Testimonial letter from Ma Prem Kovida

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 Kovida (Angelmaria Chiappini). It is "Exhibit A-2595" 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.

TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN August 2, 1983 I am 41 years old and disciple of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh since 1978. From the very beginning I choosed to stay very closed to Him, staying in Poona for one year and as soon as I came back to Italy, I joined a group of disciples that since 1979 is working in a Rajneesh Meditation Center. For the last 5 years I therefore choosed to live in a Buddhafield: a field created by the being together of many people, each pursuing one self’s growth and learning to be in love and in tune with the whole existence. The thread which connects the difference of each of us’ life is Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh: He is giving an ”A” to the multidimensional orchestra of our beings. As soon as He entered the new teaching phase of the silence, I deeply fell the soundness of the ting: for years He spoke about the ultimate silence, the stillness of the mind, the no-words space...now He was giving us the opportunity of experiencing this, through Him, because He is the living enlightened example. The connection between Him and His disciples is constant, alife, alertful. No matter where the disciple is, His silence reaches him. The physical presence of Him at Rajneeshpuram, OR, is what I whish the most: He has to be there in order to inspire the work of many seekers, to let people explore how synthesis of nature and individual is possible and how America is the only womb the new man can be born from. Visiting Rajneeshpuram and seeing Him each day has been for me the taste of the ultimate truth He is showing and therefore teaching us. The powerful positive charge I got is enough to let me share it for long time among the other people I get in touch with. It is an incredible sharing of trust and love with everything surrounds me. The care towards nature, animals and individuals, the reliability of people creating a new city, the many words talked around the world which now become reality: "peace", "ecology", "respectfulness".., the high level of technology, all this makes me seeing at Rajneeshpuram really as at the expression of the vision of the Master. I am proud to participate into this experiment, to live this religion. Besides the daily meditation techniques and the twice a day chanting of "Buddham Sharanam Gachchhami" - in remembrance of all awakened ones - my daily religious activity is the work. The work has become something not separated from free-time, but melted in ordinary life. Everything can be worshipped. Work itself becomes worship. I do really trust that honesty and respectfulness will be the answers of a proud people like Americans towards a man who guides the world to reach God. [signed] Ma Prem Kovida Angelmaria Chiappini c/o VIVEK Rajneesh Meditation Center via San Marco 40/4 20121 Milano

(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.)