Testimonial letter from Liu Saraz

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 Liu Saraz. It is "Exhibit A-775" 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 original letter, written in Italian, appears first, followed by its English translation. The image on the right in the text box links to a pdf file with the whole original letter, the translation and a notary statement attesting to the validity of the translation. It has 3 pages.

GARZANTI EDITORE Milano, 18/7/83 TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN Sono capo dell’ufficio traduzioni di una delle più importanti case editrici italiane. Negli ultimi tempi abbiamo preso in considerazione l’eventualità di pubblicare, come hanno già fatto altre case editrici in Italia, Rizzoli, Bompiani, SugarCo, ecc., le raccolte di discorsi di Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh "un ottimo maestro...che sa esporre con maestria le vie aspre dell’ascesi, ma sicuramente preferisce maniere dolci, forse più efficaci...che ci insegna a non pensare nel cervello, rigido, disumano, ma a scendere nel nostro centro, a pensare col cuore..." come scriveva Elemire Zolla sul “Corriere della Sera" del 16 gennaio 1981. L’Occidente ha bisogno di questi maestri e pensiamo che non ci sia paese al mondo che più degli Stati Uniti d’America, con la loro tradizione di libertà e di democrazia, con le loro vaste distese di terreno, con la loro tecnologia avanzata, possano offrire a Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh l’opportunità di realizzare il suo pensiero nel mondo moderno. A quanto ho saputo, l’esperimento che da meno di due anni Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh sta portando avanti nell’Oregon è addirittura fantastico; perché quindi non rinnovargli il visto di soggiorno negli USA? Senza la presenza del Maestro, verrebbe vanificato tanto lavoro e le speranza di molti verrebbe delusa. Mi associo quindi ai tanti che da tutte le parti del mondo vi hanno chiesto di rinnovare il visto a Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh. [signed] Liu Saraz, editor translation GARZANTI EDITORE Milan, July 18, 1983 TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN I am the head of the translation department of one of the most important Italian publishers. Recently we have been considering the possibility of publishing collections of lectures by Bhagwan, as many other Italian publishers (Rizzoli, Bompiani, SugarCo, etc.) have already done. As Elemire Zolla wrote in the "Corriere della Sera" of the 16th of January 1983, Bhagwan is "an excellent teacher ... who can masterfully expound upon the difficult paths but who definitely prefers gentler and probably more efficient ways - who teaches us not to think with our fixed impersonal brains, but to go deep inside, to think with our hearts." The West needs this kind of teacher, and I think that there is no other country in the world like the United States, given its traditions of freedom and democracy and its vast expanse of land and its advanced technology, that could offer Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh the opportunity of realizing his ideas in the world of today. From what I have heard, the experiment which Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh is carrying on for almost the last two years in Oregon is quite marvellous; why then not renew his visa in the U.S.A.? Without the presence of this Master much work will have been done in vain and the hopes of many would be shattered. I unite with the many people from all over the world who have asked you to renew the visa of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh. [signed ... yes, this translation was apparently done in Italy, and signed by Saraz] Liu Saraz, Editor [notary stuff]

(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.)