Testimonial letter from Sw Anand Sarvo
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 Sarvo. It is "Exhibit A-810" 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 I am writing this letter because for the first time in my life I have come across and had personal contact with a person who has inspired me to spend my life in a more creative and meaningful way, and I wish to support him in any way possible. I was brought up in an upper class family. I went to a private school and excelled in mathamatics and physics. From 1959 I studied at the New South Wales University in Australia whilst working as a land and engineering surveyor. In 1967 I received a degree in Land Engineering and Mining Surveying and became registered with the Department of Lands as a land surveyor and also became a member of the Institution of Surveyors, Australia. In 1968 I bought into a small private practice with 5 employees and over the next 6 years, together with two other partners expanded this practice into one of the largest in Sydney employing 25 people and specializing in planning of large urban and rural developments. Those years have left me very secure financially but in many other ways not at all fulfilled. For the next 5 years I travelled extensively around the world looking for some way to bring more meaning into my life. This travelling brought me to Poona, India, where I had my first contact with Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh and listened to his lectures. I was immediately touched by this mans understanding of humanity and his vision of the potentiality of man if for once he stopped and looked within and began to, first of all, understand himself (meditation). I have since read many of his books and listened to his taped lectures and viewed the videos of his satsangs and celebrations. I am now in America and have been fortunate enough to visit his commune in Rajneeshpuram where his vision of a commune of which he has talked about for many years is becoming an actuality. From my almost continuous 22 years work as a land surveyor and my love of sensitive development of this beautiful planet in all its facets I can see from the development of this rural city - in the building of its roads, dams and erosion control structures - the type and positioning of its housing -the softness and spaciousness of its commercial buildings with their surrounding gardens, that this man’s inspirational quality makes all his words captured in books and tapes and now conveyed in silence and presence, ring of profound TRUTH. This man is an exceptional being with incredible insight into Science, Religion, Metaphysics and the needs of humanity. If he can inspire as many people to explore their potentiality and in just two years to change the quality and environment of this semi-arid desert, if he can by his love and guidance in the field of psychology inspire so many to work in his presence creating an atmosphere of harmonious co-existence of people from all nations and walks of life - any country should more than welcome this man to stay with them and share in his vision. 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.)
