Testimonial letter from Sw Dayal

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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 Dayal (Burkhard Kexel). It is "Exhibit A-1197" 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.

Swami Dayal/Burkhard Kexel
Am Schulplatz 3
Nistertal
W-Germany
July 17th, 1983

To whom it may concern

I was brought up in a Catholic family and sent to a High School run by a Cistercian monastery. I was brought up to help people and make society better. I studied science of education and after getting my Diplom-degree 1978, I started to work as a therapist in a drug-hospital. I worked together with therapists like Dr. Dietmar Hdhne who had been one of the founders and leaders of the "Release-Centers" and the "Free-Clinic-HeideIberg" which were the first self-organized institutions in Germany to help young people to come out of their drug addiction. We were searching for methods and ways to get people out of their addictions and let them grow into a free and fulfilling life. Half a year later, I became leader of a Youth Center and my concern was to create such a supporting and loving atmosphere that young people can grow up free of drugs and neurosis.

During this time in between my psychological and educational books, I came across a book of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, and I was struck by the deep understanding of man, the deep insight of psychology and education, pouring out of this book. It far surpasses anything available in any university anywhere in the world. I went to a Rajneesh meditation center. The meditations and groups developed by Bhagwan I experienced there went far deeper than the group methods and therapies I had known before. Back at work the young people felt the change, the love, the joy and freedom that had happened to me and that infected the atmosphere in the Youth Center. The older children started taking care of the kids, workshops for children who had difficulties in school were started spontaneously, and so on.

After 1 1/2 years in January 1980 I went to Poona to see the man who had changed my life and helped my work in such a beautiful way. I never came across a man of such clear and deep insight of man's problems. The clarity in which he explained my inner state of being, my mechanisms and tendencies when he initiated me into neo-sannyas blew away a lot of illusions I had about myself. His daily discourses far surpassed anything I had heard in any university. And this happened not only to me, I saw it happen to thousands of people, to wellknown therapists who had been running their own growth centers all over the world, to well-trained people of all countries around the world.

Back from Poona I became the manager in the first scientific research project for drug-prevention of the German Government. So far drug prevention in Germany was done through warning and scaring children not to use drugs. Inspired by the understanding and awareness I experienced through Bhagwan we changed the fear-oriented prevention strategies in the direction of personal experience to be more loving, to be more aware, to give an atmosphere for people to grow. And it was very much helping to make this change possible that the World Health Organization (WHO) is in its preamble for drug prevention supporting this vision of living sane and unique and free which Bhagwan has given to us.

I have visited Rajneeshpuram, the commune In which Bhagwan is living, and in which his vision is expressed so clearly. There people are experiencing to live a free and loving life where drugs are not a problem at all, where not even a prison is needed. So I feel that the presence of a religious teacher and spiritual leader like Bhagwan can benefit America in every way.

Yours sincerely
[signed]
Sw. Dayal/ Burkhard Kexel


(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.)