Testimonial letter from Sw Anand Sangeet
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 Sangeet (Martin Gellhorn). It is "Exhibit A-676" 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.
 Rajneeshpuram, TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN : Since 1969 I have been working as a composer and performer in the field of modern (classical) music, writing my own music and working with colleagues and students all faced with the problem of individuality, searching for a coherent personal musical idiom relevant to the contemporary world, looking for inspiration in current social situations or in the works of other composers from the past and present - borrowing from here and there and trying to mould a patchwork of contradictions into a unity and original style. I have been a disciple of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh for nine years, and have attended numerous darshans and discourses with him during that time. In my opinion he has an unparalleled understanding of the whole nature of the creative process, and in his radical approach, cutting through all arguments about idioms or styles, he has outlined with disarming clarity the way to go directly to the source of creativity - the space that some artists might call the ’creative void’, that space of silence within oneself which has been the fountain of all great art and music through the ages - and find one’s own individual means of expression. Meeting Bhagwan has had a profound influence on my own musical work, and has given me a new and deeper understanding of the problems faced by contemporary composers and artists, and his meditation techniques and material from his discourses have proved invaluable assets in teaching and my work with other musicians. The fact that Bhagwan is now in silence is certainly no contradiction to his teaching. This is the most direct expression of his message. All great music and art comes out of silence. Through this silence he is giving a direct experience of the creative source. And in the commune that is evolving around him at Rajneeshpuram a situation is arising, through the force of his presence, of absolutely unlimited creative potential - one of the most hopeful exciting things happening in the world today for the future of music and art. [signed] |
(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.)
