Testimonial letter from Sw Narayanadeva
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 Narayanadeva. It is "Exhibit A-906" 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.
 Sw. Narayanadeva TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN: Having met Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh several times, sat with him and listened to hundreds of his discourses, it is obvious to me as it is to hundreds of thousands of people in virtually every country in the world, that this man is in possession of extraordinary capabilities as a religious teacher and spiritual leader. His teachings have taken a quantum leap in the science of psychology, whose clarity and understanding of man, his problems, beliefs, complexities have exceeded any other vision I've ever come across. I earned a Bachelor of Arts in psychology and sociology from the University of Nebraska in 1971 and have done post graduate work in psychology of religion. Having lived and worked in Europe, Africa, the Near and Far East for ten years, I’ve made it my life's work to study and try to understand man's different belief systems and consequential social structures by personally living in and exposing myself to them, from the jungle to the desert to the city. From 1974 to 1977 I worked for the United States Information Service in Madagascar and from 1978 to 1979 I was a language consultant in Japan for such companies as Japan Steel, Nippon Telegraph & Telephone Communications Laboratory, NCR, Fugi, Xerox and MITI, Japans Foreign Trade Ministry. I've also had an imported art business in France. The value of having a spiritual leader of Bhagwan's calibre, recognized all over the world, living and guiding in the United States is immeasurable. In the science of psychology he is a master in understanding the workings of the human mind. No where in the world have I found a being past or present with a more complete understanding. Throughout my personal research, which includes personal involvement and study of all the major religions, never have I found a vision so comprehensive, life affirmative, so understanding of the problems humans face and our possibilities. Unbounded by any tradition or vested interest, Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh's clarity is overwhelming. This life positive, loving, laughing, creative attitude is so dramatically opposite to the hating, serious, life negative forces that one sees in the world today. It is a vision that we can all learn and benefit from and ultimately save ourselves from the eminent nuclear holocaust. Bhagwan's synthesis of East and West psychology, one of spiritual and material abundance is to me obviously the psychology of the future, wisdom we can all taste and touch. His followers here in the United States and in centers all over the world are living proof of his teachings of life, love, laughter, living in harmony with their environment, creating wealth, health and beauty. By their example alone, the world, and more directly the United States can learn better to live in peace and love. From my experience there is no other place or person we can look to for the guidance needed to bring this world to a paradise of harmony among nations and peoples. America would surely be blessed by his presence here and I unequivocally support his application for residency. 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.)
