Testimonial letter from Sw Anand Prasad
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 Prasad. It is "Exhibit A-1962" 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.
 Anand Prasad TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN I am a disciple of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh and have been for the past eight years. I became a Rajneeshie when I was studying for an Honours Degree in Botany. I was immediately impressed by the way Bhagwan’s wholistic approach to life can be an inspiration in all works of life, an asset to human kind as a whole. His insight into human nature and into the religion called life are to be surpassed by none and yet appeal to the most simple side of us that I can see the obvious truth in his most profound vision. His words are like a surgeon’s knife that allow us to see things which before were all cloudy and confused usually by the strange attitudes that have been superstitiously accepted without thought. Such obvious things like why we all believe that it is not possible to be really happy, to think that words like bliss, ecstasy love, are only relevant to fairy stories or to the afterlife. Or again the belief that it is healthy to deny ourselves so that we will be rewarded later on. It is these kind of revelations that have utterly changed my way of life and there are so many that I could write for pages. Another one is that work is not something to be endured but to be enjoyed. Or there is nothing wrong with money, or that we are all O.K. as we are. The lessons have been endless, and there are the most obvious. There are many lessons that have nothing to do with words but which Bhagwan was teaching with words for the first six years that I have been with him. Bhagwan constantly spoke of the way he used words as an excuse for us to be together and that very quietly became a reality for me. Even when he spoke it was more the way he spoke, sat, gestured, and then gracefully left that taught me so much about myself. It was the kind of inspiration that one feels when you see a flower opening, its perfume or the sight of the sun or a cloud. But somehow he was always there and now he is still here with me. I see him every day and five or six times a year I, and thousands of others, rejoice to be so close to him. It is by living so close to him that this city has become possible. Never before has it happened that so many people would work together so intensely and so livingly, because we all are joined in our love and devotion for him. Many people criticize us for being workaholics which is a strange thing to be criticized of if you think about it, but it is because we love living and working here that we put so much into this vision. It is as if we have all been inspired by his vision, and have been united with him and each other in our dream. It is always a delight for me to see how things are done around here, how work is planned, designated, executed, so smoothly with no fight, no argument, no competition, it is really a miracle in itself, and then to look back and see the changes is unbelievable. What makes this all possible is a commune of people who are individual in their love and inspiration in the presence of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh. One thing is certain, if Bhagwan is given permission to stay in America, the most beautiful city on earth will be built and I cannot imagine why anyone who would want to hinder this in any way. And the other thing which is certain is that the creation of our city and Bhagwan’s vision will be of benefit to an enormous cross section of society in all walks of life and all fields of work. I hope America will be courageous enough to allow themselves this opportunity. Yours sincerely, |
(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.)
