Testimonial letter from Ma Prem Nirmala (Australian)
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 Nirmala (Mary McGowran). It is "Exhibit A-405" 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.
 6, Collie Street To whom it may concern During the years 1962 - 1965, I attended the University of Adelaide, South Australia, and Wattle Park Teachers College, of the same State; I was granted a Diploma of Teaching, and Infant Teacher Certificate and became an Associate of the University of Adelaide. My field of study was literature and philosophy, especially the philosophy and psychology of teaching. During the years 1965 - 1968, I was a class teacher of 5 - 7 year old children in Klemzig, Adelaide. For the last year of the period, I was selected to be a demonstration teacher to teachers’ college students. My interest in the education of young children was stimulated by a 2 year stay at Cambridge University, England, from 1970 - 1972. In 1975 I was a remedial teacher in Perth, Western Australia. During this time I first came in contact with the religious teachings of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh. I read his book "Tao, The Three Treasures”, and was extremely impressed by the breadth of vision which it displayed. In 1980, after reading many more of his books, listening to audio-tapes of his discourses, and taking part in meditations at a Rajneesh Meditation Centre in Perth, I became a disciple of Bhagwan’s. Bhagwan has spoken at great length on the education of young children. Far from advocating a laissez-faire approach to schooling, he encourages the parents and teachers of children to direct and channel their vital energy in creative and meaningful ways. Hence the children of his sannyasins are encouraged, while still young, to learn practical skills as well as basic mathematics and languages. Bhagwan's understanding and love of children, combined with his clarity and vision, make him the most impressive spokesperson on education that I have ever experienced. I feel very strongly that his presence in any country in the world could only be of the most tremendous benefit to that country. Yours 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.)
