Testimonial letter from illegible (Orthodox Church of Italy)
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 the National President of the Venerable Permanent Counsel of the Orthodox Church of Italy. It is "Exhibit A-13" 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.
 Chiesa Ortodossa d'Italia TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN I had the opportunity since 1980 to read books of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh published in Italian and to assist by means of videotapes to some of His Satsang (ceremony of silent meeting of Bhagwan and the ones present). These experiences, particularly the parts of the lectures concerning the value of the original religions, the Masters, founders of religious schools, made me perceive the profound quality of this religion born in India and which now is growing all over the world. Although belonging to another religious institution I hold myself capable to affirm in full awareness that Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh is a great religious Master of our age who is giving a very leigh contribution to raise the knowing and the consciousness of the human self. I wrote 'religious Master’ and not 'great thinker' because all his work is perspired by a subtle energy that gives to simple words the fullness of truth. This quality is the quality of the great religious Masters and it is this what distinguishes them from the wondering and the intellectual language that is common to the great thinkers. This kind of subtle energy we can perceive also in the silent meetings that characterize the new relation between Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh and his devotees and persons like me who lead other religions. Yours faithfully |
(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.)
