Testimonial letter from Ma Amano Astha
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 Amano Astha. It is "Exhibit A-1104" 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.
 6, Lambert Street To whom it may concern I am an Honours Psychology graduate, currently visiting Bhagwan and Rajneeshpuram for the first time. I first came into contact with Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh’s teachings in book form in 1979. It was immediately obvious that he had a far broader and deeper understanding of humanity than any other psychologist, sociologist, or anthropologist whose work I had studied during my degree course. This realisation affected me in two ways. Firstly, intellectually it was tremendously exciting and stimulating. Here was someone who really knew about the human condition, and was not speculating, someone who could draw together teachings from different academic and cultural areas and provide a valuable and unique synthesis. Secondly, it affected me on a personal level. I realised he totally understood and knew me, and at once felt unburdened and joyful. However, it wasn’t until January of this year, after meeting several beautiful sannyasins, that I felt ready to become a disciple, and to visit him at the Festival. Although reading his books had affected me greatly, this was very little compared to being in his presence. The experience is difficult to describe but it is a deep reminder of my potential as a joyful, creative and loving person; a connection with the source of all life. I need such contact periodically and it is a great comfort to know I can visit the U.S.A, and Bhagwan. Rajneeshpuram is an expression of his being. He is present throughout. In just three weeks this place has become my spiritual home. Somewhere that I feel at ease and can return to for regeneration . He directly inspired me to find extra work in order to save enough money to visit the US. Daily he inspires many to work hard in a creative and loving way. No energy is wasted on competition, and the results of the work are first-class. Yours faithfully |
(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.)
