Testimonial letter from Ma Prem Divya (2)
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 Prem Divya (Zulma R. Velie). It is "Exhibit A-842" 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 5 pages.
 This is one of two letters written by Ma Prem Divya. The other is at Divya (1). The numbering is according to their appearance in Noles' collection, not chronological. In fact, the other was written two months after this one and was one of a focused group of letters from "important" members of the commune, in which all stated their religious titles or educational positions in "Rajneeshism", hoping to expedite Osho's residency application as a religious leader. This letter did not mention her position as "director of the Rajneesh Institute of Alchemy", hence a new letter likely was requested for that campaign. It is not known why both letters were kept, but likely only the "Institute of Alchemy" one was submitted to the INS. See also Testimonial letters#duplication for more on this.
Zulma R. Velie TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN Having worked for fourteen years as a primal therapist and in related fields of psychology in the United States, Great Britain and India, and having been myself a disciple of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh for the last nine years, I have been in a position to evaluate the enormous psychotherapeutic impact of Bhagwan on my work as a professional, and on the work of my colleagues in the fields of arts and science. Perhaps the single most important contribution to the understanding of human dynamics and the psyche lies in Bhagwan’s total re-evaluation of the concepts of the nature of mind, being and personality, particularly the interplay between energy, emotion and understanding. It was this aspect of the teachings of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh that attracted me the most. In India, as a resident of the Shree Rajneesh Ashram in Poona, I collaborated in writings and community projects and served as a staff member for Rajneesh International Meditation University, counselling and leading workshops and individual sessions in psychotherapy (primal) and energy work (based on bio-physical and occult theory and practice). Early darshan diaries attest to some of the training and direct guidance offered to me and my colleagues. Much teaching had already transpired in even earlier unrecorded darshans (meetings with the master), and later throughout the years through messages in response to our letters and queries. Yet more was revealed as we worked within the buddhafield influenced by the dynamism and charge of the master’s nearby presence and by his resonance within ourselves as his sannyasins. Meeting and working close to Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh has provided a major breakthrough for my work in the field of psychology and meditation, bridging the gap between logic and illogic, intellect and intuition, matter and consciousness. Besides adding the dimension of the transpersonal, Bhagwan’s teachings have opened up fields of exploration for many of us, some of which continue to be developed here in Rajneeshpuram's new university in the areas of energy phenomena and behaviour. My own work, now under the Rajneesh Institute for Alchemy, has blossomed into discoveries about the nature of mind, body and being — as variations of energy frequency, vibration, waves and lines of force accessible to personal direction and transformation. To describe Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh the man, still presents a great difficulty. To begin to understand his exceptional abilities one must look back into the ancient past, into the golden ages of the east and west when buddhas walked upon the earth — Gautama Buddha, Lao Tzu, Zarathustra, Heraclitus, Pythagoras, Socrates, Jesus. Today, perhaps our university with its wide range of institutes of specialization is the best tangible evidence of the enormous wealth of knowledge and information available to the world through the teachings of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh and the on-going discoveries that he continues to inspire through the works at Rajneeshpuram. Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh is truly a modern god-man, a man of outstanding and varied expertise, insight and world-wide influence. It is good that he is able to be in America where the world may come to benefit more and more from his abilities in a spirit of intelligence, democracy and good faith. Yours truly, |
(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.)
