Testimonial letter from Joachim Spohr

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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 Joachim Spohr. It is "Exhibit A-1170" 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.

Joachim Spohr
M.A. in German and
English Literature and
Philosophy
St.Paulistr. 5
2800 BREMEN
WEST GERMANY
July 2oth, 1983

TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN

I am writing to you on behalf of my spiritual Master, Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, at present residing at Rajneeshpuram, Oregon. He is in danger of being deported from the United States if he should not be recognized for what he is, namely one of the most outstanding human beings of our time and the religious leader of more than a quarter million people all over the world who most dearly love him - as was proved once again at this summer's religious World Festival held at Rajneeshpuram.

I feel qualified to call him an outstanding spiritual leader not just because I am one of his disciples. Indeed, I became a disciple of his precisely because I had the scope and understand ing , due to many years spent in studying and teaching matters concerning the human mind, to be able to recognize Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh for what he is. And he is indeed a man of the calibre of a Sokrates, or a Walt Whitman, or any other of the really great teachers of humanity.

My original field is English and German literature - which I studied at the universities of Tubingen, Berlin and Edinborough. I was granted two scholarships, one year each, at universities outside Germany, which is my native country. As a high school student I was granted a one years free stay in the United States with an American foster family.

The last two years prior to becoming a disciple of Bhagwans I taught at St.Johns College, Cambridge, England, as well as at the University there. One of my tasks was giving translation courses. So when I became a disciple it was only natural for me to start translating Bhagwan's books into German. This has been my major occupation and meditation for the last five years.

What I should like to point out to you from my experience with translating Bhagwan is this: never have I come across an author who so capably combines both poetry and philosophy. Through his touch, even the remotest traditions and the most hermetic scripture come suddenly alive with a crystal clear sparkle. He is always sublime, even in his coarsest jokes. He is always loving, even in his sternest hammerings. He is always true, even if he pulls your leg with a twinkle in his eye.

He is the greatest author I have ever come across, incomparable in the depth of his understanding of the human heart and the human mind. And he is always present, in whatever he says. Anybody who is free of bias and has a certain appreciation for literary qualities will feel, even after a few lines, that something special is happening, that he is in contact with a rare human being. Many have come within Bhagwan's orbit, and even if only a fraction of them have become actual disciples of his, he exerts a great deal of influence on people who are in genuine search for a brighter future of mankind.

With kind regards,
[signed]
(Joachim Spohr)


(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.)