Testimonial letter from Sw Anand Yogen
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 Yogen (Rob Glick). It is "Exhibit A-1375" 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.
 July 28, 1983 TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN: Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh is a person of exceptional ability in the arts and sciences. I think the United States would benefit greatly by making this religious leader welcome. Rajneeshpuram is a unique community that exists outside the "establishment" but has proven that it can work within the "system". Most of the opposition to Bhagwan and Rajneeshpuram is understandable in terms of some longstanding citizens of Antelope feeling that they have lost control of their town to a "religious cult". They are fighting to regain what they feel was once "theirs". But Rajneeshpuram is also fighting for it’s survival and through every legal means available. The longstanding citizens of Antelope who oppose Rajneeshpuram have had full protection of the law. It demonstrates how far we have come as a nation since the american indians were fighting to regain the land that was once theirs. The words "master" and "religious cult" bring to mind images of "mind control" and "Jim Jones". These frightening images bring about an unselective opposition towards Rajneeshism and other non-traditional religions. I don’t think Ehagwan or Rajneeshpuram is a threat to our way of life and I think it is a tribute to our way of life that this community has been able to come into being. It provides us with a model for a spiritual city. If humankind is going to survive into the 21st century, there is going to have to be a transformation in conciousness. There has to be a movement from self-centeredness to cooperation. Rajneeshpuram is providing us with a model on how this transformation can take place. The land that they bought had been given so little love and so much abuse that it had been named the "Big Muddy". The sannyasins who live in Rajneeshpuram are changing a desert into an oasis. People working out of love and with cooperation are making this transformation possible. Their work has had and will continue to have a very positive impact on the Oregon economy. It’s obvious that far more people will benefit from Rajneeshpuram’s continued growth than the number of people that are hurt by their presence . Bhagwan’s presence facilitates his sannyasin’s work. He is the reason why they have decided to work for love rather than for money. In return for the love given by his sannyasins, Bhagwan leads, his disciples towards self-realization- the highest of Maslows hierarchy of needs. Bhagwan no longer has to speak his truth, his sannyasins work speaks his truth louder than any words he could say. His silent leadership directs a spontaneous outpouring of love that the world so desperately needs. That love is being expressed in many forms of human endeavor which are in the arts and sciences. Bhagwan is a person of exceptional ability that goes beyond any label that could be applied to him. I hope the United States will continue to be the location of this human experiment towards selfrealization, The government could help insure this possibility if they grant permanent resident status to Bhagwan. Yours Sincerely and with a lot of lov |
(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.)
