Testimonial letter from C. P. Mathews
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 C. P. Mathews. It is "Exhibit A-1173" 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.
 10 July 1983 To whom it may concern: I wish to put on record my professional opinion as an applied ecologist with experience in environmental conservation as to Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh’s outstanding contribution as a scientist and as a spiritual leader. So that the reader may judge my right to such a professional opinion, I am providing the attached brief statement about my career and achievements. These facts are sufficient to show that I am an experienced applied ecologist with international experience and reputation, and that I have the right to express my professional support for him. (1) Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh has inspired an experiment in reestablishing a rational, balanced conservation and exploitation of a heavily overgrazed, semidesert habitat which had previously been allowed to fall into ecological wasteland and agriculturally unproductive land. The whole strategy implemented so far shows a deep concern to re-establish exploitation through recreating ecological conditions destroyed by previous unsound, and quite usual, ranching practice. I sympathize totally with this approach. It is identical to that which I have used in trying to strengthen Kuwaiti fisheries. (2) I have been deeply concerned as a scientist with the irrational situation which arises when science develops faster than man's sense of responsibility to the environment. In a dialogue with Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh (in his book, Be Still and Know, p. 2-16, published by Rajneesh Foundation, 1981) he answers my fundamental worry: how to be a scientist and yet how to be truly constructive, and how to reconcile sciences and arts. His answer is, without any doubt, the only sound, constructive answer to come from a man who both understands science, and who is a spiritually enlightened being. Bhagwan’s answer satisfied me as a scientist, as well as reconciling science with spiritual truth. This is a unique achievement: no other scientist has ever achieved this. So far scientists have failed to allow this spiritual dimension to enter their work. It is Bhagwan’s genius that he has done this. [signed] |
(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.)
