Testimonial letter from Ma Deva Samarpita
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 Samarpita. It is "Exhibit A-1507" 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.
 P.O. Box 10 To whom it may concern I received a Bachelor of Science degree in Interior Design from the University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1969. It was a co-op education system set up to combine the practical work experience with the education. My experience began in Ohio, but culminated in Los Angeles where I worked for Albert C. Martin Associates as a junior designer on various local ’high rises’. After this, I began work with restaurant and hotel design firms among which was Fred Schmid and Associates, known internationally. The scope of projects I participated in the design of ranged from a local Disneyland to a hotel for the Shah of Iran. It was not until my contact with Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh that any real understanding of who I am and what my capabilities are could unfold. All the education couldn’t open my eyes, couldn't give me the awareness that His words and presence have. His words are poetry worthy of the greatest acclaim. Until hearing the poetry which has touched my heart, I could not begin to understand other philosophers, poets or scholars. The capacity at which I function now far surpasses that which I experienced over the past 12 years in the Design world, and it continues to expand at an amazing rate. Here at Rajneeshpuram I co-ordinate the purchasing of construction materials for the Commune. More is accomplished here with love and care for the environment in a much lesser amount of time and more efficiently than I ever experienced with the Design firms. Bhagwan’s published writings brought him to me. Being in his presence opened my heart and created a rapid change in my life. With the growth comes newness, increasing love of life and spontaneity, the most important ingredient in creativity. Bhagwan is a brilliant philosopher and psychologist. He is undoubtedly the most well-read individual I know of. The presence of such an extraordinary and internationally-recognized person such as He is can only be beneficial. [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.)
