Testimonial letter from Helgard F. Kroonbergs-Knof

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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 Helgard F. Kroonbergs-Knof. It is "Exhibit A-767" 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 one page.

Helgard F. Kroonbergs-Knof
J.W. Brouwersplein 18
1071 LN Amsterdam
HOLLAND
July 22, 1983

TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN

After I've done my highschool diploma in 1976 I worked as editor of a monthly magazine "Der Jedermann". It was specialising in spirituality and social affairs. The spiritual dimension of life was not widely accepted at that time. It was occupied by the churches which teach religion far away from reality. I was an idealist and the anti-soviet uprising in Prague in 1967 gave me and my friends a lot of hope. Something beautiful had happened there, but it was destroyed by politics.

In 1980 I travelled for a year in Asia, where I met Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh in Poona.

Bhagwan's words and Bhagwan's presence had a far stronger influence on me than any other philosophy I had come in touch with. I became a disciple of Bhagwan in December 1981.

In the Shree Rajneesh Ashram in Poona I found a community which combined religion with a down-to-earth and practical life.

Together with my husband, to whom I got married in 1982, I visited Rajneeshpuram two times and I was even more impressed: An American-style city is being built in a meditative and yet tremendously life-affirming way. Bhagwan’s presence has an amazing effect. He inspires everybody to be more loving, more creative, more meditative - and all this without words. The heart-to-heart communion between Him and His disciples has - on a practical plane - resulted in a tremendous progress of the ongoing work. Within two years a town came into existence, in which people live in harmony with nature. There is no crime, no competition: work has become worship.

My husband and me are going back to Holland knowing that it is possible: Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh's vision is becoming reality. We will take this beautiful experience with us back to our daily lives.

[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.)