Osho was without question the most literate Eastern guru in memory—and possibly the most well read mystic ever. From his teenage years he began collecting books and by the time he was twenty years old he was already very well read. Throughout his college years both as an undergraduate and later as a philosophy professor his collection continued to grow. Near the end of his life in the late 1980s it was estimated to be around 100,000 volumes. Osho himself mentioned the figure of 150,000. The Danish professor Pierre Evald, who is also a disciple of Osho’s, did a study of Osho’s library and estimated the actual number to be closer to 80,000.1 He reports that about 70,000 of these have been read, signed and dated by Osho. The remaining 10,000 have been gathered since 1987 at which point Osho was no longer reading (he said in an interview in 1985 that he’d basically stopped reading in 1981). For a private library the figure of 80,000 is extraordinarily large (and indeed, Evald suggested that it may be the largest private collection in the world). As a point of comparison an entire main library in a mid-sized city might hold around a million books, barely ten times more than Osho’s collection.2 The most important library of the ancient world, in Alexandria in northern Egypt, is estimated to have had a collection of several hundred thousand scrolls. However an entire piece of writing—what we would now call a “book”—could take several scrolls to contain and so the actual number of “books” in the Alexandria library would have been smaller, perhaps around 100,000, similar to the size of Osho’s library. The Alexandrian library was famously destroyed in a series of calamities, most notably in what are suspected to have been burnings instigated by Julius Caesar (accidentally) a fourth century Christian bishop (intentionally) and a seventh century Muslim Caliph (intentionally). In England in the late 16th century during the time of Queen Elizabeth I and Shakespeare, the largest library in the country (and possibly all of Europe) belonged to the queen’s court astrologer, advisor, and magus, John Dee. He had around 4,000 volumes.3 Much of this collection was eventually destroyed by a mob convinced that Dee was a conjurer of spirits. He was, amongst other things, but what today would be regarded as “channeling” unfortunately was in those days highly suspect and possible grounds for being burnt at the stake. Dee survived, but alas, many of his books didn’t. To give some idea of the impressiveness of Dee’s collection, the main library at Cambridge University in the late 16th century only had about 450 books in all.4 In fact Dee’s library was the true academic center of England at his time and was known to have received visits from a number of notable people, including the queen herself. As for content his collection reflected the fact that he was a Renaissance magus: he had works on science (he was one of the leading mathematicians, cartographers, and navigators of his time), as well as the complete works of the major Greek philosophers, the Neoplatonists, poetry, theology, alchemy, magic, and so on. Osho may not have been a conjurer of spirits (at least in the classic sense) and nor was India’s head of state sufficiently open to use him as an advisor5, but one thing he did have in common with Dee was that he was a man with a universal outlook and (especially in his younger years) an interest in reading anything of quality he could get his hands on. Osho said that for much of his life he read twelve hours per day, sometimes eighteen hours.6 This again is reminiscent of Dee who famously recorded that he allowed himself only four hours sleep a night, two hours for eating and other essentials, and eighteen hours a day for study. Assuming that Pierre Evald’s estimate is accurate and that Osho had read about 70,000 volumes of his collection; and assuming that Osho was reading consistently from around ages fifteen to fifty (that is, around 1946 to 1981 when he gave up reading) then that would suggest that in roughly 35 years he read about 2,000 books per year—or, around six books per day. And when it’s considered that he did not actually retain a copy in his collection of every book he read—Evald reports that there are libraries in northern India that still have Osho’s name on them as the only person who ever borrowed the book—then we can safely assume that the number he read is even higher. Osho was a known speed reader and was reported by those close to him who used to supply him with books that he was devouring between ten and fifteen per day. So the above figures would indeed seem to be legitimate. Any way it is looked at Osho’s accomplishment in this realm is extraordinary. Evald—in his critically researched and balanced study—simply calls him “the greatest bookman of India and the most voracious reader worldwide in the 20th century.” He further claims that Osho actually read between 150,000 and 200,000 books in his lifetime. That indeed translates as his followers claimed to between twelve and fifteen books a day over thirty-five years. Even if we use a “low” figure of ten books per day this works out to about a book per hour of available reading time. The average book is about 60,000-80,000 words long. This means Osho’s speed reading amounted to at least 1,000 words per minute. The average reader can comprehend and retain about 150-300 words per minute; high achievers can approach 600 words per minute. Speed readers however are capable of spectacular rates: the current record holder is a man named Howard Berg who can read (if you can believe it) 25,000 words per minute.7 He has been repeatedly tested on this and demonstrated his ability to actually recall in detail what he reads. That rate is sufficient to read the Bible in half an hour and Leo Tolstoy’s War and Peace in just over 20 minutes. Sam, in Life Of Osho, reports that in the mid-1970s Osho was a “recluse.” He ominously notes, “After the morning lecture he went back into his house…and stayed alone in his room. No one knew what he did there.”8 Perhaps the mystery is hereby solved. However the most remarkable paradox about Osho has always been the substance of his teachings: emphasizing Being, heart, mindfulness, the body—but never the intellect. And yet there he was, with one of the most extraordinary intellects of any mystic ever—and a bibliophile to top it off. Shortly before Osho died he gave specific instructions for his library: no more than three books to be lent out at any given time. It appears as if he left his body with at least one remaining worldly attachment. — with
Posted on: Wed, 24 Jul 2013 06:22:43 +0000
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