Testimonial letter from Sw Anand Vedanta
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 Vedanta (Larry Cohen). It is "Exhibit A-394" 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.
 Swami Anand Vedanta TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN-- I am writing on behalf of the Indian national, Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh. First, I’d like to present my own credentials. I studied at St. Lawrence University, Cornell University, University of Amsterdam and the University of Copenhagen, where I received my Masters Degree. At the University, I worked as a teaching assistant while majoring in a field called Cultural Sociology, which embraces Anthropology, Sociology, Economics, Political Science, Individual and Social Psychology and specialized tn Ethnomusicology. I have worked in the teaching profession for over 12 yers. I’ve taught poverty level children in Spanish Harlem, New York, English. I worked in Copenhagen teaching music at Children’s day care centers. I've taught English to adults in five different foreign countries. I was the private tutor for the American, Japanese and Israeli ambassadors' children in Katmandu, Nepal. I have known and been a disciple of Bhagwan Shree for 10 years now. I have had many instances of intimate, personal contact with Him and His advice has been invaluable. His teachings have profoundly influenced my approach towards dealing with people in a more loving, caring way. I have had extensive experience in music and theater. I have played in everything from classical orchestras to doing street theater performances for children. Again, Bhagwan’s teachings have been a major influence in my whole approach to music and theater - they have become my deepest meditations. To ignore the obvious fact that He is a world religious leader, whose ideas and thoughts have had an international impact is pure blindness on your behalf. His disciples are from over 85 different countries, most of them quite successful in all their endeavors. Here at Rajneeshpuram, through His guidance and presence, something that can have a very positive world impact is happening here and to nip it off at its inception would be an act of stupidity. Having a being like Bhagwan living in their country would be a credit to any nation. He is a most unique and exceptional person, and will be remembered by history for his contributions in religion, poetry, philosophy. His effort is an attempt to regenerate humanity so it’s a better place for all people from all nations. Do you at the INS wish to go down in history as Pontius Pilates? If not, then I’d thank you for doing all in your power to keep Bhagwan in America. Yours truly, |
(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.)
