Testimonial letter from Sw Veet Manas

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 Veet Manas (Paul Graves). It is "Exhibit A-796" 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 2 pages.

Rajneeshpuram, OR 97741 TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN My name is Paul Graves (religious name: Swami Veet Manas), and I have lived at Rajneeshpuram for the past two years. I graduated with a B.A. in Anthropology from the University of California in 1972. I received a scholarship for a Ph.D. program at Tulane University. I left that program and accepted a position as a top auditor with the Internal Revenue Service in 1973. I was stationed at the San Diego office for nearly five years. For the last 2 years of my I.R.S. employment I was primarily involved in the instruction of new I.R.S. trainees at the Los Angeles Training Center. The longer I was involved in the world of business and finance the more I had become cynical about the integrity and the honesty of that world. I saw competition, which should have brought out the best qualities in people, often turn into petty, ruthless, power-games that stifled creativity and anything or anyone else that got in the way of an individual getting only what he wanted. There was also an attitude of "work as drudgery” that permeated much of the business world I came into contact with as well as the attitude of the majority of my colleagues at the I.R.S. Work was viewed only as something which one had to endure so as to be able to generate enough money to be able to enjoy the time when one was not required to work. Everyone seemed to be living for the weekend or the yearly vacation and enjoyment of these times was marred by the knowledge that the day off soon ends and the forced drudgery of the job is certain to roll around again. So, in 1976 when I chanced upon one of Bhagwan’s books I was startled at the unique perspective He offered concerning business and work. This man was saying that business and work did not have to be essentially cutthroat competition in which a very few aim big and the majority serve the few who are at the top. Rather it could be a play and delight just like every other activity in life. It could be an enjoyable game, played intensely yet with humor and not seriously. It did not have to hurt other people. It was a gift from life to be enjoyed fully, in every detail, at every moment. There was no need to live only for the future (days off, vacation, or retirement). As I read more of Bhagwan I began applying what He said to my own work and started noticing a variety of changes in my life. The cynicism I had toward the business world started changing into understanding and even enjoying the people I dealt with in my I.R.S. Adversary role. I began appreciating my employment simply for its own sake. I knew that if just by reading some of the books of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh I could start having a good time with a previously difficult and tedious job, then Bhagwan certainly bad something valid and important to share with the world. I was convinced that Bhagwan, though little known in the U.S.A. in 1976, would some day be an important influence throughout the world. I left my employ with the I.R.S. in 1977 to further involve myself with Bhagwan and His work. I wished to be in more direct contact with Him so that I could learn to put into practice His teachings more quickly and effectively. Since that time I have travelled to India two times and managed a Rajneesh Meditation Center near San Francisco, while actually maintaining and improving my business contacts and skills. Bhagwan is a man who obviously has made a profound difference in my own life, and there is no doubt that His message and vision has influenced the lives of countless others. Bhagwan has transformed my personal business attitudes and mentality as well as the quality of work of thousands of His disciples. His unique approach to the world of business is now being positively felt by many Oregon businessemen who contact His disciples. It seems clear that Bhagwan is a man with an exceptional ability to affect the world of business throughout the United States. His physical presence in the United States serves to dramatically amplify the influence the effect of His teachings in this area. [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.)