Testimonial letter from Sw Anand Rama

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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 Rama. It is "Exhibit A-793" 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.

P.O. Box 10
Rajneeshpuram
OR 97741
August 1, 1983

To whom it may concern.

I first started in the book business in 1972, as the owner of Lahaina bookstore in Lahaina, Hawaii. The bookstore was primarily a metaphysical and spiritual bookstore, specializing in the works of all the great masters of the past.

In late 1975 an amazing thing happened. I was introduced to the books of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh and found through reading them that there was an enlightened master alive today.

I started ordering the books from India, and paying for them in advance at the rate of several thousand dollars at a time -plus airmail postage - in order to get the books immediately and not have to wait the four months it usually took to get books from India.

My own enthusiasm, coupled with the enthusiasm of steady customers to the bookstore, caused the books to sell usually within two weeks of their arrival - completely. The energy was developing so rapidly among a dozen of us that many of us went to India in order to see this man and what was happening around him.

Many of my friends whom I had known for years thought I was quite crazy, and thought this was a very unusual thing for me to do, because at this time, economically, things with my business were moving towards a peak. Mail order business was coming in from all over the world because people knew I had books no one else had, including Rajneesh books which were totally impossible to find elsewhere in the U.S.

However, I ventured off towards India; became a disciple of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh and became involved with ways to make available his books around the world. In early 1981 we started with only a few bookstores and people being aware of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh and the incredible volume of words, spoken and then transcribed into books.

When we first went out in the summer of '81 to the bookstores and distributors of America, most of them said we have never heard of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh and his work. Some of the stores, having by this time seen the advertisements in Time magazine and having seen the beauty of his words, and realizing that this was a Master who had come to America, started purchasing and carrying his books in their bookstores and introducing these books to their customers.

Gradually, by reading Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, people became interested in his work and in his words, and the bookstores began to buy more books, and the public became more aware of Bhagwan and his work in America.

One of the things I found in travelling around America and putting on exhibitions such as at the American Booksellers Association annual meeting is the tremendous impact the presence of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh has had upon the American public; how his heart has reached out to so many people who may have just glimpsed him for a minute on the T.V. set; who have seen his beauty and now want to read his books and hear his taped discourses. They go into the bookstores requesting his books, or write to us requesting information on the books, tapes, and videos.

In the last year, due to this continual impact of his presence in America, chain bookstores such as B. Daltons and Waldens bookstores have started to order the books and sell them at a rapid rate - as well as over 600 smaller bookstores in America.

We ;have now reached a point where people who are brave and courageous enough to look at Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh and what is happening in the City of Rajneeshpuram are wanting to come and visit this place where the heart of man can open and blossom in love and freedom. As people come and experience and take it back, it increases the demand for his books. Library purchases are going up, university professors use the books in their classrooms as a vision of the new man. The whole culture of America would be harmed if Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh was forced to leave; his leaving would affect all those who have fallen in love with the life being expressed here.

His blessings,
[signed]
Swami Anand Rama


(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.)