Testimonial letter from Sw Anand Murti

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 Murti. It is "Exhibit A-2026" 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.

Sw. Anand Murti P.O. Box 33, Antelope OR 97001 August 4, 1983 TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN I am writing in support of an application by Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh to be granted permanent residency status in the United States of America. To my mind there is absolutely no doubt that Bhagwan is an outstanding gift to mankind, both as a religious teacher and as a person of exceptional ability, whose understanding of psychology, sociology, history, literature and religion quite surpasses that of any individual I have encountered. I was admitted to the Law Faculty of the University of Western Australia in 1964. As an undergraduate I was President of the Law Students Society, and after 4 years of Law School I graduated as a Bachelor of Law in 1967. I then joined the Australian Government Public Service in 1968 and served with various Government Departments, after completing an Administrative Training course. In 1970 I was posted overseas and spent 3 years in Germany with the Australian Department of Immigration. After returning to Perth in 1973 I resumed my legal career and became an articled clerk with the firm of Frank Unmach and Cullen. I was admitted as a Barrister and Solicitor of the Supreme Court of Western Australia in 1975 and practised law in Perth for a further 3 years. During that time I was a member of the Law Society, the Society of Labour Lawyers, as well as various sporting fraternities. In early 1977, I first heard of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh. At the time I was a successful young lawyer, married with two children, and residing in a well-to-do area of Perth. I was not an avid church-goer, but had deep interest in social and political matters and would probably have described myself as a social democrat. But underneath I was far from satisfied that there could ever be social or political solutions to the problems of mankind. I was sure some ingredient was missing in my life and it wasn't until I met disciples of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh and began to read His books and listen to His taped discourses that this missing ingredient became apparent. Before ’Man’ could come to terms with the problems of mankind, he had to understand himself, "to grow from within" - not to superimpose so-called solutions from without. As I discovered more and more of Bhagwan’s teachings, it was as though this man had an incredible overview of the mechanics of the universe -obviously He was exceptionally well-read in many fields and what was more important, He could discuss and communicate with great perception, the ideas and ideologies of others. To these He gave His own unique interpretation and flavour, bringing alive such diverse characters as Krishna and Pythagoras, Freud and Dostoyevsky, Einstein and Proust. I had studied these people but never before had I encountered such in-depth analyses, nor received such a complete picture of their places in history. To me it was clear that Bhagwan was no ordinary teacher, not even some super-academic crammed full of knowledge. He had the knowledge, the intellect, the communicating skills (His oratory was brilliant - rich, humorous and compelling). More than that, however, His vision struck me as tremendous and profound. It was as though the patchwork of political, economic and social theories that this shaky planet depends upon, were exposed for their very futility. Bhagwan affected my head and my heart, and I became His disciple in January 1978. To this day I have absolutely no regrets. For me it has been a wonderful opportunity to experience His teaching as they are lived within His community of disciples and on a personal level I have no doubt my life has been enriched beyond anything I could have imagined. Even to those who are not disciples of Bhagwan. it seems quite apparent that His teachings speak for themselves, both in terms of His written and recorded works and the very fact of a vibrant growing community at Rajneeshpuram, Oregon, and the many Rajneesh communities spread throughout the world. This man is the biggest bonus; the greatest blessing that the 20th century has been fortunate to receive. Let America recognize that, and in so doing give humanity the shot in the arm that it so desperately needs. Love, [signed] Swami Anand Murti

(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.)