Testimonial letter from Sw Sat Samudaya
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 Sat Samudaya. It is "Exhibit A-169" 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 4 pages.
 Swami Sat Samudaya TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN It looks like yet once again I must plead for my place on this planet. Some of my background: I am 53 years old, born and raised in the Ukraine into an orthodox Jewish family. World War II left its marks on me forever—-my whole family was wiped out. I myself survived five concentration camps including Auschwitz, Bergen Belsen and three others. But somehow I managed to survive and get out of the hell called Easter Europe. After the war I was helped to get to England where I was given an opportunity to get an education in engineering, which I did. Four years later I went to Israel, joined the armed forces and came out as a Captain of Engineers, Intelligence. Studied art at the art institute in Jerusalem. Finished with a degree of Bachelor of Arts. After I graduated I was invited to teach graphic arts at that same school, which I did. I started on a career as a graphic designer. In 1959 I came to the states, continued my studies at various schools including School of Visual Arts, Arts Students League, Pratt Institute and various others with courses in design. Through the years I designed all kinds of speciality packaging for, among others, Revlon, various containers for ice creams like Haagen Dazs ice cream and too many, too many to enumerate. I started painting, doing graphic arts, teaching, exhibiting and receiving various awards and a couple of commissions in sculpture -one of them for International Ladies Workers Union. I had quite a promising career ahead of me and was quite active in it but somehow through all this time something was lacking. I was not at peace with myself and I didn’t know why, I didn’t know what it was. I moved out of New York, went upstate, and then, in 1977, I heard of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh from a simple letter-—and lo and behold my life was never the same again. Slowly slowly I started getting familiar with his teachings, with his writings, with his tapes. To me what it was, was what was lacking all these years. I felt he was making it clear to me in a way that no other book, no other human being, no other document has ever even come close. The effect that Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh has had on my life is beyond words but I feel I have to say some no matter how inadequate they may seem. That inner vacuum, that emptiness was missing; that disturbance, that lack of peace. And tranquility was slowly taking shape and filling me up. A love for life, for human beings, for nature, started to bloom and for me, in my case, quite late, namely in my late 40’s. But years have nothing to do with it. I just feel the most fortunate and blessed person that I have come in contact with Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh and that now, five and a half years later, my life has drastically changed and is changing constantly. Just to watch how it was to be around him while he talked, way back in India and, on the other hand, to have this incredible opportunity to be around him and watch what incredible affect his silence has on me. At times I feel that his silence is even more powerful than his words. He had to speak because there was a need for us to have some communication with him and we were not ready for silence--so there were words. And now when I go out to work in the fields or at the drawing board, all I have to see is his presence, his silence, and it’s enough for me to jsut bliss out, a smile on face. And it’s not just me. The power of his silence as recently as five, six days ago attracted 15,000 disciples from all over the world just to sit in his presence in Satsangs with tears of joy flowing from their eyes and laughter on their lips. Even though I was raised to be a so-called religious Jew I never felt it, never knew what it meant not until Bhagwan came into my life and then I felt it. Without any prayers, without any words, without any bibles-—it was just an inner feeling; all I had to do was just look at a flower and I felt the religiousness, the sacredness, the godliness of it all. And to me, if a human being like Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh can do that to another human being, this is one of the most incredible phenomenol experiences ever. And naturally living here on the ranch, in this buddhafield, watching all this happen, at times I have the feeling that I’ll jsut spread my arms and they’ll turn into wings and I’ll fly away. It is so extraordinary. And again without any arm twisting, without brain washing, with just the trust and the loving. And it keeps on growing with his silence. Just have a glimpse of him everyday and the energy gets recharged. It is inconceivable for me to even imagine that a public office like INS would consider for one minute ousting a human being like Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh-—I just cannot imagine it. Considering the goodness that he has been doing and is doing to me personally and to many thousands around the world, it is impossible, I cannot imagine any intelligent being or office ignoring that and not taking that in consideration. Just to live here in Rajneeshpuram and to be a witness and a participant in the energy that is taking place, in what we’re doing, in the way we are living with each other, in the way we’re behaving with each other, is a miracle. Miracles, to me, were always something I never believe, a theme for jokes at best. But being here and getting an understanding of what it means to be living in the presence of an enlightened being—-I would say that what’s happening here comes about the closest to a twentieth-century miracle. [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.)
