Testimonial letter from Robert Daniël van Harrewijn
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 Robert Daniël van Harrewijn. It is "Exhibit A-1259" 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, the undersigned, am Robert Daniël van Harrewijn, a lawyer of Dutch Nationality. I was born April 20, 1944 in The Hague, The Netherlands, and am presently living at Purmerendstraat 97, (2547 JB) The Hague. I received a law degree at the University of Leiden, The Netherlands, in 1969, specializing in State and Administrative Law. Also I have specialized in the history of law, working at the Institute for Papyrology at the University of Leiden. Since then, I have worked in a Legal Aid programme, being government employed. Throughout my life I have studied philosophy and religion. When I first came into contact with Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh - which was through accidentally hearing a taped discourse - I immediately experienced extraordinary clarity through His teaching. In 1978 therefore I asked to be initiated by Him, and He has been my spiritual guide and Master ever since.’ I have benefited by His teaching, both spiritually and in my day-to-day life, and I think His teaching, both verbal and silent, has great value for all of mankind today. Also I am convinced that Bhagwan's approach to morality will become a great and positive social force, that will eventually carry through into the legal field. July 16, 1983 |
(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.)
