Testimonial letter from Sw Harideva
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 Harideva (William Heiligmann). It is "Exhibit A-879" 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.
 July 25, 1983 TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN: I am a yoga teacher, art teacher, radio D.J./music engineer and parent of two' children as well as a disciple of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh and have been for over eleven years. I have now resided at Rajneeshpuram for over one and a half years. When I first met Bhagwan I was traveling in India as personal secretary to Stewart Cary Welch, the present Head Curator of the Islamic Department at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and world authority on Bhuthanese and Islamic Art. During ray traveling I chanced to come across a book of his named I AM THE GATE. I had up to that point been steeped in the then popular spiritual teachers abounding in America and also in India. I had spent 3 months in a Buddhist Monastery in Dhalhousi, India, with Mr. Welch, at the request of the residing Lama Shri Ganka Lama and also had studied with Shree Minendra, Nimteeroli Baba and Swami Satchidananda, studying Hatha Yoga. None of the years spent with these great teachers can compare with the instant effect Bhagwan had on me. I’ve spent a third of my life with him now -and am totally in debt to this guidance and inspiration and how it’s affected my becoming a more loving person; more honest and sincere. When I met Him I was more or less drifting through life with no enthusiasm for making a better future for myself or anyone else. Through my devotional work over the years with Him and receiving His spiritual and practical guidance I have become immensely more productive and precise in my profession as a teacher and instructor. Becoming clear in myself has produced a great amount of energy to be helpful to others, which otherwise was not possible because of my prior unfocused lifestyle. I completely attribute this turnaround in my life once again to Bhagwan and His teachings. It stands to reason that because of the effect He’s had on my life, spiritually and practically, I know He’d be an invaluable asset to any country and especially to America that is ready and ripe for what He has to offer. He’s exceptionally exceptional - no one like Him. He should be here and stay here. Sincerely, |
(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.)
