Testimonial letter from Ma Deva Gambhira

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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 Deva Gambhira (S. T. Neale). It is "Exhibit A-396" 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.

Ma Deva Gambhira
P.O. Box 10
Rajneeshpuram, OR 97741
July 21, 1983

To Whom it May Concern,

When I first met Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh in August 1977 I was currently involved in post-graduate diploma course in London at the Institute for Child Psychology - in training to become a child Psychotherapist. I had previously graduated from Sydney University in 1972 with a B.A. Hons.

The most important directions in my life at the time that I met Bhagwan were: the search for my own spiritual growth which I could only formulate as the search for the impossible, the miraculous, for a state of being of which I had but the vaguest notion, but which nevertheless had plagued me since my early teens. My other search lay in the direction of a professional career which dealt with exploring, understanding and working with children with behavioural problems.

My meeting with Bhagwan and my experiences in the Ashram in Poona during my initial five week visit in 1977 changed both the direction of my life, in fact my whole world in a profound and dramatic way. As a psychotherapist, I found that Bhagwan had an understanding of man, his problems and complexities that far surpassed anything I had previously heard or read, and the therapists working in the Ashram were providing a possibility for self examination and growth beyond anything I had dreamed possible.

My subsequent experience of living and working in the Ashram in Poona from September 1978 to July 1981, as a therapist, revealed to me something more of the extent of Bhagwan's extraordinary gift of appealing to and providing answers for, people from all over the world and from every conceivable walk of life. It was as though the cream of Western culture, people who had reached the peak of what our civilization has to offer and found it lacking, came to drink from him. And I had the experience of seeing literally thoussands of people becoming transformed from disillusion and discontent to a new hope, a new joy; watching faces change and become radiant, became a natural phenomenon for me.

Since being in America I have had the opportunity to see how much Bhagwan has influenced people in the arts and the helping professions in a very deep way.

Bhagwan is offering a new way of being, of living, of seeing the world. America has traditionally and historically been thought of as the 'new world' as a leader of the 'free world'. I see Bhagwan as the herald of a new freedom and what better place for him to be with us than a country like America. My experience of living in Rajneeshpuram for several months and of being present at both July festivals is of a phenomenon that is happening of joy, creativity and a heightened sense of awareness that is unsurpassed in my experience. And my experience says that all this is possible only because he is here. Bhagwan's presence, both in the energy of the Buddhafield, the special 'atmosphere' that exists in Rajneeshpuram, and seeing him on his daily drive, acts as a personal reminder to me about what is possible in my life. And, as a therapist working in the Buddhafield, Bhagwan acts as a reminder of what is possible for others. Ordinary psychology serves to patch people up to function in an insane and insensitive society - Bhagwan is offering a vision of personal freedom, joy and bliss in a joyful and healthy society.

[signed]
Ma Deva Gambhira
AKA S. T. Neale
[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.)