Testimonial letter from Wim Gijsen
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 Wim Gijsen. It is "Exhibit A-516" 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.
 The Hague, Netherlands, 21-7-1983 Dear Ma Anand Lativa, Recently it came to my attention that under the pressure of American law Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh might be expelled from American soil and I wish to convey my deep concern about such a deportation. I am not a sannyasin and it is'nt likely that I ever will be one. But as a writer by profession I am especially interested in the way different cultures are intermingling. I am rather well known in Holland if I may say so, not only for my novels and poetry but also as a 'philosopher' who tries to track down possible lines into the future, using al my wits and various ways of approaching people, to convince them that our western culture is in deep need of a evolutionary change. You see, I believe, and I am not standing alone in this, that our culture has come to a point where it can either survive by slowly adapting different ways of behaviour or perish under its own succumbing power. It happened before in history. Were the Romans still alive they could tell us all about it. Mass-unemployment, massive overproduction, the arms-race and the nuclear threat, the unheard off mass-starvation in the Third World, these are all signs of a great culture at its end. Only a culture-shock that rocks us out of our impassiveness can create the beginnings of a new era without too much trouble. There will be trouble no doubt, any major change in the world always has. But nowadays it's a small world where we live in and, lucky for us, our chances are better then the Romans got in their time. We are able to know what other people think in different parts of the world, we can look at our own behaviour by the more objective eyes belonging to someone of a different culture. It is therefore that I value Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh so much. I am quite familiar with the Eastern ways of thinking, their religion, their philosophy because I studied it and have tried to make their ideas known to the Dutch audience bij writing, by broadcastingprogrammes, by translating. By doing so, I naturally came across the works of Bhagwan and I might say that I selden ever encountered a more sincere and Godloving man. His sayings, as laid down in so many books are really clear and enlightening and I wish all the people who have to judge whether he should stay or not in the United States should read his comments and explanations on the words of our Lord Jesus Christ. I found it deeply moving, full of a great understanding that is desperately lacking in so many of us that call themselves Christians. Indeed I daresay he is one of the few great souls from India (that brought us Ghandi before.') that could bring about an initial change in the hearts of many of us. It a rare and precious thing that is given to us, to be able to learn from people from different parts of our globe to mend our own ways in as far as they are wrong and we should welcome every opportunity to do so. I therefore ask the judges to let Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh stay where God has so obviously put him to our benefit. May He bless the men and women who are called to judge. My sincere best wishes for all of you |
(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.)
