Testimonial letter from Sw Prem Guy
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 Guy. It is "Exhibit A-2019" 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.
 Swami Prem Guy To Whom it May Concern: Hello. I’m writing this letter to try and impart something of my experience of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh. But first let me tell you a little bit about myself. I was born in Southern California in 1956. I went to school in the San Fernando Valley and Simi Valley, graduating from Royal High School in 1975. I was a very good student and enjoyed school for the most part. From High School I went to college. I loved music and decided that this was the direction I would go. In one of my music classes I had a teacher named Allen Hyams. He was an amazing human being. He was the first teacher I ever met that taught purly through love. The love he had for music flowed through his teaching and into the hearts of his students. I began to grow, compose and play the piano with an inspiration that was nurtured by this man. 'But through it all, something was still missing. That same kind of inspiration I now felt for music, I did not have for life. Then came Bhagwan. I came across a book of his - Meditation: The Art Of Ecstasy. And like Mr. Hyams taught music through his love of music, Bhagwan teaches life through his love of life itself. And this love was instilled in me. Now this beloved human being has come to this great country. First, because his body was ill and in this land He could be made well again. What a blessing to us all. Bhagwan is now staying in Oregon. I am also at Rajneeshpuram, living and working near this miraculous human being. When He drives by me with his hand raised and his face beaming, I am overwhelmed with love. Sitting silently in His presence His very being is an overflowing of ecstasy that moves all around me and into my heart. To use the word exceptional is an understatement when describing this man. Mozart and Chopin were exceptional. Thoreau and Emerson were exceptional. Lincoln and Jefferson were exceptional. Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh is a human being who’s very existence is a challenge to life itself. He says, look, I am alive and I am ecstatic. I am alive and I am joyous, silent and blissful. And I am no different from you. I am just awake and you are just asleep. Awaken! And in His presence this is happening. It is happening to me. Please let this very exceptional human being stay in the United States of America. 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.)
