Testimonial letter from Sw Deva Wadud
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 Wadud. It is "Exhibit A-800" 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 Deva Wadud To Whom It May Concern: I wish to attest to the exceptional abilities of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh and to the contribution that his teachings and presence provide to me and to the entire community of Rajneeshpuram. I am the Director of Community Development for the City of Rajneeshpuram. I graduated from Harvard University in 1973 with a Master's degree in Planning. I have worked as a planner for the cities of San Mateo and San Luis Obispo in California before coming to Rajneeshpuram. I became a disciple of Bhagwan in 1977 and since then have become increasingly creative and proficient as a planner. Through his lectures and books, his tremendous insight into humankind has given me a greater understanding of people and how to plan cities for them. Bhagwan has also given me appreciation for the protection of the environment as he has talked extensively on the importance of mankind living in harmony with nature. For example, Bhagwan has said:
Bhagwan has given the community of Rajneeshpuram a vision to build a community, a beautiful oasis, both material and spiritual, living in love with each other and in harmony with nature. This vision is presently being realized on a very large scale in a remarkably short time. Bhagwan's presence within the community is important, as he reminds the citizens of Rajneeshpuram of his vision through direct contact on occasional visits to different temples (work departments) throughout the city. In addition, Bhagwan's silent communion with everyone during darshans (religious ceremonies) and his daily drive inspire each member of the community to exceptional creative ability. An example of the community's outstanding abilities is the Rajneeshpuram Comprehensive Plan. The State of Oregon requires extensive comprehensive planning and the community of Rajneeshpuram developed a comprehensive plan which is being hailed as one of the best plans in the state. The plan was written in just three months, whereas other cities in the state usually take from one to three years. The following quotes about the plan confirm its excellence:
Rajneeshpuram is quickly being recognized as a model community. 65,000 people from all over the world are expected to visit the city this year. These people are coming to see the exciting, creative and exceptional project underway.
With love, |
(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.)
