Testimonial letter from Sw Prabhu Mark
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 Prabhu Mark (Mark Harris). It is "Exhibit A-808" 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.
 Sw. Prabhu Mark To whom it may concern: I am writing as an engineer and a scientist to express my deep conviction that it is important for this country and, indeed, the future of mankind that Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh remain here in the U.S. where to the widest extent possible his message, influence and presence can be experienced. I feel this very strongly since for most of my life I have been involved in the kind of highly technological work which rightly used can bring immense benefits to all mankind but can also be easily turned into weapons for destruction. I hold a B.S. and M.S. in electrical engineering from University of California in Berkeley, where I was elected to the Engineering Honor Society (Eta Kappa Nu) and the Scientific Honor Society (Sigma Xi). For approximately 8 years I worked at Lawrence Radiation Laboratory (both in Berkeley and in Livermore) on numerous AEC projects. From this experience I know first hand the line between constructive and destructive technology. I worked for about four years in the field of electronic computers at Beckman Instruments and Colorado Research and spent another 10 years working in the aerospace industry designing and building control systems for space-craft (Ball Brothers Research Corp., Boulder Colo. and Exotech, Washington D.C.). In my work I was - by most standards - very successful in the sense of rising to positions of authority and responsibility and, of course, high salary. Still it was somehow not a satisfying life and in 1972 I dropped out. After several years of putting as much distance between myself and technology as possible I happened to read a book by Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh and was immediately struck by his clarity, insight and knowledge. I simply could not believe the extent and range of his understanding of science and physics and his ability to make clear the inter-dependence of science and religion. From that point I literally experienced a tremendous change in my life and my view of the world. I went to India so that I could experience 1st hand the feeling of being in his presence and being part of 'experiment' of living in harmony and love. My feeling then, as now, was that Bhagwan’s message and his presence can be of immense benefit to individuals and to mankind in general. For over a year now I have been living and working at Rajneeshpuram, OR. I am now, once again, engaged in technological work but with a tremendous difference - and that difference arises because of Bhagwan's presence, the energy that manifests when people live and work in harmony instead of competition. It is my experience that people from widely different backgrounds, different nationalities, and different viewpoints can - because of Bhagwan - form a cohesive, loving, caring community. I can not think of any contribution or service to all of mankind more significant that this. To reap the benefits of technology without entailing the consequent dangers of warfare and destruction is a gift more precious than anything I can imagine. Now, as never before, do we in this country need the wisdom and stabilizing influence embodied by Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh and his work. I sincerely hope that everything possible will be done to insure his continued residency in this country 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.)
