Testimonial letter from Ma Anand Dharmo
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 Anand Dharmo. It is "Exhibit A-2013" 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.
 July 20, 1983 To Whom it May Concern: I was born on April 15th, 1954. My father, now deceased, was a professor of art history, and my mother is currently managing a clothing factory. I have a family background of artists and philosohers, so, I grew up in an environment which encouraged me to search for the meaning of life, and to learn and understand more about human beings. During my university training I studied different philosophers and religious teachers, and tried different kinds of meditation. When I was working for several years as a therapist with drug addicts, I realized that all of them had the same desire; the same unsatisfied need for love -but they were searching for it from the outside. I experienced, however, that searching and expecting from the outside world always brought me dependence. For instance, I realized that my self-respect became dependent on the compliments I received concerning my work. The more I needed the compliments, the worse my work became; the less compliments I received, the more I needed them. A never-ending spiral! This was, in a way, comparable to the symptoms of a drug addict. I always knew that the feeling of being lovable and self-worthy needed to come from inside myself; that’s what I was teaching my drug addicts! In 1977 I heard about Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, met some of His disciples, and read on of His books. I immediately wanted to see this Master! When I finally saw Him in Poona, India, I immediately felt and knew that this man was living out of His heart, and was dependent on only Himself. It gave me an incredible trust, and a knowing that what I always thought could be possible, IS possible. I became His disciple, and when He explained my new name to me, I was amazed by what this man already felt and knew about me, without having ever seen me before. His incredible warmth and trust was like medicine for my heart. He has what we are all missing and searching for, consciously or unconsciously. During the years of my discipleship He has guided me more and more to trust myself, and to act out of my heart. When I went home from Poona to continue my work as a therapist, it was beautiful to see how much I could give back to my clients. Also, I have since married, and have a little son. My husband is a successful manager of a diet product company. We both share the love and trust we are living through Bhagwan, and are allowing our son to grow up in this environment. While visiting Bhagwan’s new commune in Rajneeshpuram, and doing some volunteer work in that time, I realized that everyone there works out of love. There is no time and energy wasted in competing or complaining. This man has the incredible ability to guide people to their own fulfullment, without making them dependent on Him, or anything, or anyone else. He frees us to live the joyous and happy life we have always wished to live. He should be enabled to continue this beneficial work here, and all over the world. We have already missed so many artists and philosophers and became aware of their genius a longtime after they died. Bhagwan should be acknowledged worldwide and appreciated as a living master now. With all my love and thankfulness to my Master, |
(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.)
