Testimonial letter from Vladimir Asriev
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 Vladimir Asriev. It is "Exhibit A-749" 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— With this letter I want to express my personal opinion as a professional musician - I graduated from Lvov Conservatory (U.S.S.R.) in 1972 with a certificate in performance (violin), equal to American Conservatory M.A. artist - Odessa Art College, graduated in 1975, certificate of monumental art and a collector of Modern Art. On the work of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh I first came across the books of this amazing person in the late 1970's. At once it was obvious to me that I had encountered a very exceptional man. That time I was still living in the Soviet Union and his books were and still are circulating underground circles there. For many years I was involved in the Soviet Artists Non-Conformist movement. My friends and I struggled with the regime, organizing unofficial art exhibitions and progressive musicians and poet’s gatherings. We made the outside world aware of us. Many of my paintings are now in private collections and galleries in the U.S.A, and Europe. I also was one of the few collectors of Russian and Ukranian Unofficial Art in the U.S.S.R. - unfortunately a large part of my collection was taken away from me by Soviet authorities when I was leaving the country. Many times I was harassed by the K.G.B. for my activities but I continued. I totally devoted myself to the development and progressive art and thought in the U.S.S.R. and although I had to leave Russia and now am living in the West, my love and devotion towards free expression of an individual remains and became even stronger after the influence of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh’s teachings. His contribution to humanity, especially in the fields of Religion, Art and Science and Aesthetics, his techniques for developing awareness, his spiritual guidance through his eloquent silence are the source of inspiration in my everyday activities. My musical and artistic abilities are expanding constantly with silent help. His meditations help me in lots of ways. For an example in performing - my old stage fear disppeared completely. Through Bhagwan the whole world of beauty has opened to me and continues to open. Before his spoken words, uttered in sheer love, made me attracted to him and his message and now for me and for hundreds of thousands of people all over the world his silent presence is enough to make His message a reality. He works through silence now and during this period there has been a tremendously strong, powerful communion happening between him and his disciples. During his silent phase an energy field has been created, a Buddhafield, here in America, called Rajneeshpuram. His vision of a place where free people would live, work, share together in love, understanding and grattitude to this Divine Existence, has come true. Last year when I first came to Rajneeshpuram for the First Annual World Celebration of a Master’s Day, I was amazed at the amount of creative work which had been done for such a short time. And this year coming for the Second Annual World Celebration, I prepared myself to see new happenings but again I was surprised by such an incredible change since the last year Festival. Now for a short time like this normally it is impossible to create a city which would be an oasis in all senses. This can only happen once in a while in a human history when a man like Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh is born - an Enlightened One who can make this miracle happen without an effort, without much doing, silently! I also want to stress the fact that in his lectures Bhagwan many times expressed his support for American democracy. So for me to hear that Bhagwan’s American disciples want him to stay in the U.S.A, was great news. He would be a gift for any country. 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.)
