Testimonial letter from Ma Kavisho
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 Kavisho. It is "Exhibit A-727" 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 Kavisho TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN Upon graduation from the University of Pittsburgh in 1966 election to the Hall of Fame (an award for outstanding leadership) and a B.A. in Education in two areas: History and Theater Arts, I embarked on an exciting career that took me across America and around the world. At the age of 19, I began in public relations at the New York World's Fair, followed by serving as press attache at the United Nations Pavilion, Expo ’67, Montreal, continuing with two years teaching theater arts and English at Hunter College High School for Gifted Students, press agent for the Broadway and international productions of HAIR and further on to become a Production Stage Manager for the New York Shakespeare Festival Public Theater, The Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Lincoln Center Beaumont Theater as well as a co-ordinator on major musical tours such as Bob Dylan and The Rolling Stones, location manager for television and film productions, a clothing designer and a photographer too. For over ten years I worked with major artists including James Earl Jones, Zoe Caldwell, Al Pacino, Richard Thomas, Richmond Crinkley, Joe Papp, Carol Kane, Jason Robards, and Alixis Smith just to name a few. In 1977 when I first became aware of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh through reading one of his many religious books, I was well entrenched in the American dream of success and totally committed to a career in the American theater, arts and music. In more personal terms, this committment was to forms of expressing life. Bhagwan's vision of the new man was particularly relevant to me as I was devoted to the actors, producers and artists who were, by nature of the entertainment business, caught up in the competitive fervor. Bhagwan's vision taught me to live in this competitive world without succumbing to this contagious fervor. Bhagwan's understanding of man, of his problems and complexities, Bhagwan's teaching on being centered, integrated, whole and loving in our work and in our lives far surpasses anything available in any university curriculum or master program that I have studied for over twenty years. In addition, Bhagwan teaches that creativity is an opening for man to reach his highest potential. In moving to Rajneeshpuram, I find myself simply transferring my work in the arts to a much larger theater of creativity. Just as the playwright masterfully uses words to penetrate to the hearts of people, so Bhagwan once used words to communicate. However, Bhagwan's silence penetrates much deeper and with more clarity, as there are no words to understand, analyze or to translate. His silence expresses a profound love that inspires me and thousands of others to create a place in this world to live amongst people who are interested in a loving world, free from rape, avarice, competition and unintelligent use of the land as well. No book, play, music or teacher moves so many thousands of people to laughter and tears of joy as does Bhagwan's presence in satsang or darshan. Even in his daily drives I am filled with the ripple of ecstasy this feeling of love, that passes through the line as he passes by. It is this ecstasy, this love, that sannyasins carry with them all over the world creating businesses and homes to share with everyone who wants a showering of love and laughter. As the theater once served as a vehicle for me to share a love of life, I can now participate with hundreds of thousands of people around the world to create Buddhafields of love. It is here where life is enjoyed without the social ailments that create disease, fear and unhappiness. It is my opinion that the presence of a religious teacher and spiritual leader of Bhagwan's extraordinary and internationally acclaimed calibre is a tremendous asset to any country. It can be to the credit of America if we can open our doors to Bhagwan so he can share his exceptional abilities which will benefit this country economically, culturally and spiritually. 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.)
