Testimonial letter from Sw Devam Anupam
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 Devam Anupam. It is "Exhibit A-324" 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.
 July 21 1983 To Whom It May Concern This writer would describe himself as born in a very typical middle-class type American home - in the mid 1920s. I did my tour in the Service in the early 1940s. I attended the Academy of Aeronautics in New York City, graduated in 1951. In February of ’51 I started work in the aero-space business, as an engineer, and continued this work for the next 32 years. The Companies I was employed by included Rockwell International Corp., Downey, CA, Highes Tool Company, Santa Monica, CA, General Dynamics, Fort Worth, Texas, Link Aviation Inc. in Burghanton, NY. The reason for changing jobs as many times as I did was that I was looking for values in my life to make sense of my existence as a part of the nature of things. I would refer then as my "Big Why I am here". The work I was doing was seemingly satisfying as I worked on many small projects, such as the F.100, F 86 airplanes as well as the "Apollo" project and the current space shuttle project. Still something was not together for me. Four and a half years ago I read three of the religious books by Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh. This marked a great change in my life. For two and a half years I continued to read and listen to tapes of Bhagwan’s discourses. I then became a sannyasin of Bhagwan’s. I retired from Rockwell International and came to Rajneeshpuram. The influence on myself by this man (Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh) was, he put into words and described feelings I had been trying to find answers to all my life. My work was easier, problems did not appear as important and living has become very enjoyable. Bhagwan’s gifts to me were in the above-mentioned areas, and the psychology of his instruction changed this person in the precise way to allow me to be comfortable with me. This change could be accomplished in almost anyone who would have the interest and put out the effort. United States would benefit greatly by recognizing his greatness and his asset to this country by Bhagwan’s being here. As a teacher, and instructor, He (Bhagwan) is a teacher of teachers. His works and words have moved me farther in 4 1/2 years than I did in the conventional world of material things, job and fatherhood (5 children) in the 53 years. [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.)
