Testimonial letter from Sw Deva Siddhena
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 Siddhena. It is "Exhibit A-1562" 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 one page.
 Sw. Deva Siddhena TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN: I first met Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh in Poona, India in June of 1978. I became a sannyasin then and returned to the United States in October 1978. I went to Rajneeshpuram in July 1981 before Bhagwan arrived. He came for a visit in September 1981. Then ray life started changing. Just seeing him everyday when he drove his car and during darshans (when we sat in his presence) brought me a peacefulness that I had never experienced in my life. Since his arrival in 1981 I feel a purpose in life and care for myself and others. I have seen thousands of people change for the better since being here in his presence. The most amazing thing is he does it all without speaking to us. To force him to leave this country and to leave thousands of us without his spiritual guidence would be a harsh and unjust act to do to American citizens. [signed] |
(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.)
