Testimonial letter from Sw Prem Lokateet
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 Lokateet. It is "Exhibit A-1831" 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 Lokateet TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN: I received a Master’s degree in German Literature from Ohio State University in 1973. I received an award from the University of Massachusetts for my undergraduate studies in German. For a year I studied at the University of Freiburg in West Germany. At the end of that year I was offered a University fellowship from Ohio State and accepted it. My particular interest and talent is in German poetry. In 1980 I read my first book by Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh called THE MUSTARD SEED and was immensely impressed not only by the depth of his insights but by the poetic fashion in which those views were expressed. For the first time in my life I felt a deep connection with Jesus and an understanding of the message Jesus was trying to express. This book had a profound effect on my life. I have since read a half dozen more of his works and am convinced that Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh is the most exceptional literary talent and spiritual teacher alive today. It is rare to find a poet of his depth and clarity. I have no doubt of the tremendous contribution Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh has made in the field of literature and poetry. I feel his presence is a great asset to the cultural life of America. Personally, it wasn’t until I came to a festival at Rajneeshpuram last September, and sat in Bhagwan’s presence, that I began to feel a deep connection with him. The beauty of the stillness within that one can feel with Bhagwan far surpasses anything that he has said or done. I have sat with Him 10 times since September, and can only say that the silence is getting deeper and fuller. Naturally, these sittings with Bhagwan have had a positive effect on my life. I now feel truly inspired about being alive and my life has a vibrancy that was never there before and which is expressed in everything I do. Experiencing moments of the divinity within is something which cannot be shared through words. My only wish is that every American could have the opportunity to sit with Bhagwan and have the possibility of a true religious experience. 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.)
