Testimonial letter from Sw Anand Divyo
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 Divyo (Robert J. Leonard PhD). It is "Exhibit A-803" 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 5 pages.
 PO Box 10 TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN I am writing to you in support of the petition of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh for permanent residence in the United States of America based on his exceptional ability as a religious Teacher. My academic qualifications are outlined on the enclosed curriculum vitae. Briefly, I received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Montclair State College, New Jersey, with major training in biology and secondary science education and a Doctorate in Philosophy from the Department of Anatomy, University of Minnesota Medical School. Research done in the field of diabetes mellitus, while at the University of Minnesota, received national and international attention, and is quoted, for example, in standard textbooks of surgery. Most of my efforts for the past fifteen years have been devoted to teaching human anatomy to medical students and physicians. Through friends, I was introduced to Bhagwan in June 1975 while on vacation in India and remained for a short while at his ashram. His lectures, at the time, were on the teachings of Patanjali, a yogic master, whose guidelines for exploration of the inner world and spiritual nature of man were very methodical if not scientific. I was exceptionally impressed with Bhagwan's eloquence and his ability to communicate simply and clearly the fundamental spiritual aspects of man. This experience inspired me to follow a heretofore latent desire to begin my own exploration of the spirituality of man and myself. During the following year I became an avid reader of his works and returned to India in June 1976 to become one of his disciples. As a result of this relationship I feel my own abilities as a teacher improved significantly and were subsequently recognized by faculty, students, and administration at Boston University and the University of New England College of Osteopathic Medicine (NECOM). I also feel my role as a faculty member went beyond formal presentations on the anatomy of the human body. Students were also receptive to my spiritual self and came to understand the complementary nature of the inner and outer worlds, for example, that love and compassion heal as well as medicines. Thus, my spiritual quest as a disciple of Bhagwan enhanced my abilities as a role model for medical health care, professionals (see supplementary document). Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh possesses abilities as a religious teacher that go far beyond an accepted standard of excellence. The United States of America would benefit greatly from the inspiration of this great religious teacher and I trust his petition will be given your utmost consideration. Sincerley, |
(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.)
