Testimonial letter from Ma Prem Surati (1)
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 Surati. It is "Exhibit A-1758" 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.
 Surati is also the author of another letter, hand-written on July 21 1983. There is enough commonality between the two letters to establish definitively that the same one person has written both letters, not two different people with the same name. There are 22 other such cases known. We may be amused by the illicit possibilities here but just as likely she was simply giving the organizers two letters to choose from. See also Testimonial letters#duplication for more on this. J. Manuel Blanes 167 7o/5 TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN I write as a disciple of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh. I took sannyas on the 1st September 1982 very far from here, in the country where I reside, Argentina. In a place where only the traditional Judeo-Christian religions exist, his silent message reached my heart, and the hearts of dozens of other people. If some people believe that it is astonishing that more and more disciples are being drawn to Rajneeshism in spite of His silence, they are missing the point. More and more disciples are born precisely because of His silence. It is in this state that one can go more deeply into one’s own consciousness. Words create a barrier which is a necessary one to cross in order to reach the essence, they are merely accessories to the issue. When I came to Bhagwan His silence helped me on the path - each time I received more and more energy from His heart to mine. This feeling reaches its peak when we sit in front of Him in silence during Satsang and when each day He passes by looking at each and everyone of us - His disciples. In these circumstances His physical presence adds to the intimate communion between the Master and His disciples. To be able to participate in the Festivals at Rajneeshpuram or in the daily activities becomes miraculous due to His presence - but even in those places where His body is not present, His silence is felt by more and more people. These people, including myself, have this wonderful opportunity to become centered silently within themselves and with their work. I can understand that this last point is not easy to understand, but one only has to observe the number of new disciples, the flowering of the centers and the growth of Rajneeshpuram, and these doubt are dispelled. The inner growth and the level of productivity of the neo-sannyasins are deeply connected to His silence, and it is this new form of language which inspires us. 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.)
