Testimonial letter from Ma Kavyaprem (German)
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 Kavyaprem (Renate Biehl). It is "Exhibit A-1889" 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 Kavyaprem TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN: Since I started to become something like grown-up I was on the search for truth, for the deeper meaning of life. My parents were good middle class citizens, working from morning to evening, trying to save money for a better future. I thought there must be something more to life. Impressed by several theatre plays during the time of existentialism in Paris, I decided to become an actress and went for three years to Germany's best school (Max-Reinhard-Seminar). During the 10 years I was an actress I played beautiful parts like Jeanne D'Arc or acting in several plays by Berthold Brecht. Eventually I became quite famous through T.V. The more famous I became, the more I became rich, I became dissatisfied inside. Success was not it. I was thirsty for inner growth, but I didn't grow, I became shallow. So I dropped out of the theatre, joined the "Left" and devoted myself to social and political work, hoping to be able to transform the world. I failed. Life amongst the 'left-wingers' was a life without heart and warmth. I had something like a break-down. Psychoanalysis seemed necessary. From then on beautiful things started to happen. My psychoanalist had just gotten hooked by an Indian Master; Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh. I started to do the Dynamic Meditation, developed by Bhagwan, and my life fundamentally changed in a few weeks. I participated in therapy groups run by sannyasins, I felt freer and became happy. I hadn't known that feeling for years anymore - simple life and joy. I went to Poona and One evening I sat before Bhagwan and took sannyas, became His disiple. I had the feeling of having arrived. I was relieved, loved deeply and blessed. Until then I was a famous actress with the name Renate Biehl, Bhagwan gave me the name Kavyaprem, which means 'poetry of love'. I couldn't have received a more beautiful name. He talked to me about it. It has nothing to do with the head which wants to change the world politically. The heart, the intelligence of the heart, changes you from inside. Since that time I've been changing continuously. Now I work as a nurse and live in the ashram in Hamburg. I'm always grateful to Bhagwan for giving my life a new direction. I am not disappointed by his being in silence, on the contrary: his silent presence which I was able to experience through two visits during festivals at Rajneeshpuram, is very powerful. Bhagwan changes our lives beyond all words, I can't say how but it is happening. I don't need to be acting on the stage anymore. Poetry is to be found everywhere in life, in those quiet moments between action. I very much wish that Bhagwan can stay in America, firstly because of being an enlightened master there's no other place in the world he fits in better and secondly because I like to visit this country and I love it. [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.)
