Testimonial letter from Sw Nirava Prasado
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 Nirava Prasado (Claudio Arruda Raposo). It is "Exhibit A-2064" 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 4 pages.
 July 25, 1983 TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN. BHAGWAN SHREE RAJNEESH INS STATUS. BELOVED FRIEND: I am a disciple to my beloved master BHAGWAN SHREE RAJNEESH. HE gave me a new religious name: NIRAVA PRASADO. It is a beautiful name. It means SILENCE and GIFT. To have met BHAGWAN is the most precious GIFT I could ever receive from EXISTENCE. Now that HIS status as a RELIGIOUS WORKER is being threatened, and USA INS tries to move HIM out of HIS present home, in RAJNEESHPURAM, OREGON, USA, I want to say something. My legal name is Claudio Arruda Raposo. I am a Brazilian citizen and live in RIO DE JANEIRO since I was born. I am now 39, married for 13, and have a kid that is 2 1/2 yrs old. I work for IBM for 10 yrs now and my last position was Computer Center Suport Mgr. My formal education was done in the best schools and universities available, plus many courses during work, both here and abroad. So I hold an Engineering degree in Textiles, Chemistry, Mechanics and Master degree in Business Administration and Computer Science. Besides I have Teacher Trainning (univ. level) Course Permit. Other courses include Digital Computer Eletronics and Systems Analisys. During these courses I had average rates normally among the 5 first in my classes. Besides I have taken courses, workshops and personal trainning in psichology - Transactional Analysis, Gestalt, Bioenergetics and Counseling. Work experience, since age 15, includes: Textile Industry - 10 yrs (last position as Factory Manager and Professor of Textile Mechanics), Computer Industry - 14 yrs (3 yrs as Professor of Computer Eletronics, 9 yrs as Systems Analyst - Counselor Level, 2 yrs as Computer Center Suport Mgr.). I currently speak 3 languages: Portuguese, English and Spanish, and make myself underestood in French and Italian. My favorite Hobbies are: Camping, Trecking, Sun Bathing, Swimming, Sailing, Motorcicling, Volleyball, Theater, Dancing, Music , Sound, Fotography, Reading (everything), and Psichology. I do have a good hint for Sculpture, Drawing, and Playing Drums and Singing with my friends. Besides I like to repair everything I can, and I am quite good at that. During School and University time I used to participate in our Gremiuns (Alumni Organizations) and normally was choosen to speak during School Term Ceremonies. I made this introduction so as to open your mind to the fact that I am not a scapist, crazy mistic, or any other indulgent classification normally associated with sects and cults. I am a very down to earth guy, family loving father and husband. I have a big family, happy as any other, middle class and urban, catholic and GOD fearing. So what I am going to say is just common sence, but I can not emphasize the importance of it. It is of the utmost importance. So please LISTEN to me and to the thousand, maybe million others who are claiming what they have EXPERIENCED with BHAGWAN. It is my feeling that humanity is going thru a very difficult moment. I am experiencing this every day of my life, working, reading, observing, thinking, meditating, being very alert to what is going on in our world. Technology has brought us to that point were we can surely destroy ourselves and the entire life on EARTH, thru our madness, or we can free ourselves, and use it to live in abundance and happyness. It is our individual choice . If our level of insanity increases, then I think WE are bound to destroy our civilization, and LIFE on EARTH. The least I expect that will happen is is a totally mechanical and alienated life, mad, with no meaning, controled by the state. Humans living like zumbies and robots. This is already happening in many ways and in many cities and countries. But if we underestand the insanity we are living in, each individual may choose to change his or her position. This change has to be done individually. Nobody can do it to nobody. Not even BHAGWAN. The change has to be done in the direction of quality not quantity. It has to be a change in direction. Up to now we have been looking for causes to our miseries outside ourselves. we have judged these outside causes as responsible for our way of being. Now we must look INSIDE ourselves and SEE that our conditioned mental, emotional and psicological status is THE ORIGIN. We have to change towards awareness, conciousness and love. We have to free ourselves from our past conditonings. This means we need to meditate over our unconcious, repressed, repressive, hypocrite way of living and (?)E that we are going nowhere with it. The goal is to reach FREEDOM, individual freedom, but in such a way that conscience replaces a mechanical, idiotic, stupid and coercive moral code. The goal is towards cooperation, working with love, fun, joy, friendship, never loosing perspective of our main road: GROWTH. TO GROW AS A TOTAL HUMAN BEEING, TO FLOWER, TO FLY is what I underestand to be the message BHAGWAN is conveying to US thru every possible way. This is what I underestand to be the WORK of BHAGWAN SHREE RAJNEESH, to help HIS Disciples to flower, to grow, to mature. That is what I have received from HIM as a GIFT, that is what I have learned. My life experience has brought me to this point, to understand the importance, the utmost importance there is in allowing BHAGWAN to be with us, as long as HE feels it necessary. HIS PRESENCE, HIS TEACHINGS, HIS LOVE are the ENERGY that moves and helps us to GROW, and MATURE. But we have not yet attained to that point where we can go by ourselves. That is why we need HIM to stay. HIS COMUNES are energy fields, just like any hydroeletric plant. It is a device to generate and concentrate HIS ENERGY. As soon as each one of us begins to vibrate in tune with HIM, more and more LOVE is available. Like a coherent beam of LASER ray, the more LOVE energy is available the easier it is for us to drop negativity, egoism, hypocrisy, etc., and attain full GROWTH. That is why we need HIM to stay with US. HIS WORDS have helped us, thru our MINDS, to understand what I have said above. HIS DAILY DISCOURSES, HIS BOOKS, HIS TAPES AND VIDEOS, just helped us to see what was needed. HIS WORDS are like light spots guiding us thru the dark night. That is why we need HIM to stay with US. Although HE is not anymore directly speaking with HIS DISCIPLES, HIS PRESENCE gives life to what HE has said, and goes on saying thru his silence. This gives us trust to proceed in our effort to GROW as total human beings. That is why HE must stay. HIS MEDITATION TECHNIQUES and MEDITATION CENTERS are likewise devices to wake us up, to make us SEE that the way we live, think, feel and act is driving us mad in a mad world. HIS SILENT PRESENCE is needed. HIS BEAUTY is needed. If HE is not, we have no place to stay in. Our own beauty cannot be shown, we will again be lost. When I say lost I mean that our GROWTH will stop, just like a tree that is uprooted, or living in the desert. That is why HE must stay, HE is our ground water, our soil. Without HIM our SEEDS will not grow and become a big tree. Now let me tell you that I have been with BHAGWAN for four years now. I have lived on HIS COMUNITY in OREGON and found it one of the most beautiful and inspiring experiences of my life. I stayed there for four months and was able to participate in First Festival, help with the overall duties, talk and gossip with every one, and see how hard and joyfully they work. It is incredible what I have seen done from scratch. They are building what was thought impossible, but is a reality. That reality can be ours. It is just a question of choice. I also have participated in MEDITATIONS and GROUPS, both here in our MEDITATION CENTER, with HIS DISCIPLES and LOVERS, and at the RAJNEESH INSTITUTE FOR MEDITATION AND INNER GROWTH, RAJNEESHPURAM, OREGON. This is what our MAD WORLD is needing. Programs like that clean a lot of bad stuff on us. The experience I have from going thru these Programs is that now I am quite clean of heavy psychological strains. I feel freer to express myself, a lot more silent, and above all, my work turned to be fun, life worth living. My son Rafael will very much benefit from my clarity, and he is showing that: he is a very funny and happy guy. My wife is also a testemony of my transformation in a loving husband. So is my hole family , friends and people at my work. The most incredible thing is that when people begin to see the changes you are going thru, even when you do not talk to them about BHAGWAN, they want to know. They ask and query you. They look for books, they read and they begin saying how GREAT HE IS. That is what is happening around me. It is syntomatic. That is BHAGWAN space. To end this big letter, almost a book, I ask you to help US (by us I mean YOU and all HUMAN KIND, YOU and LIFE ON EARTH), to see that BHAGWAN stays with US. HE is to my understanding a GREAT MASTER, a man of incredible WISDOM, a TEACHER of imesurable value. We all need HIM. LOVE , |
(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.)
