Testimonial letter from Richard D. Hendlin

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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 Richard D. Hendlin. It is "Exhibit A-182" 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.

DECLARATION OF RICHARD D. HENDLIN

I Richard D. Hendlin do hereby declare under penalty of perjury:

I am a Deputy Attorney General in the Criminal Division of the California Attorney General’s Office, California Department of Justice, and have held said position for the past 5 1/2 years.

As a professional prosecutor for the People of the State of California, I am regularly assigned the most serious felony cases including first degree murder and capital punishment prosecutions. I have successfully prosecuted over 130 cases in California Courts of Appeal.

Prior to working at the Attorney General’s Office, I attended California Western School of Law in San Diego, where I served as editor of and was a published author in the California Western International Law Journal; served on the Advocacy Honors Board, and was selected to the Dean’s List. During my attendance at law school from 1974 to 1977, I was employed as a judicial law clerk to the Justices on the California Court of Appeal, Fourth Appellate District, Division One; as a law clerk with the United States Attorneys Office in San Diego, Civil Division; as law clerk to the San Diego Municipal Court; and as a law clerk with one of the most prominent law firms in San Diego: Procopio, Cory, Hargreaves and Savitch. I received my B.A. degree with high honors from the University of California at Santa Barbara in 1973.

In 1977, I was first introduced to the writings and taped discourses of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh through a fellow Deputy Attorney General. In February, 1979, after spending a little over a year of reading Rajneesh's profound and inspiring books, I took a leave of absence from the Attorney General's Office, to travel to Poona, India, to witness first hand this phenomenal human being.

I found Rajneesh's clear insight into and compassion for the human condition unsurpassed by anyone with whom I am familiar. Rajneesh's depth of understanding of the psychological, philosophical and religious dimensions of man is staggering. He is extremely well-versed in the fields of history, philosophy, psychology and religion, and is world reknown as a great spiritual leader.

Rajneesh is a master of meditation techniques—both traditional and modern— and by his example — both in words and silence — serves as a positive, creative force in the lives of tens of thousands of individuals worldwide. I have applied many of the various techniques explained by Rajneesh to great advantage in my professional capacity as an attorney, whether picking a jury or arguing before an Appellate Court; as well as in my personal life. I believe I am a more productive, compassionate, and intelligent person as a result of my exposure to this remarkable man.

I should note that the above comments are not lightly made.

I am an extremely discriminating, skeptical person with a doubting and logical mind. I would be the first to expose a psuedo so-called spiritual master and to identify a charlatan if such be the case. However, my close scrutiny of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, his actions, words and silence over 5 years compels my conclusion that he is that rare, genuine man who has truly attained the peaks of human consciousness or enlightment. Moreover, he has the wonderful gift of being able to share and communicate his wealth of understanding with others in a humorous yet eloquent manner. His recent public silence continues to loudly proclaim his message of encouraging meditation and, to use Socrates dictum, to know thyself.

Of course, the very existence of such a man is bound to be unsettling to those people whose limited tolerance to new ideas prevents them from recognizing the truly remarkable nature of such a man. But, this has been the situation for most great thinkers throughout time — from Buddha, Jesus and Socrates to Galileo, Darwin and Lincoln. It is indeed a shame that the controversy which has developed around Rajneesh in the United States obscures the valuable lesson of the man himself.

It is my understanding that the United States Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) will soon be considering Rajneesh’s application for permanent residency. I cannont too strongly urge that the INS act favorably on his application. To deny is would be a gross injustice and in contradiction of this country's greatest ideals. . The citizens and government of the United States should be honored that a person such as Rajneesh seeks to live here and contribute to the betterment of humanity.it should welcome him with open arms. At the least, it should allow hiM to stay.

If I may provide any further observations regarding Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, please contact my at my business address: c/o California Attorney General's Office, 110 West A Street, Suite 700 San Diego, CA 92101, telephone 619 237-7816.

I declare the foregoing to be true and correct to the best of my knowledge.

DATED: July 21, 1983,
San Diego, California
[signed]
Richard D. Hendlin
State of California )
County of San Diego )
[notary stuff]


(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.)