Testimonial letter from Sw Prem Devo
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 Prem Devo (Johannes Gregorius Franciscus Steehouwer). It is "Exhibit A-1297" 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.
 J.G.F. Steehouwer To whom it may concern, I am Swami Prem Devo and work as an artist with photos and objects. I completed Artschool in Rotterdam in 5 years after studying architecture for three years. My age is 32 years, Dutch. For my work I am using something you can call an universal truth, often with a scientific as a base. Reading a book of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh in 1978 made me go to Poona India, where I took sannyas and worked in His ashram for over two years. Here I experienced that making art and working were not two things so different, and more and more the two melted together. For me art became what you do, what you say, how you act in daily live. Then my work had a turning point and y,et stayed the same, as I changed my attitude towards it. Art is merely a beautiful work. Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh is a master for me who in many many ways profides me with basic facts for my work, insight which I cann't explane and a thing called Love (very basic in life). For me Bhagwan is a multidimensinal man with a immense interest for everything and therefore an inspiration on many various levels between science and art (head and heart). He is an extraordanary man with special capabilities, a gracious gift, let's give Him some space. The fact that He is in silence now doesn't mean that you cann't see His work! I have been in Rajneeshpuram twice and saw His manifestation in His people over there, working. Unique [signed] |
(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.)
