Testimonial letter from Ma Prem Punita
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 Punita. It is "Exhibit A-893" 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.
 Ma Prem Punita To Whom It May Concern: After earning a baccalaureate cum laude in Education (Antioch College and C.U.N.Y. , 1968), fifteen years of private music studies, and over fourteen years experience teaching in public and private schools in the U.S.A. (Dalton Schools, N.Y.C.), Germany, Sweden, England and India including teacher training for the Headstart Program and Carnegie Institute of Technology and numerous experimental educational programs in the area of music and. early childhood education, I was involved in a variety of extra-educational professional endeavors. The first of these was the founding and managing of a musical instrument making workshop which had exhibits at the British Craft Centre in London and at the Smithsonian Institute. In 1973, while living in London, I met my present husband, an architect and city planner, and came into contact with the writings of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh. While continuing my music studies in India, I visited his ashram in Poona. During the years following, I bacame a copywriter, small business entrepreneur, and a mother. In 1976, we co-founded a growth center in Claifornia. I have also been an Assistant minister in the Church of Religious Science. Through all these years of education, teaching and mothering, I have always been on the lookout - both for myself, my students, and my child - for the best and most successful methods of education. I have always been alert to innovative and creative ideas in education, whether that be Montessori, Cart Orff, the new math, and so forth. There is nothing more exciting or successful in the field of education than living in the presence of an enlightened Master. For nine years as a Rajneeshee, I have seen people from all walks of life and of all ages fulfilling themselves in all manner of work and creative expression. I have enjoyed such a variety of work over the last nine years - even the simplest of everyday take on the quality of art. And for myself as a mother living at Rajneeshpuram with my husband and seven year-old son, I can feel completely happy knowing that he is being educated in the finest of schools by teachers who love him as I do. And I have the time and opportunity to continue in my own growth and self-fulfillment. I am continually thankful that the presence of a living Master makes all this possible. Thank you far reading my letter. 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.)
