Testimonial letter from Sw Deva Siddhartha
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 Deva Siddhartha (Mattheus Josephus Maria van Langen). It is "Exhibit A-17" 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.
 [NB this transcription HAS been cleaned up, as 1) there was too much visual debris that the OCR process could not filter out, and 2) the photograph of the letter was off-center, cutting off some parts of words on the right side.] Rolde July 16 1983 To whom it concerns, I Mattheus, Josephus, Maria van Langen, also known as Swami Deva Siddhartha, being duly sworn, do depose and say as follows: I was born in 1934 in Amsterdam. After my basic school period I went to the roman catholic high school in Driehuis Velsen, where I deceided to study Philosophy and Theology. After seven years studies I was ordinated as a roman catholic priest 24 aug. 1959 in the congregation of the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart (M.S.C.) (Missionarii Sacratissimi Cordis Jesu). After that I studied two years Pastoral Psychology in the theologian faculty of the M.S.C. For five years I worked as a chaplain in the St. Joseph Church in Sittard. At the same time I was working as a religious teacher in the Catholic Social Academy in Sittard. Then I was asked as religious leader of the Noviciate of the monastery of the fathers MSC in Brummen and Stein. I was responsable for the teaching of new priests. I was asked as Moderator on the monastery~school in Velsen and worked there four years. After that period I was a priest for younger people. In that period I felt the crisis of the younger Christian boys and girls, because they were very religious, but they could not agree with the official Roman Catholic Church. So also for myself I came more and more in a religious crisis. After a few years of a crisis I asked the Pope, Paul VI to give me the permission to stop my priesthood, because I was in a deep religious crisis with the roman catholic church. I was an exception for that reason, because most of the ex-priests could get permission only, because they wanted to marry. My motivation was the religious crisis. After a longer time the Pope gave me the permission. In that time I studied books of Khrisnamurti, Aurobindo and other Eastern Religious Masters. When I saw a book of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, called The Musterdseed, it was a complete eye-opener. I felt that this vision on Jesus was what I was always looking for during my theologian studies. I could see more and more that my religious crisis was a crisis that Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh is describing as going from false religious insights to true religion. The more I studied the Rajneesh vision on Jesus, Bible etc. the more I was impressed about the real spiritual truth, written by this Eastern Master. Then in 1978 I deceided to be a sannyasin of Bhagwan Shree RAJNNEESH .The more I came in contact with the teachings of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, the more I saw that this vision on religion was the fulfillment of my spiritual searching during my whole life. And I could see it also with other people. In that period I was working as a staff member in a catholic educational center for adults in Zeegse (Dr.) I leaded some weekend for people who were interested in new religious movements and I saw how many people from catholic and protestant churches were open for the teachings and meditations of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh. The Dutch Editor Arcanum asked me to write a book about my proces of being a priest to sannyasin of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh. So I wrote the book "Van Rome naar Poona" (ed. Arcanum 1981, Amsterdam). In the revieuws of some catholic magazines this book was described as a "new spiritual autobiography" (christian bibliotheque revieuw). The reactions I get from all kind of people are nearly almost positive about Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh as an important religious Master for the future. People tell me how they see him as a new Jesus Christ of this age. I lived in a neo Rajneesh Commune in Soest and I felt how this way of living together in love and peace with, each other, sharing all the money etc. , is what I was always looking for during my priesthood. So I can see that this Rajneesh Religion is the fulfillment of that which I could not find longer in my catholic monastery and priesthood-period. Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh is for me one of the biggest spiritual Masters after Jesus Christ. The above is within my knowledge and belief, and if called upon I would competently testify thereto. Mattheus Josephus Maria van Langen |
(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.)
