESS MAN,FORMERLY A MARINE,SERVED HIS COUNTRY WELL.MY DAUGHTER IS A POLICE WOMAN FOR THE MIAMI POLICE DEPT.I HAVE PREVIOUSLY OWNED AND OPERATED A VEGETARIAN RESTAURANT HERE IN MIAMI,FOR THREE YEARS. I AM PRESENTLY IN THE PROCESS OF SELLING MY HOUSE,AS I MAY MOVE TO OREGON. AFTER WATCHING THE T.V. PROGRAM IN WHICH A REPRESENTATIVE OF OUR GOVERNMENT STATED THAT BHAGWAN SHREE RAJNEESH WAS GOING TO BE ASKED TO LEAVE OUR COUNTRY,BECAUSE HE IS NOW PRESENTLY IN A STATE OF SILENCE .HE IS NOT MAKING ANY PUBLIC SPEECHES,OR TRYING TO SOLICIT FOLLOWERS,I FEEL THAT IT IS MY DUTY TO EXPRESS MY FEELINGS ON THIS MATTER,AS A CITIZEN OF A COUNTRY THAT WAS FOUNDED UPON RELIGIOUS FREEDOM. FOR OVER TWO YEARS,I HAVE BEEN READING BOOKS AND LISTENING TO TAPES BY THIS GREAT WORLD SPIRITUAL LEADER.BHAGWAN HAS OPENED THE WORLD RELIGION TO ME,I HAVE COME TO KNOW THE MEANING OF PRAYER,I HAVE COME TO KNOW AND UNDERSTAND MY HIGHER SELF,HE HAS PUT ME IN TOUCH WITH THE PEACE THAT IS WITHIN US ALL.THROUGH HIS UNDERSTANDING I HAVE DISCOVERED TRUTH. THROUGH HIS GREAT INTELLIGENCE I HAVE COME TO REALLY KNOW MYSELF AS A WOMAN AND TO KNOW MY RELATIONSHIP TO MAN. I HAVE COME TO BETTER UNDERSTAND THE PURPOSE OF LIFE,TO FEEL LOVE FOR MY FELLOWMAN,HE HAS TAUGHT ME THE EXPERIENCE OF SILENCE IS GOLDEN... HE HIMSELF IS A LIVING EXAMPLE OF THAT AGE OLD PROVERB.HE IS A MAN OF GREAT COURAGE,HE IS A TRUE RELIGIOUS MAN, HE IS WORTHY OF RELIGIOUS ASYLUM IN A COUNTRY KNOWN ALL OVER THE WORLD AS THE ONLY COUNTRY WHERE FREEDOM OF RELIGION IS A TRUTH AND NOT A MYTH. BHAGWAN’S WORDS U(?) ARRIVING IN AMERICA WERE: "IF YOU BECOME A LITTLE MORE SILENT MORE AND MORE JOY WILL ARISE OUT OF YOU,THE MOMENT YOU ARE TOTALLY SILENT AN INFINITE EXPLOSION OF JOY HAPPENS " THESE WORDS ARE THE WORDS OF A MAN OF PEACE AND LOVE,A MAN WORTHY TO CALL AMERICA HIS ADOPTED HOME,AND WE THE PEOPLE OF THE UNITED STATES WELCOME HIM WITH OPEN ARMS,AS HE BRINGS WITH HIM PEACE AND LOVE AND TRULY A PRAYERFUL STATE OF BEING .IN HIS SILENCE HE PRAYS FOR PEACE AS MAHATMA GHANDI FASTED FOR PEACE,AS JESUS DIED FOR PEACE, I IMPLORE YOU TO RECONSIDER,AND ALLOW THIS GREAT WORLD RELIGIOUS LEADER MAKE AMERICA HIS HOME FOR HOWEVER LONG HE WISHES TO REMAIN....... SINCERELY, |
(Please note: We assume that the above letter is still copyrighted, but we regard its historical interest to constitute a Fair Use exception for publication in this wiki.)
