Testimonial letter from Ma Prem Pradeepa
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 Pradeepa. It is "Exhibit A-1863" 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.
 Rajneeshpuram TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN I am delighted that Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh’s disciples have chosen the U.S.A, as a country for His presence to be graced. Here is a man whose vision inspires one of the most exciting projects man can undertake - a community to provoke God! Not only does Oregon have a visitor, Bhagwan himself, but also 1,000 disciples and 100's of visitors rejoicing in their opportunity to help build what will be a sacred city. This country has already been so interested in the kind of issues we are experimenting with, this can only contribute to the research and exploration Americans are at present committed to. At one level, the examples can be taken from agricultursl and ecological points of view, at another financial and city planning, however as an arts graduate, and as my field is currently in the meditation department, I feel more qualified to put forward a few points in that area. In writing this letter, I’m reminded of the visit my own father made to Poona several years ago when we were all gathered there. He had the opportunity to ask Bhagwan any question he wished and chose to ask if I were doing the best thing possible with my life at this time? (I grew up in a well to do, orthodox, intellectual, Jewish family). Bhagwan responded by talking of the dangers of a growing unconsciousness in a world which concurrently has a growing atomic warfare technology. He commented that unless we started to learn how to live in a more loving way, and with a greater awareness of our actions, we would be in danger of destroying ourselves and our planet by the end of this century. I had been very interested in liberation movements and leftwing politics prior to meeting Bhagwan, but the more I involved myself in political action, the more I felt the freedom I desired was not so much from society, but more from myself and my own conditioned behaviour. The next move was to start investigating and experimenting with the human potential movement, groups and techniques including meditations. Vipassana was the technique that most excited me, a classic buddhist meditation well established for the last 2,500 years. So I went to stay in a buddhist nunnery in Sri Lanka in order to experience the practise of mindfullness as totally as possible. The main thing I learnt there was that traditional meditative lifestyles did not feel appropriate to my contemporary 20th century existence, and that although all that Gautam the Buddha taught seemed exactly to be the truth, and his remedy for our suffering made perfect sense, there was no context in which to live it, nor any encouragement that felt right. When at long last I read about Bhagwan and met some sannyasins I was ready for his meditations and his form of worship, which meant working within our commune in whatever form is needed. It is a very difficult task to estimate how deep a person’s meditations are going but one indication has always been to look at the energy and actions of the meditator. I've been part of the faculty of our university as meditation instructress for 7 years now and I’m constantly amazed by the effects all Bhagwan's meditations have. People just simply glowing and vibrant with a wellbeing that effortlessly flows into helping build the new man and the foundations of this special city. Now that Bhagwan is into the ultimate silent part of his work, it is pretty clear how exceptional the transmission is in the buddhafield. He has told us all we need to know, it is now time to live in the way he has suggested. No longer can we look forward to being spoonfed sweet words or conjure up questions that He would answer as our panacea. Now with His inspiration, it's up to us. Any visitors to the Ranch will be impressed by all our endeavours, and the joy with which we go about our daily activities. Especially here at our source, but also wherever sannyasins gather together with the taste of this inspiration, energy is released. I have organised and led meditation workshops in Poona, India and many major european cities prior to coming here. Having been a participant in buddhist, sufi and Gurdjieff workshops before sannyas, it's very obvious just how potent Bhagwan's meditations are. The seriousness and solemnity that's usually associated with the more traditional meditation techniques are a thing of the past, together with their deadening and stressful aspects. Instead the senses of both humour and wonder that accompany our meditation programmes colate pleasure, release tons of energy and zest and gratitude for life. These gifts are both priceless and very exceptional. 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.)
