Testimonial letter from Sw Anand Vidyarthi
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 Anand Vidyarthi. It is "Exhibit A-1555" 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.
 Rajneeshpuram, OR 9771 TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN : I have been living in Rajneeshpuram for a while. This is the most beautiful, peaceful and loving city I know. I was born as a son of a great car dealer in Germany and was trained to take over the business one day. It was when, as a tourist through India that I met Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh. Till then my life had been mediocre and sad. Every day I attended listening to Bhagwan’s discourses and listened in fascination while he was talking about religion, meditation, philosophy and psychology. This man was not only a man of knowledge - he is a man of wisdom. The way he integrates traditional meditation techniques into modern human psychology establishes him also as a great psychotherapist. No university and no professor could possibly combine such understanding, knowledge and scientific information with such a high level of consciousness. Although He remains in silence now the heart-to-heart communication between my master and me is strong. I feel that he cares for me in every possible way. This understanding of man and his problems and his overwhelming love qualify him for me to be a religious teacher. Due to him, Rajneeshpuram is a city without violence, crime, poverty. Bhagwan allows the energy and love to flower in every person. So work becomes meditation, worship. This city is an extraordinary example to every country in the world. Now I’m here in Rajneeshpuram worshipping as the service manager in Rajneesh Buddhafield Garage taking care of four hundred vehicles. Working and growing with Bhagwan I’m less occupied and blinded by my personal problems. My whole mechanical abilities and my whole sensitivity can flow into my work. It is not only a job with my mind. It allows my being to be alive. This is an incredible help to diagnose cars, to organize a garage, to worship with everybody in the garage. Bhagwan’s being and presence is a blessing for me. At the same time I feel lucky to be part of a great happening. Rajneeshpuram is the heart of a new religion which attracts every day more followers and international recognition. Swami Anand Vidyarthi |
(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.)
