Testimonial letter from Ma Shantam Sono
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 Shantam Sono (Mertens Marie-Gabrielle). It is "Exhibit A-1281" 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.
 To whom it may concern; Dear Sir, To my great surprise I heard the news that Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh has been refused by the U.S.A authorities to immigrate. This refusal is not very clear to me, as I know Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh as a unique religious teacher and Master. By this letter I would like to share my experiences as a sannyasin of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh. My name is Shantam Sono, I am a 33 year old woman and for three years now I am a disciple of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh. I studied commercial and financial sciences at the university of Antwerp, Belgium. During 5 years I teached economics at aCatholic secundary school. To my disappointment I realised that for most of my colleagues, students and myself our religious live was dead and dull. It was more like a structure in which we worked, but it was not a living and fullfilling experience. At the same time I got difficulties in my relationship with other people. As I didn't feel satisfied with my work situation nor with my personal life, I began to search for essential values in life. I felt that I had a strong intellectual formation, but that I was not free emotionally. I came in touch with personal growth movements and at the same time with meditation; two aspects I wanted to bring to a synthesis in my daily life. In 1976 it happened that an " enlightenment intensive” program came into my attention, leaded by disciples of Bhagwan. During this week-end I experienced a beautiful combination of inner growth and meditation. This first introduction to Bhagwan and his religious teachings left a deep impression on me; for the first time in my life I got the experience of becoming closer to my real self. Since that time I started to become more alive, as if I had been sleep-walking before. I wanted to take a jump into life. Together with 6 people we started to built up a spiritual community in the mountains. The confrontation with nature, the hard work and living close together with the other members and guests brought me very close to myself to my positivity, my strength but at the same time to my negativity, distrust in life , my physical and other limits. At that time I was in connection with Bhagwan through his books and the meditation techniques we practised regularly. After 1 1/2 years of hard work and living I felt the need to meet Bhagwan in Poona, where he lived at the time. There I enjoyed the lectures of Bhagwan and being in his presence brought me into a new dimension I didn’t experience before. I realised that I meeded the guidance of a living Master to bring me to the real experiences of life, to help me to live my life with more awareness and I became a disciple of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh. Since that time my perception of religion changed a lot. I realised that religion has nothing to do with philosophical argumentation or dead rituals, but that it is a living experience of life in its totality, that it has to do with self-acceptance on all levels, being non-judgemental, a communication with existance through people and nature in a lovingly and joyous way. This year I got the chance to visit Rajneeshpuram and to participate in several courses. It was a real revelation to me to see Bhagwan again in good health and to sit with him in darshan at his last Birthday Celebration . Back in Belgium afterwards I realised that although the outer circumstances of my life haven’t changed so much; I live life totally different as before I met Bhagwan. I am happy to know Bhagwan and I hope many more people will have the chance to meet him and his teachings. To be in touch with him is like living a hundred lifes in one lifetime. I just come back from the second annual world celebration in Rajneeshpuram and I really enjoyed to be in his presence. His silence touched my heart more than ever. I am sure that this refusal is not definite and that the U.S. authorities are still willing to review their decision, as Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh is a most remarkable Master. 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.)
