Testimonial letter from Rupert von Katzler
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 Rupert von Katzler. It is "Exhibit A-1478" 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.
 RUPERT VON KATZLER TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN I have been a lawyer in Munich since 1976. After at first working in a Law firm I was for five years Head of the Law Department of an iternational aircraft manufacturing company. I heard about Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh for the first time through a personal growth group I did in February 1977. At that time I was very suspicious about this Indian Guru and his followers dressed in red with a wooden necklace round their necks and a locket showing Bhagwan’s picture. I started reading Bhagwan’s books, however, and was utterly amazed of the content of these books. Here was somebody who was able to put into simple and plain words the most complicated relations in the psycho-philosophical world. He explained human relations with such a dexterity that it came like a revelation to me and it opened my eyes for many things in human relations I had theretofor simply neglected. Through His books I became more aware of the Love and deep inner connection of Humanity. After participating in further growth programmes conducted by disciples of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh I eventually decided to visit Bhagwan's Ashram in Poona, India. The first thing that struck me there was the appearance of the people in the Ashram: beautiful people, who looked clear and very much centered within themselves. After a short time I got to know many of the Ashramites some of whom I had already known in Europe and was astonished just how much these people beamed of Openness and Inner Serenity. It was clear to me, that the change in these people stemmed from Bhagwan’s work as a Religious Teacher. During this visit in December 1978 I was initiated by Bhagwan as His disciple. After my return to my office my colleages found me much easier and better to work with. Taking work less serious - as Bhagwan ephazises in His Teachings - I was strangely enough able to do more work in less time and in a better quality then before. Big international meetings I had to chair were more effective and had better results because I was in a postion to make people laugh from time to time thus enabling them to releax and see the issues to be discussed in a more detached way. This shows in a very practical way the influence of Bhagwan's Teachings on my work. Only through Bhagwan's Teaching have I learnt, that I am not identified with the work I'm doing or the role I’m playing but belonging to a greater context. And this is but one example of the influence Bhagwan's teachings have had and keep on having on myself and many people around me may they be disciples or not. To me Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh is a man of exceptional abilities both as a religious teacher and a spiritual Leader and I will even go so far as to say that he is the most exceptional man of our times, an Enlightened Master, which the World has seen few of and almost never realized when They were alive. There is certainly no proof for Enlightenment in the ordinary sense, but for those who can see it is not just a Belief but a Reality. Established the day first written above by: |
(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.)
