Testimonial letter from Sw Chidananda (Brazilian)
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 Chidananda (Jorge Camillo de Abranches). It is "Exhibit A-592" in the Noles collection.
The original letter was handwritten in Portuguese, a text transcription has not yet been created. A text version of its translation 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.
The image in the text box links to a pdf file with the original letter, the translation, and a notary statement attesting to the validity of the translation. It has 8 pages.
 translationJuly 25, 1983 TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN Swami Chidananda, (Jorge Camillo de Abranches), resident of Brazil, at Rua Pacheco Leao 704house 13, presently in the United States doing programs at the Rajneesh International Meditation University, having been the Director President of several companies in Brazil, presently producer, director and writer of movies, also being director-president of Visao Cinematografica Ltda, writes to who it may concern: I am graduated from the Faculty of Communications and Tourism of the University Helio Alonso, with degree in social communication, and minor in psychology, antropology, sociology and arts. I produced and wrote and directed several movies, among them: Besides my activities in cinema, I am a psychology student at the University Santa Ursula in Rio de Janeiro, have done extensive work in psychodance and body-analysis. I have the following to declare about the Enlightened Master, Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh: In my understanding, Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh proposes the conscious return of man to Paradise, touching several fundamental aspects of human psychology, emphasizing always the awakening of the Being through meditative methods and techniques highly efficient, inclusive creating techniques of body work in the most advanced levels. In the area of Arts, Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh showed me the Divine, on how can man be religious through singing, dance, takes us feel existence, to notice it, to love (?), to accept it as it is, also perceiving the subtle, the delicate. Through the teachings of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh the most difficult and hard jobs are transformed in a fun game. Through his books, tapes, etc Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh wakes us to feel a better present and future for humanity. The religious festivals promoted take me to note that thousands of disciples from all parts of the world love Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh and also make me feel loved and loving. These are days of intense care and love in the presence of the Beloved Master. The presence of Bhagwan in me is felt through His silence, through the sound of the birds, of the wind, the water, the sun, the moon, my search, the search of my brothers, looking for a better humanity, looking for the truth that is hidden within us and that only Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh can show us through his religion. The deep eyes of Bhagwan have transformed me and transforms me each moment to a more loving being. For me, His presence is God going by. Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh is my Master in all aspects. I would like very much if the government of the United States would allow the physical presence of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh in this country, maintaining its traditional and historic welcome to all types and forms of religion. Swami Chidananda |
(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.)
