Testimonial letter from Ma Prem Yatra
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 Yatra. It is "Exhibit A-2332" 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.
 TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN I have been a devotee of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh for the past 5 years and hope you can spare some moments to read this letter of support for His application to reside in America. It is difficult to express how much He has given to me and is continuing to give every day to me and also to over a quarter of a million other sannyasins throughout the world, as this is something of the heart and not the head. His inspiration and His vision at this point in man's evolution is so critically important that if the new man of which He has talked about - a coming together of the spiritual and the scientific - is not realised then we really are heading for a global suicide. It saddens me to see that so much time and money is being spent to deport this most beautiful and exceptional person, who has nothing to give but constant love, and is a great source of joy to so many. I have visited Rajneeshpuram twice and am amazed at the pace at which the city is taking shape and the tremendous amount of work that has been done. This I strongly feel is a direct result of the inspiration that His presence gives to all those around Him, and nowhere in the world have I seen people work so hard and long with such enthusiasm and joy. He really is showing us a way of being where work can become worship. This transformation that is happening to 64,000 acres of desert-land is also very apparent to those visitors who are not sannyasins. Many parts of the ranch which were once dry and barren are fast becoming lush and green, and the quality and amount of produce from the farm animals are exceptional for land of this quality which I feel is due to the great care and love that is given to the animals. To work in harmony with nature, using all the valuable scientific knowledge available is also part of His vision. If His being here was affecting the livelihood of American citizens then I could understand your concern but this is not the case. In fact the economy of Oregon has never looked better! We are a million times blessed that He is alive and that here is a chance for us to help His vision to become a reality. What a blessing too for America! With sincerity, |
(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.)
