Testimonial letter from Sw Anand Ashika
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 Sw Anand Ashika (Kjell Nilson). It is "Exhibit A-848" 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.
 Swami Anand Ashika To Whom It May Concern: My name is Swami Anand Ashika and in Sweden I was known as Kjell Nilson, Doctor of Naprapathy. During the years 1972-76 I got a diploma as a masseur (A.G.I. Sweden), diploma as a physiotherapist (A.G.I. Sweden), diploma as a reflexologist (A.G.I. Sweden), diploma in herbal medicine and fasting therapy (A.G.I. Professor Juneby, Sweden), diploma as Doctor of Naprapathy (Naprapathic School Sweden). During the years 1976-81 I was a teacher for masseurs, dentists, dentist-technicians, chiropractors. I was teaching soft tissue work, thermo-hydro-elektro-therapy, orgonomi (how to let your body take the less stress whatsoever your work is), herbal medicine and manipulation of the spinal column and the joints. During these year’s I also had a clinic in Orebro Sweden where I treated people from all over Sweden and Eruope, athletes, dancers and people from the theatre. During these years I came to be around a lot of wealthy people and thought I had "made it". I was surrounded by all these well-known people including myself. Yet something was missing. In 1980 I went to Poona, India and met Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh. That totally changed my life and it still keeps on changing. Coming back to Sweden and to work at my clinic I noticed the difference in my work. I was working from a more loving space, less mechanical and not so superior superficial. My best friends noticed the change also and were really blown away. What I realized then was that even though I had all this knowledge, my "position" clinic, wealth, people calling from everywhere to consult me and so on so forth a soft loving part was missing. Living here in Rajneeshpuram in the presence of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh is for me more than I can ever see that one can get in a lifetime. Eating the food we get here, seeing the laundry folded with such love, all of us taking so good care for each other in whatever field we’re worshipping (working) makes me so aware of Bhagwan’s vision about a loving world and that there is hope for it. Seeing with what speed the city is being built by and in what beauty it is coming out you can see how much Bhagwan is inspiring us to go beyond our limits, parts in myself that I could not even conceive of were there. Many times seeing what is happening here I just cry, not from sadness, simply overflowing. Worship (work) starts every morning and ends every evening with a bowing down to our Master, the Commune and the Truth. Those gachchhhamis (as they are called) centers me and makes me so aware how good we are taken care for here in the presence of Bhagwan. Whatever we are doing and whatever mood we're in there is always a laughter, a smile or a joke there. Everything is "rolling" so easy. Bhagwan communicates to us in silence and that is a bit difficult to explain how that reaches to me. Anyway there is a tremendous sweetness, softness that wells up in me and give me so much energy so that I sometimes have difficulties getting to sleep. Especially during festivals the energy here is so high that you sleep very little. What I also see during the festival is that back problems disappears so easy. It seems that when we come together so much love is created being around Bhagwan that the body-armour simply melts. To sit in satsang (a silent communication between Master and disciple) is for me very nourishing. I feel lighter and gravity hasn’t the same hold of me after satsang. The energy here in the Buddhafield seems to loosen up all the deep tensions that we have in our bodies. Actually not only seems to, the energy really takes the tensions away. Tensions that are so deep in the muscles that it would need years of bodywork, chiropractic, whatsoever to get rid of out in the world, here in the Buddhafield goes away in a couple of months. The amazing thing is that these tensions seems to go for good. The generating love in the Buddhafield seems to take away the fear and anxiety in our bodies so new tensions would build up that easy. What also happens is that old patterns, protection-patterns (way of walking, performing, behaving, etc.) patterns that keeps us stale, rigid, and lifeless loosens up by themselves here. Looking at this place from my professional view this is the ultimate place to get rid of pain or lifelessness without any bodywork. Being near Bhagwan in His presence is totally transforming for the nature here and in that I include myself. With love, |
(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.)
