Testimonial letter from Ma Nirupa
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 Nirupa. It is "Exhibit A-1668" 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.
 July 27, 1983 To whom it may concern: When I was touring India, nine years ago, I was fortunate enough to meet an exceptional being, Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh. At that time, there was a small community gathering around him at the place where he gave his daily discourses. We all listened intensely to his words. We were all aware that the words were not the thing, but behind them, a pulsating sound of silence. Now, when I come to visit Rajneeshpuram, I am overwhelmed; for here, he no longer speaks, but his silence permeates the whole ranch. It is plainly visible in the way the people there are inspired to give their total energy, joyfully, thankfully and with no tension, to the ordinary, everyday tasks which you may call mundane. This extraordinary creativity is transforming a 'muddy wasteland' into a breathing, dancing oasis. 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.)
