Testimonial letter from Ma Anand Roseanne
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 Roseanne. It is "Exhibit A-2270" 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.
 TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN I am a disciple of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh and live at Rajneeshpuram. I have been living and working in the commune that surrounds Bhagwan since taking sannyas in August, 1979. Before coming to Bhagwan, my main pursuit in life was academic achievement. I graduated from Temple University in Philadelphia in 1974 with a B.A. Degree in Spanish Language and Literature, and received the Honors of Phi Beta Kappa, President's scholar and Summa Cum Laude. After graduation, I worked as a Spanish Teacher for two years in a Philadelphia high school. During that period, I attended evening classes at La Salle College in teaching English as a second language. In July 1976, I was awarded a Rotary Club Scholarship to study at the highly-accredited School of Translation and Interpreting in Geneva. The two-year course led to a Translator’s Certificate, which I received in June, 1978 and which is equivalent to a Master’s degree in the United States. Just before returning to America, I met a group of sannyasins. One of them gave me a book by Bhagwan, and that was the start of the journey which led me across the U.S. then to India, and finally to Rajneeshpuram. To say that Bhagwan is a person of exceptional ability is an understatement. Enlightenment is rare, and an Enlightened Master is even rarer. Bhagwan’s extraordinariness lies in His ability to convey His own experience to others in a way that allows them to experience their own inner awakening. There are thousands of people, sannyasins and non-sannyasins alike, who have been touched by Bhagwan's exceptional ability, and who flock to Rajneeshpuram for religious festivals such as the one that just ended. They hear Him in spite of the fact that He is not speaking, and they come here to absorb the energy of the Buddhafield. Those of us who live at Rajneeshpuram are working to create the physical structure in which the Buddhafield can flourish. The temples in which we worship support each other and, in turn, the community. I worship in the commune's computer department. That I am learning such a technical field in view of my liberal arts background is a good example of how work in the Buddhafield is different from work elsewhere. Here the emphasis is not on "getting ahead", but rather on the quality we bring to our work. Rather than get caught up in the pressure of "mental" work, we use the work as an opportunity to understand whatever feelings come out of it, and to learn to relax and not become identified with a certain job. The result is a happy and productive community. The people who surround Bhagwan .are aware of one very essential thing: that none of this would be possible without His inspiration. We've tried it on the outside and know from experience that nothing compares to being with our Master. America should feel blessed that a man of such exceptional ability is here on her soil. This is the only country I know of where Bhagwan’s qualifications can be fully appreciated. Love, |
(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.)
