Testimonial letter from Sw Gyan Mandir
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 Gyan Mandir. It is "Exhibit A-1846" 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.
 Swami Gyan Mandir To whom it may concern. I am writing this letter in favour of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh’s stay in the United States of America. I am an artist and freestyle photographer. My studies began in High School and after I obtained my University degree it continued at the University of Modern Art in Stuttgart, West Germany. I soon realized that only the knowledge and expertise of working artists can teach me. So I went and studied with different locally and nationwide known artists. During all my studies as an artist, and even as a photographer, which is a relatively new medium for art, I always came to a point where I noticed that art, no matter which way it is going, is stuck in a one way street. After realizing that over and over again, I decided to leave ths studies and try to find a new way by working on drawings and paintings and photographs in as many different ways as possible. To do this, I did a lot of travelling to get influenced by as many different cultures as possible. During all my travels I did a lot of research on art and was trying to find the root which connected all these cultures. I heard about the teachings of Bhagwan the first time one year ago in the Sanjiva Rajneesh Meditation Center in Schwaebisch Gmuend, West Germany. Listening to a lecture he’d given in India, I was deeply impressed by the way Bhagwan introduces you to religious or any other topics. But the thing that really got me was when Bhagwan spoke about a Zen story. It was the story about a painter and all of a sudden I could see the point of art. Bhagwan described the roots of art so clearly and simply that I could not believe that I had not seen it earlier. There it was. I was looking for it all these years. His teachings changed my attitude of art totally. I can see the new way now by following simply his directions pointed out in his books and lectures. His vision of a new man is the new way. Not only in art but in everything. I have visited Rajneeshpuram for three months and seeing Bhagwan driving by every day and really starting to see myself through him is the only way for me to stay connected and in tune with the roots of art. In my eyes Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh is one of the roost outstanding persons in our age. Sincerely yours |
(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.)
