Testimonial letter from Ma Antar Pradeepa
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 Antar Pradeepa (Eva Tallquist). It is "Exhibit A-1819" 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.
 Ma Antar Pradeepa To whom it may concern Being very concerned about my master Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh's visa and his possibility to stay in this beautiful country, I would like to explain how he has influenced my life. My background is following. I have been working as a social worker from 1970 up to now, employed by the Social department of the city of Stockholm. From 1976 up to the end of 1981 I was the head for a team of social workers being responsible for them working according to the social laws of Sweden. From the year 1982 I worked partly as a social worker, partly as a freelance journalist. In 1982 I edited some booklets about the new social laws of Sweden for the Association of Swedish Cities and Municipalities. Before I started working as a social worker, I was a university Student. In the years 1963 - 1965 I studied at the Swedish University of Turku in Finland. 1966 - 1969 I studied at the University of Stockholm. In Turku I studied Sociology and Political Science. In Stockholm I studied Pedagogics and Psychology. A Bachelor of Arts completed these studies 1976. After having my degree I continued studying partly on spare time. My subject was Modern Swedish, which I studied 1978 - 1981, and 1980 I was a student of the Journalist School of the University of Stockholm. During the seventies I wrote articles on migrant issues to Swedish papers. Visiting California and Oregon- in the summer 1982 I became a disciple of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh. I returned to Rajneeshpuram for a month last autumn and right now I am visiting Rajneeshpuram. Since I came in contact with Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh and his work the summer 1980 - a woman who had visited Poona lent some audio-tapes -my view of the field of social work has completely changed. Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh stresses that every man is totally responsible for himself. Coming from a country having many social laws and a socialist government for a period of more than 40 years and myself very influenced by socialism being a student of the late sixties, Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh's very logical talks about the importance of freedom of man - he says that freedom comes before love - has completely turned my approach to life upside down. I am not interested in socialism any longer. Neither am I interested in working for a untopian future. I can see the advantages of a capitalistic society. Be here and now, Bhagwan says, and Rajneeshpuram is here and now. From teenage up to some months before I heard of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh I denied my religious needs. I started meditating and in a Zen meditation center I met the woman who introduced me to Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh. After having listened to his tapes some months I wanted to go and see Him but He was too far away, and I did not have the possibility to see Him until last summer here in Rajneeshpuram. I belong to the new disciples, to whom He never has personally spoken. It has never bothered me. Being able to see him every day while being here, I feel very fulfilled. No words are needed to stay in contact with him. Even in Stockholm I feel his presence through Satsang, a special meditation for getting in contact with him. And even otherwise I feel his presence. Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh's presence in the United States is an honour for this country of freedom! Yours 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.)
