Testimonial letter from Sw Anand Kavi

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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 Kavi. It is "Exhibit A-1362" 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 Kavi
Thanet Lodge
Thanet Road
Westgate-on-Sea
Kent, ENGLAND
24th July, 1983

To whom this may concern

My professional life up to when I took sannyas consisted of a wide variety of involvements both in academic and commercial fields. My first involvement in commerce following my degree in anthropology was buying and selling African gold shares (Kaffirs) working from the London Stock Exchange. I became bored and looked for ways of expressing my creative faculties, and went through various companies dealing in advertising and publicity on executive and managerial levels.

Somehow I was chasing my own tail in order to become successful or famous. I had at one point several involvements with different companies as director of a publishing business, business manager of a highly-successful co-operative workshop producing household furniture from waste materials, coowner of a riverboat discotheque on the river Thames, and co-ordinator of a housing group for homeless people in South London.

After becoming a sannyasin of Bhagwan (when I came across him accidentally in Poona) my life took a complete turn. I stopped for the first time and looked at what I was doing with my life, and the image that I had started to create of myself. The true basic being that lived inside my image seemed to have been moulded by what other people thought of me, as opposed to how I really am, and it was Bhagwan that created that insight of myself. I started to see myself more clearly and look at what I really wanted to do with my life. Bhagwan gave me the opportunity to stop and take a long deep look at myself and consequently changed my life on every level. It is through his wiseness and total dedication to his sannyasins that I began to trust myself so much more, and somehow what this created was the most exciting, enjoyable and successful business venture that turned into an international success within 10 months of its being launched.

This venture is a seminar programme. These seminars are known as Focus in Life and are exactly representing Bhagwan's vision of totality and completeness and love for the work and personal relationships we choose to involve ourselves in. These seminars acknowledge that each one of us is a multi-talented, multi-skilled individual and our biggest problem is knowing which one of these areas to put our energies into. Over the course of three days this seminar gets an individual client clear as to what one thing they are willing to put their total energy into, and how to make money (in unlimited quantities) from this venture. What these seminars do, in effect, is to reflect the story of my life as a person who has done many things with moderate success and who now can 'boast' of an international company (7 countries) franchising this seminar business out to 32 people, who are known as facilitators, in 5 languages. This total success I owe to Bhagwan as the exceptional person he is, and as a master of focus.

I have been staying on the ranch at Rajneeshpuram for four months now and I have seen the most amazing building projects begin and end in unbelievable time and with a quality that would embarrass commerical building companies. The teams of people here work (worship) 12 - 14 hours a day, 7 days a week, without monetary payment and with astounding enthusiasm. Enthusiasm which surpasses paid employees. The payment here goes far beyond conventional rewards and to describe that payment would only limit its depth and penetration. I can only say where the payment comes from and that is from this incredible man who has literally been the most fulfilling and rewarding exchange for all of us "worshippers". The wages, that are received here are more to do with love than the reward of money, and love is something that money can't buy, and is the very essence that is creating this fantastic city. Without Bhagwan all this creativity would not have been possible, either in my personal life focus or for the creation of our city which is open and available for all to drink from or to leave alone.

The essence of Bhagwan is love, not in a mushy way, but in a real sense of creation. God is love and you can only know this when you come here to experience Bhagwan's love and your own love and the meeting of that experience. Openness is the key and suspicion will keep the door locked. You can see what is happening here by seeing the buildings, tasting the food, riding on a bus, dancing to the music and in the faces of all who are here with Bhagwan. And I playfully dare you to come and see Bhagwan for yourself. He is a presence that demands your total attention and a love that opens your heart to something completely new.

If Bhagwan was not here we would be very sad and we would continue his work without him. This city is his vision and creation and I shall continue to support this city in every way I know how. I love it and I want it to grow and to show the world how man and nature can live together out of the creation of a great and exceptional person ... my master, Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh.

Yours sincerely,
[signed]
Swami Anand Kavi


(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.)