Testimonial letter from Ma Prem Seemanta
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 Seemanta (Nancy Auerbach). It is "Exhibit A-2275" 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.
 July 18, 1983 TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN I am writing to you on behalf of my family and friends to urge you to consider in a more favorable light than you have been doing, the application of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh for permanent residency in America. I urge you to no longer insult Americans specifically, and humanity in general, by allowing such an outstanding guest to continuously knock on our doors while the Immigration officials ponder his deservedness. I find this an extremely embarrassing situation and one which a progressive Country like America cannot tolerate. Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh is a man of outstanding and exceptional abilities in the Arts and Sciences. He is extremely well known in the fields of Psychology and Philosophy, as well as the area of Spirituality and Religion. He has written well over three hundred books, many of which have been translated and published in countries all over the world. There are meditation centers, also in countries all over the world, practicing meditation techniques developed by Shree Rajneesh. And who can argue that if there is one thing the whole world can use more of, it is meditation. America, for centuries, has been exporting missionaries to the more underdeveloped parts of the world. And these countries have accepted our religious exports gratefully and graciously. We have now received a man of great dignity and stature on our own shores. Let us welcome him accordingly, and spare him and the whole of America any further delay in the processing of his application for permanent residency in America. [signed] |
(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.)
