Testimonial letter from Sw Bodhi Dharmam
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 Bodhi Dharmam (Glenn Viana). It is "Exhibit A-805" 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 4 pages.
 Glenn Viana TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN: I am writing this letter in support of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh’s presence in the United States. I write out of a deep heart-felt sense of responsibility to myself and to my nation. Responsibility to myself because Rajneesh has helped me discover all that is of value within myself and to my nation because I firmly believe that His teachings, His religion, His very presence can benefit this country materially as well as spiritually. I could say that this man has taught me the real meaning of prayer, that His presence is the song of existence that thrives within me, that His love is a river flowing within us all - undivided. But only silence has the capacity the breath and depth to encompass such an experience. Nevertheless, it is imperative to me that Rajneesh be understood and not misjudged. So, I will convey my understanding of how the religious experience of Rajneesh’s presence and vision surfaces in individual behavior and how the change in behavior can have a positive impact on individuals as productive members of our modern technological society. Traditionally the spiritual growth of the individual has been kept separate from maintenance and growth of one’s material well being. This dichotomy has become increasingly apparent to me in my own case over the last decade as a practicing professional ecomomist and has become quite obvious to me in my observation of the behavior of my business aquaintences. Faced with what I have perceived as a mutually exclusive choice between attention towards my spiritual growth and time devoted to making a living, I adopted the goals of being a hard working professional respected by my friends and business associates and earning money to support my family as a proxy for the rewards of spiritual growth. While this choice, made through lack of experience and a limited vision, made me a highly motivated productive member of society , it produced a tension within me which ultimately lead to a heart attack as is the unpleasant fashion of the day. The experience and understanding that Rajneesh’s meditation techniques, religious teachings and communicated presence has brought to me is that my spiritual being and my daily activities of material gain are not separate. The experience of this wholeness this unity is in complete contrast to my experience of prior years. Behavior that was once motivated by the tension of reaching for something outside of myself was transformed into action flowing from a relaxed awareness of the joy within to be celebrated in whatever I am doing. Work becomes a play - a worship manifest as creativity. The energy brought to a job through creativity and play is infinitely greater than the exertion of effort through tension. This creativity this energy is not dependent on the nature of the task but rather flows from one’s awareness. If this experience were available to a much wider audience here in America through Rajneesh’s continued presence in this country, then this country could benefit materially through higher worker productivity and greater resource mobility. Relative to the rest of the world, the U.S. economy is composed of a high technology capital intensive industrial plant manned by a highly educated work force. Increases in worker productivity in the post world war II period have been derived primarily from advances in applied technology via higher capital to labor ratios and improved worker training. During the period of low interest rates, cheap fossil fuels and a booming consumer market at home and abroad that characterized the 50's and 60's there was an economic environment supportive of such a process of gains in worker productivity. In the 80’s and 90’s such latitude for continued expansion along similar lines simply will not exist. Yet, higher productivity and greater resource mobility (venture capital shifts across industrial sectors and worker moves across occupational categories) is the key to our competitiveness in home markets as well as abroad and ultimately the only route to economic health as a nation in the coming decade. Rajneesh’s presence in this country could contribute to this process, as the greatest potential for future gains in worker productivity lies in the awareness with which the American worker approaches his daily job activities. As long as work is motivated by the tension of reaching outward rather than relaxing within, greater awareness is not possible. This statement may seem unbelievable, but I have witnessed and been a part of this process during my stays at Rajneeshpuram, Oregon. Several months after rajneesh began the silent phase of His work , in the summer of 1981 I became a decsciple of Rajneesh. Since the first annual world celebration in the summer of 1982 I have visited Rajneeshpuram frequently and have had the fortune to be in His presence and to participate and observe the work being done there. As an individual I am deeply thankfull for the experience while as an econoimist I am simply astonded by the economic implications that the Rajneeshpuram model offers. His blessings |
(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.)
