Testimonial letter from Sw Anand Virendra
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 Virendra (Fred H. Giebel). It is "Exhibit A-2486" 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.
 Fred H. Giebel To whom it may concern. I am a disciple of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh. I was born in 1947, juli 3, in Amsterdam, Holland, and I lived most of my life in this country. I studied information technology at the Technical University of Delft. From early adolescence I had a growing interest in many questions of life, and a deep longing to find fullfillment. For many years I was reading much about psychology and social history. Then one day I found books of an author, Alan Watts, who pointed out a vision to me from which everything was clear. This was an enlightening experience, but it did not last. The insight was only intelectual. From then I practiced meditation, mainly in the form of T’ai Chi, which became my main occupation for about 5 years. Then I read a book of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, in 1976. For me this was an experience at least as enlightening as reading Alan Watts. This time however the insight did not remain intelectual, because I could follow it up with practicing meditation techniques and participating in what I would call "discovery groups", which are usually known as gestalt and encounter groups. Also I could go to see Bhagwan in Poona, India, which I did in 1977. Meanwhile I had writen to Bhagwan, from Holland, that I wanted to be his disciple, even though I had not seen him yet. Bhagwan gave me a new names Swami Anand Virendra. In Poona it was like waking up in an other dimension. I can not find rational terms to decribe or explain it. The best word for me is "intensity", intensity of feeling, intensity of seeing. In the beginning it was frightening. It was like if the ground under my feet was pulled away and I landed in empty space. Intelectually I could not make heads or tails cut of anything, but the feeling of the experience was like waking up to reality - and the splendour of it. I don’t know which element of the situation "caused" the experience. I was sitting every day listening to Bhagwan for 1 1/2 hour, toghether with thousands of other people, I participated in very intensive groups like ’’gestalt" and "encounter”, and I was loafing about the ashram and its environment. Bhagwan calls all this toghet her "the Buddhafield". After 3 months I returned to Amsterdam to earn my living. Living in the "normal” world, I felt the need to keep in touch with "the source". I had to choose between earning enough money to go for a long time to the ashram in Poona, meanwhile being on my own, or participating in the activities of the local meditation center. I choose the second posibility because it was close by , and gradually I started to work more and more in the meditation center. This "work" was at least as much for my self as it was to keep the center going, providing facilities for people to get in touch with Bhagwan’s vision. This also was part of the "Buddhafield". I worked in Amitabh, the Amsterdam Rajneesh meditation center, then I went to Arnhem, were I helped to set up a Rajneesh community and meditation center, then I came back to Amsterdam, were a big Rajneesh community was started: Sadhana. I am still living and working full time in this Sadhana. The name means "spiritual Practice". Last year I went to the summer festival in Rajneeshpuram, Oregon, together with all the people who live in our community. Though the experience of living and working in a Rajneesh community feels very much like being in contact with intense living reality - which I realised best at those times that I was outside the Buddhafield -being in Rajneeshpuram during the festival felt like comming back home. Home in enlightenment. The fact that Bhagwan did not speak anymore, during the daily gatherings, was more like a relief than a loss. I had heard his words very often, on tape and in reality, and I read many books and articles from him, and I enjoyed all this very much. His precence in silence however was all the more nourishing. Back in Amsterdam, I felt greatly inspired, in doing my work, in living my life. This summer we went again to the festival. The "extra" this time was for me to see the incredible amount of love with which the people in Rajneeshpuram do their work. This is now a new inspiration in my own work, here in Amsterdam, transforming ordinary work into worship. [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.)
