Testimonial letter from Ruth L. Candelaria
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 Ruth L. Candelaria. It is "Exhibit A-1141" 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.
 Ruth L. Candelaria To whom it may concern I am a resident of Colorado - I am not a follower of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, but I believe in what he is doing and I’ll tell you why. In my past I’ve been a teacher, a legal secretary, a bank officer, and owned and managed a successful mercantile business, and I am now a U.S. Postmaster. I do not have a college degree, but was a graduate of an accredited business school. I came a week ago to visit my daughter, who holds an M.A. in Psycho-therapy from U.C.L.A., California, and is a resident of the Ranch at Rajneeshpuram. Since she has been involved in the work, I have done lots of research into Bhagwan, the person; I’ve read many of his books; I’ve done a great deal of research into religious cults, communes and alternative lifestyles. Now, during my visit here, I have been able to see and feel what he is doing here firsthand. I was both amazed and elated to see the miracle which has been wrought here. I’ve seen well-educated, highly capable skilled and talented people working in menial jobs, and being happy to do it, and doing the best job possible. Where else would you find that your waiter in the restaurant holds a degree in animal husbandry, or perhaps a Ph.D. in engineering, yet is so dedicated to building this "Ranch” into what it has become in 2 years, that he is able to overcome his ego and throw himself wholly into making this place the best place possible for himself and others to live. I feel Bhagwan is an outstanding example of the kind of person we should welcome to the United States. He is a person of exceptional ability in science and art - he has the ability to imbue others with the same love of life and love of God which he has. He gives them new purpose in life and a desire to reach their full potential, both as a person, and as a worker in his work. The people who have special capabilities in any field soon come to the forefront in their field and soon become located in some fulfilling occupation. He has taken people from all walks of life, from every country, and has blended them into a dedicated workforce, building a better home for themselves and those to come after him. It is this kind of hard work and dedication which has made the United States the great nation it is today -the greatest and only truly free nation in the world, and I feel we should encourage and not discourage this dedication. I think Bhagwan should be given special recognition for the genius he is, and should be encouraged to continue his work. We need men like him, with foresight and unusual talents, to bring form to chaos and heal our young people. I have never seen grounds so clear, so much being done to improve the environment without destroying its beauty; people so neat and clean -well-mannered; no mad rushing around with no purpose - everyone doing whatever job he is assigned to the best of his ability, ungrudgingly and happy. We need more of this to keep our nation great. Let’s encourage this spirit, not discourage it. I feel that, in my opinion, that the presence of a religious teacher and spiritual leader of Bhagwan’s extraordinary talent would be a tremendous asset to the United States; that we would benefit in an economic and cultural way from his presence here. Respectfully yours, |
(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.)
