Testimonial letter from Sw Govinddas
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 Govinddas (Werner Monka). It is "Exhibit A-673" 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.
 Rajneeshpuram To Whom it May Concern I am living here at Rajneeshpuram, participating in this incredible experiment of being in tune with people, with nature, and myself. To be in close contact with Bhagwan who is a living master to me, changes the very quality of the activities that are going on here. Whatever I do, has become worship to me. I do it with all my heart and energy for the sheer joy of it. Bhagwan's presence is like a catalytic agent for this place. The closest way to describe His impact on me is that of a Lover. I'm a musician, and playing music for Him has become the most incredible experience. I've heard him say many things on music and art over the years, but intellectually I wasn’t able to grasp them. Slowly, slowly, a different music, more harmonious, more joyous, I find is evolving moment to moment. This I can say is happening to all the musicians I am playing with. This year's festival in July gave ma another glimpse of what is possible in Bhagwan's silent presence. All the beautiful music for seven days, one hour every morning, came together within two weeks time. Eleven musicians playing in unison in such a short period of rehearsal time, is only one of the many miracles that are happening here at Rajneeshpuram. Bhagwan is a man of exceptional abilities. Sitting in his presence I become more silent, more peaceful, more loving. As a musician I've learned to make these qualities part of the music that wants to be expressed through me He is the greatest inspiration for a musician. In His silence, music, art, poetry, can be felt very easily. He calls forth whatever potential you've got. I'm so grateful to my master Govinddas |
(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.)
