Testimonial letter from Ma Anand Valerie
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 Valerie. It is "Exhibit A-1366" 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.
 TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN Recently I have returned to Rajneeshpuram in Oregon to visit. I had been here last year too. I couldn’t wait to come back. It’s so different here. There is a caring for everything. And I mean everything. In Austin, Texas and Philadelphia, Pa., in Washington, DC there’s litter in the streets. I know. I’ve lived and worked in these places for 38 years. I’ve worked as a pre-school, Montessori teacher, as a waitress. I studied sociology at Temple University. I raised a son who now attends Penn. State. He won a four year academic scholarship to go there. At Rajneeshpuram, everything is cared for. It’s a totally different way of living. The people, the animals, the land, the environment. We are a part of it all here. There is no anomie. Everyone's work is important. From toilet cleaner to architect to doctor to mailman to cab driver. I have never experienced this anywhere else in the world. And to have it happen in America, how beautiful! You may wonder why, or how. Because Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh is showing us the way. It is this vision of community. Of how to live and work together peacefully and joyfully. Of how it could be for the entire world. He is an exceptional leader in the world today, spiritually and psychologically. He understands man so totally that he can incorporate this knowledge to teach us here to live and work totally at peace, within ourselves and thus, with others. His guidance shows thru his meditation techniques, the growth groups we’ve participated in, around the world at various meditation centers and here at the ranch. His lectures in India were remarkably perceptive, ranging from totally religious topics to daily problems in living. And his silence here at the ranch is equally inspiring. His energy is felt in everything done here. You can feel Bhagwan's love in every rock and blade of grass. It nourishes us. It enables us to relax and yet at the same time perform incredible tasks. A new shopping mall, book and tape store, clothing boutique, disco, restaurants and complete kitchen to feed 15,000 people for 10 days were all built in weeks. And how does it happen? Because Bhagwan is here. I could go on and on, but I would hope that you could come and visit our commune and see for yourself. There is a magic here. And the magic is love. It is heaven on earth, and all because of Bhagwan. [signed] |
(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.)
