Testimonial letter from Ma Advaita Sigrid

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 Ma Advaita Sigrid (Sigrid David). It is "Exhibit A-2632" in the Noles collection.

The original letter was handwritten in Italian, a text transcription has not yet been created. A text version of its translation 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.

The image in the text box links to a pdf file with the original letter, the translation, and a notary statement attesting to the validity of the translation. It has 4 pages.

translation Ma Advaita Sigrid Sigrid David CH-6951 ORIGLIO/TI Origlio, 4.8.1983 To whom it may concern: translation of the enclosed letter At the age of 45, spending my life as a wife and mother, I had the certainty that the whole meaning of existence must be something totally different, but I found myself quite alone and lost in front of the whole world when I tried to express this feeling. In this spirit I read a quotation of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh and had the chance to discover what His message was. I met some of His disciples too, and had the opportunity to share their love for life. I started doing meditation and some Inner Growth groups, and meanwhile I started reading a lot of His books. But that was not enough for me, and I decided to risk more and approach the Master, to let His teachings really sink deep into my being in order to transform my daily life into more awareness and not to fall again in my old habits and negative reactions against the others. And the doubt was always araising in my mind: ”Is this my real path or not?”. And so I decided to visit Rajneeshpuram, in Oregon, for one month. My whole being was shaken by that experience; I found the people there full of energy, love and respect. The life around the Master is happening in order, love and respect towards the whole existence. The organization is perfect and managed by a staff of people who work with no pression at all. The needs of the individual are fully considered. The directives are given with unconditional love. The daily drive of Bhagwan it's a source of incredible energy in which everybody is involved. I feel infinite gratitude to Bhagwan and His disciples for giving me and the whole humanity a new vision in which the material and the spiritual are balanced in total harmony. This very balance is the only possibility for spiritual growth for any individual. The example of Rajneeshpuram shows that it's possible and not at all an utopia. (Sigrid David)

(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.)