Testimonial letter from Sw Das Anudas
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 Das Anudas (David J. Burrows). It is "Exhibit A-660" 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.
 Rajneeshpuram To whom it may concern: I hold an M.A. and Ph.D. in English and American literature, and for twenty years I was a member of the English faculty at Rutgers University in New Jersey. During that time I taught courses in 19th and 20th Century literature, the history of poetry, and the modern novel. I am the author of six books, published by such firms as Harcourt, Brace Jovanovich, The Free Press, and Indiana University Press. Among the awards I was granted were a Modern Language Association grant for editing and a Fulbright-Hayes lectureship at the University of Lund, Sweden. I first learned about Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh from friends in Europe who had traveled to India and become his disciples. They played tapes of his discourses for me and introduced me to his meditations. In 1978, I went myself to India and, while at the ashram in Poona, became a disciple. Two years later I left my post at Rutgers and joined the ashram as an editor of his books and magazines. I currently live at Rajneeshpuram where I work as a writer, editor and photographer. During the first morning discourse I heard in Poona, Bhagwan began to quote and speak about the American poet, Walt Whitman. His insight into Whitman's work was startling to me, who had studied and taught Whitman’s poetry for decades. The following day, he spoke of the novelist Jack Kerouac--in a way which made clear to me, who taught courses in the Beat Generation, that his grasp of the novelist's prose and his ability to pass on his insights were extraordinary. Here was a master teacher, whose knowledge and love of literature were evident to me. When I returned to Rutgers, I began to incorporate Bhagwan's books and teachings into my own courses. Needless to say, his spiritual and psychological insights were of immense value; but his comments on poetry and literature generally, made him one of the truly original literary critics. Before long, colleagues of mine were reading him and quoting him to their students. After I retired from Rutgers and began to live and work at the ashram, I started to gather materials for a book on Bhagwan the poet and critic of poetry. The manuscript of this book is still incomplete, but I hope to finish it in the near future. It will, I believe, establish him as a critic of exceptional ability as well as a poet of the first order. His presence in this country is, in my opinion, a gift to our culture. His words have been powerful and influential--and his silence is proving even more so. We in the West have yet to understand the function of silence as a means towards meditativeness and peace of mind. In his silence Bhagwan has become a model to many people--not only his disciples--of a man who can communicate truth without words. This has been experienced by the thousands who have sat with him in silent communion, and as the message spreads, the entire culture can be touched by his lesson. The benefits to our stress-filled society can be transforming. Bhagwan’s talents are multi-faceted and his ability to inspire others towards the realization of their potential is enormous. "Exceptional" is an understatement of his abilities, and I totally support his application for permanent resident status. Yours sincerely, |
(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.)
