Testimonial letter from Sw Anand Richard

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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 Richard. It is "Exhibit A-473" 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 one page.

Rajneeshpuram, OR 97741

TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN

I am a tax paying citizen of the United States with a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from the University of Florida, Class of 1967. For the past 15 years I have been a successful, selfemployed home builder and land developer, specializing in energy-efficient housing and ecologically sound land development.

I met Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh in 1979 and found Him to be such a remarkable human being that I stayed in India for two years to experience His religious teachings. In 1981 I joined a group of architects, builders, and developers from among His disciples who had decided to create a self-sufficient community on arid, marginally useful agricultural land in central Oregon. Working together with the inspiration of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, this beautifully planned and executed community has bloomed, a green oasis in the desert, and is rapidly becoming a model of modern community development.

I feel that Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh is a valuable asset to America. His presence would continue to inspire the growth of America’s finest self sufficient community, one that is fast becoming an internationally known and respected model for the future.

Sincerely,
[signed]
Swami Anand Richard


(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.)