Testimonial letter from Ma Prem Upachara
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 Upachara. It is "Exhibit A-872" 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.
 Ma Prem Upachara TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN As I sat - alone - in front of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh five years ago, for the first time in all my years of studying reading, seeking, I felt I had found a man who actually knew. I had spent years studying in libraries and universities. I attained my M.A. in Philosophy in the University of Lausanne in Switzerland in 1972. I then spent two more years in the Sorbonne in Paris, going deeper into Epistemology and into the connection between Philosophy/Politics/Science. The next step was while teaching philosophy, to study Psychology and Psychoanalysis and to start a didactic psychoanalysis. The feeling was that if I studied longer and read more, one day I would finally reach the truth. Years went by and there were more books and more to study. Travelling to India came out of the deep emptiness behind this intellectual search. Only when I heard and saw Bhagwan did it become clear that all those words and books were just turning around and around, never reaching. He spoke to me .five years ago of the essential difference between all my teachers and a Master. Many years later I remembered His words when I read in the newspapers that my most respected philosophy teacher in the Sorbonne, Louis Althusser, had gone mad and had killed his wife. Sitting in front of Bhagwan all that I had searched for was there, in His silent gaze upon me and His smile, infinite love and compassion. The name I received means Love Therapy - He spoke to me of philosophy and psychology and psychoanalysis as missing the essential, Love. And He spoke of Masters as doctors who know the only art of healing man’s soul, total Compassion. To sit in His presence is a transforming experience. From the very beginning I felt and knew His presence mattered, not His words. Through the depth of His silence I have understood more than in hundreds of books of philosophy and psychology, about man’s connection with nature, about time and space, about music and silence, about my own emotions, how they are determined, how they come and go ... Through His discourses in the past, and through His presence today, Bhagwan has taught me to use my everyday life as the deepest religious experience. Through His being He has taught me that my whole life can be my worship and the more active and creative it is, the more it is connected to God. His teaching and His presence have inspired the Commune in which I live. We have learned from Bhagwan that if one pours creative loving energy into a desert land, it starts flowering and blooming.’ His teaching inspires our ecological challenge. In less than two years the Big Muddy Ranch has become a real farming Ranch and also a City which can even receive 15,000 friends for our annual religious celebration! His presence gives us the creative energy that is being admired by all our visitors. 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.)
