Testimonial letter from Sw Antar Dhiren
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 Antar Dhiren (Friedemann Howorka). It is "Exhibit A-39" 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.
 Friedemann Howorka (B.A.Theol) Concerning: Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh and his occupation as a religious teacher and spiritual leader! To whom it may concern.! I would like to comment as a qualified and experienced theologian,having a B.A.in Theology from the Theological Seminary of the United Baptist Church in Germany as well as two and one half years of experience as a minister and youth worker,to the question of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh occupation and being an exceptional religious teacher and spiritual leader. A capable good theologian or minister is a man who is able to take all the theoretic theological know-how and know-about accumulated during his years of study into everyday life as a source of spiritual guidance and direction, someone who is able to point people to the path right for their present situation and enable them to take their lives into their own hands,to make them comprehend their status as children of God,their value as human beings.This is only genuiniy possible if he has comprehended life in its totality himself. I did not come across one theology professor during my 5 years of study who was really able to come down from his theological theoretic approch and language and be a plain normal human being and thereby a genuine spiritual leader and teacher -until I met Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh. Imet Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh the first time through a video-lecture at one of the hundreds of Rajneesh Therapy Centers throughout the world while taking part in an encounter therapy group. Every word-spocken in plain easy to understand everyday language-hit me in my inner being, uni ike a high percentage of world known theologians of my university yeas I hade found the religious teacher I hade missed during that time and the years as son of a missionary befor.Here was the religious teacher who could interpret spiritual things,truths intoeveryday life,who could genuinly give guidance and enable people to grow to the extent where guidance is not more needed. Therefor I would call Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh the absolute top first grade theologian,religious teacher and spiritual leader of the world.There is no way of proof or testing his exception-nality other than becoming biblical:the tree is known by its fruit - and nobody who has tasted Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh fruit or even gone so far as only to visually see it at the Rajneesh-puram Ranch,this human experiment which realises that which is described as "kingdom of God" in the Bible,will question the exceptionality and supremacy of this outstanding man! There is no minister of any denomination of Christianity or any other religion I know who has brought forward a comparable growth and development in his congregation or church within a comparable period of time. The absolute uniqueness of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh teachings is inthe fact and way he brings back the long lost dimension of meditation and spirituality to the western everyday life,thereby giving us the opportunity of becoming once more total,uncut,full and fulfilled.He takes the western scientific mind and succeeds in opening it to the spiritual.Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh is the answer to the modern neurosis as described by Viktor E. Frankel: man searching desperately and mostly futilly for meaning and humanity in this sterile scientific materialist world. Bhagwa Shree Rajneesh puts the scientific-materialism into-the spiritual frame where it belongs and succeeds in creating a new Whole human-being capable of functioning in all aspects Of life. Here-again Rajneeshpuram is ample proof of-the positiv new being and the Exceptional positiv energy created by Bhagwan Shree'Rajneesh which exists and works even and possibly because of his-present silence.There is an energyfield around this man which realises spiritual guidance and growth.Of this I can testify from personal experience !! Since I met Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh my spiritual comprehension has widend to an extent where I can not but wonder. Writen in gratitude to my spiritual master |
(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.)
