Testimonial letter from Michael Leger
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 Michael Leger. It is "Exhibit A-75" 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 will link to a pdf file of the original letter when the pdf is created. It has 2 pages.
 July 23, 1983 TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN I would like to tell you how Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh has affected my life in two ways. One, as a religious teacher and two as a scientist. As a religious teacher Bhagwan has renewed my faith in both God and humanity. He has helped to open in me a new vision and a new life. For many years both as a Christian and as a Christian missionary in Northern Canada I have searched intensely for love and meaning in life. I of course became quickly disenchanted by the bigotry and insincerity I saw. This later caused me to leave the"faith"in guilt and pain feeling "forsaken by both God and man". Now as I look back I feel this attitude was created by the life negative self-effacing approach my "religion" taught. After leaving "the truth" as this teaching was called, I came into contact with the teachings of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh. Somehow he began to renew my trust in myself, humanity and God. This message brought me to Poona, India where I listened to him speak, felt his being and became his disciple. Soon afterwards Bhagwan went into silence and still the message is the same. He is a beautiful man and a beautiful teacher. His message has and is changing my life in a positive way, in a more playful, loving, laughing religious way. His message is a message of love, life and beauty. He is a man of beauty and he speaks to us in silence. Sitting with him in one single satsang or darshan is more fulfilling than a thousand sermons. Thousands of people throughout the world like myself have become disciples of Bhagwan because he is a man of religion and beauty. On these grounds I feel that he should be given legal status in the United States of America. Secondly, Bhagwan has inspired an enormous experiment in Rajneeshpuram, Oregon. This experiment is designed to bring man and nature back into a natural harmony. As such this is one of the greatest scientific experiments on the face of the earth today. 1 personally have been very interested in natural gardening and the restoration of a natural ecology. For many years I have been concerned with the damage caused by unnatural pesticides and fertilizers. At Rajneeshpuram, Oregon, I have seen what amazing results organic farming can provide. All anyone has to do is to go to the vegetable farm or the greenhouses and see for themselves what care and love, natural compost and fertilizers can do. I remember once (several times in fact) working on my plot of land, how people used to laugh and scoff because I felt it could be done better naturally. If only a small percentage of these people would go to Rajneeshpuram and see the results there, I know they would begin to see the value of restoring the balance of nature. This ranch is being transformed from a virtual wasteland to a lush productive farmland. This is Bhagwan's experiment. It has been conceived because of his vision. The measures taken to restore this land back to the beauty which was once inherently hers is the vision of this community. It has my support. It's conceiver has my support. When I think of Rajneeshpuram, I think of organic gardens, fresh vegetables, check dams, erosion control and Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh. He says:
Bhagwan's vision is to correct the damage caused by man. Rajneeshpuram and Rajneesh communes around the world reflect this vision. On these grounds I feel He should be allowed to remain in the United States of America. Yours truly, |
(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.)
