Testimonial letter from Ma Anand Gitena
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 Gitena. It is "Exhibit A-1558" 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.
 P.O. Box 10, TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN I am a retired teacher from Fresno, California, having received a masters degree in special education in 1944 from Fresno State College (now known as the University of California at Fresno). After my retirement in 1980 I travelled to India to sit with Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh and His growing family of followers. My feeling was that I finally had come home. Now, I’ve been living at Rajneeshpuram and I’ve experienced momentous religious holidays here. Each has been an unforgettable, energizing, blissful gathering of sannyasins and enquirers from many corners of the world. His followers seem to forget the habits and conditions of the outside world when they are here in His presence. Joy abounds and love for Bhagwan dissolves all barriers of race, language differences, prejudices, ambitions and cultural differences. How beautiful it was earlier this month to be a part of our gathering of 15,000 and to feel the unity and harmony. In Bhagwan’s presence an incredible energy is generated. It is this energy that enables us to push past the normal barriers of fatigue and to work like we do here. He teaches us through His earlier words that all work is equally valuable and that we are all part of one another. Once gou really get that then old patterns of thinking fall away and a lovely cooperation develops which makes all things possible. Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh is a very special man. He is truly a Master such as the world has rarely seen. This cannot be denied by anyone willing to sit at His feet and feel His love pouring out to His sannyasins and into the universe. People who don’t really know Bhagwan sometimes criticize His silence. I remember being stunned when He stopped speaking, but I feel now that His words, which I used to drink in, actually prevented me receiving the full measure of His love energy -- which I now get totally undistracted by my mind’s involvement with His words. I feel He is with me wherever I am and I especially feel the connection during our morning and evening prayers which we chant every day wherever we worship. I have raised my own three children and taught many, many exceptional children and I regret that I didn’t know Bhagwan and His love many years ago. I feel I certainly would have been a better teacher and a more understanding mother. I also regret missing the opportunity of raising my children and graandchildren as sannyasins. Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh dissolves our old patterns and universal peace could be His gift to our world. Sincerely, |
(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.)
