Testimonial letter from Sw Prem Niket
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 Niket (Stuart M. Jones). It is "Exhibit A-858" 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.
 P.O. Box 10 TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN: I first met Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh in June 1975 in Poona, India. I became a disciple of his immediately. Listening to his daily discourses and tapes and reading his books over the next ten years, I was constantly amazed and enthralled by his knowledge of, and insight into so many different subjects; in religion, in the arts, and in the sciences. In 1970 I qualified as a veterinarian from Christ’s College, Cambridge, England, with a Masters Degree in Physiology and degrees in Veterinary Medicine and Surgery, and a member of the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons. Up until the time I met Bhagwan I practiced veterinary medicine in England and carried out physiological research at the Royal College of Surgeons of England. Two scientific papers were published during this time. In my opinion, there is absolutely no doubt that Bhagwan qualifies as a person of exceptional merit in virtually any subject we care to name. In my field in dealing with the management of animals, in health and disease, he has given me great insight even in my highly specialized work. In the past my approach to the work was to engage an unending war against the forces of nature, using an infinite variety of scientific techniques at my disposal; drugs, procedures, and genetic control. The same methods are still used, but in a different way—working with nature, rather than against it. The subtle changes arise from listening to Bhagwan over the years in personal meetings. More recently, just being in Bhagwan's presence and among his disciples is sufficient to create the energy for these transformations in work, in fact, in all areas of daily life. This energy reaches a peak of expression during the festivals which take place in Rajneeshpuram, when all disciples celebrate in Bhagwan's presence. Life itself is celebrated here so that ordinary life becomes quite extraordinary. This extraordinary life which has become available to the disciples here is directly due to Bhagwan's presence. It is necessary, for this to continue, that Bhagwan remains here. 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.)
