Testimonial letter from Sw Anand Lionel
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 Lionel (Lionel Rockman). It is "Exhibit A-2139" 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.
 Responsible Officer. National: 056-871-262 Dear Sir/Madame I am 43 year old grazier and company-director. I live on my farm for three weeks out of one month on average, the rest of my time is spent in Melbourne where I havesto manage my propertys and investments. I have lived for 14 years in the South Gippsland district in peace with my fellow citizens and am a member of the Victorian Farmers and Graziers Association. Before I settled here I was the holder of a commercial pilots license, had worked as a tourist guide in England and been the employee of the busines machine company Ollivetti. I came across Bhagwan by casualy picking up a book that was lying on the floor, towards the end of an unhappy affair. Once I started reading him I could not stop and went thru one book straight after the other. For a while this was my only source of contact with him, as there were none of his followers around to influence me one way or the other. Later on. that year (1978) I did get to know some of his sannyasins on my way to his Ashram in Poona India, where I finally took sannyas. My relationship with Bhagwan rest or three pionts. Firstly, the people he attracts to him are those that I have the greatest commen ground with. Not necessarily in lifestyle or outlook but in those things that make up the intangable essance of life and affect the ultimate destiny of all. Of all social groups Bhagwans is the one where I find the highest percentage of people with whom it is possable to be real friends with. Outside sannyas the world is a place where is is easy to make aquiantence but difficult to make honest if painfully truthfull friends. The reverse is the case with the people that gather around Bhagwan. Being in orange clothes brings me up agenst people who will ask or changlenge me about Bhagwan. It is then that I have to watch myself and the reactions within myself, for the truthfullness of my feelings and therefore the honesty of the responce that I give that person. It becomes a mirror of ones inner thoughts and feelings. Finally Bhagwan answered a specific question that I asked him. Though that question was over four years ago, it is still relivant to what I am doing now. Every time I replay that tape there is still something relivant for me in it. Of all religious leaders this man is exceptional in the lucidity in which he imparts his message. One can take any part of his discourses and find something relevant to anyone or any situation. He conveys the most elevated concepts with a clarity and simplicty that can be understood by all from the simplist to the most sophisticated. As ah example, a Jappenese sannyasin and I where haveing difficulty in communicating with each other. When I asked how he was able to understand Bhagwan, he replyed that Bhagwan english was clear to him. Not only is this man exceptional in the range of people he reaches, communicates and brings together, but also in the way he is ministering to his people. In establishing the city of Rajneeshpuram he is flying in the face of those traditions that have been the conveyors of all that is negative and fearfull . There he is trying to create a place where people can be free from those habits that have plagued humanity, greed, compeditivness, inflexabilty and exclusivness. Thus creating an enviroment where people can feel free to be open and loving towards each other. In doing this he is flying in the fane of all that has gone before and at times he appears rude because of it. However if he succeds in Rajneeshpuram the world will have one more chance to arrest the momentum towards nuclear holycost. In trying to show you what Bhagwan means to me and the potential that can happen at Rajneeshpuram, I am asking you to consider his application for resident status favourably. Yours truthfully |
(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.)
