Contents

Contents

 

Colophon

Acknowledgements

Contents

Preface

Introduction

Scope and Limitations
Research Method
Field Surveys
Primary Sources
Secondary Sources
Presentation

Part One
Raja Rajneesh
1931 – 1951 Kuchwada and Gadarwara

Prologue
1.0 Birth and Childhood in Kuchwada 1931 – 1939
1.1 School Days and Early Youth in Gadarwara 1939 – 1951
School Days in Gadarwara
Gandhism and Socialism
1.2 Spiritual Traditions
Jainism
Tantra
Indian Saints and Mystics
1.3 Early Steps of a Bookman
Prayas
Reading and Book Collecting
Shashi
Use of Public Library and Own Library

Part Two
Acharya Rajneesh
1951-1970 Jabalpur

2.0 Jabalpur
2.1 Academic Studies in Jabalpur and Sagar
Settling in Jabalpur
Activities and Pleasures
Nav-Bharat
Studies for M.A. in Sagar
2.2 Enlightenment in Bhanvar Tal Garden
Prelude
Enlightenment
Aftermath
2.3 Reading and Book Collecting
2.4 Academic Libraries in Jabalpur
2.5 Lecturer and Ass. Professor of Philosophy
2.6 Religious Conferences
Taran Jayanti & Sarva Dharma Sammelan
Second World Hindu Religion Conference
2.7 Teaching and Traveling
Debate and Controversy
Hardship of Traveling
Household
Power of Speech
On the Road
2.8 First Printed Booklets
Virgin Prints
Sadhana Path (Path of Self-Realization)
Kranti Beej (Seeds of Revolutionary Thought)
Jeevan Jagruti Kendra
Sambhog Se Samadhi Ki Ore (From Sex to Superconsciousness)
Samajwad Se Sawadhan (Beware of Socialism)
Compilations
Books on Acharya Rajneesh
Audio, Radio, Photo and Video
2.9 Letters, Manuscripts and Articles
Letters
Manuscripts
Articles
2.10 Periodicals
Jyotishikha
Yukrant
2.11 Meditation Camps
2.12 Leaving Jabalpur

Part Three
Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh
1970-1974 Bombay

3.0 Bombay
3.1 Arriving in Bombay
3.2 Woodlands Apartments
Laxmi, Chinmaya and Vivek
3.3 Neo-sannyas in Kulu Manali
3.4 Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh
Individual Work
Kirtan Mandali
3.5 Reading and Book Collecting
Library in Woodlands
3.6 Discourses and Publications
Listening to Bhagwan
Outdoor Lectures
Evening Discourses
Articles
3.7 Meditation Camps
Mount Abu camps
3.8 Westerners and Publications in English
I Am the Gate (1972)
Editing and Reading Bhagwan
Compilations
Books on Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh
3.9 Periodicals
3.10 Letters
3.11 Leaving Bombay for Poona

Postscript

Appendix

1. Timeline. Osho’s Life and Work in India.
2. Lectures and Discourses 1964-1974: A Record
3. Early tape-recorded Lectures
4. Manuscripts
5. Collection of long-playing Records etc.
6. Autobiography of a Spiritually Incorrect Mystic
7. Osho’s Life. An Anthology of Osho’s Life From His Own Books
8. Discourses and Books on Indian Spiritual Traditions
9. References to Selected Topics
10. Books I Have Loved
11. Letters and Diary
12. Extremist of Study and Great Lover of Books. Chapter 9
13. Activities of Neo-Sannyas International
14. Indian and International Quotes and Comments on Osho

Glossary

Notes

Corrections. Update 2021

Bibliography 1945 – 1974

References

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Preface

 

OSHO Source Book is a comprehensive study of the formative years of Osho’s life and work with a focus on his reading, book collecting and the dissemination of his message. It covers the years from his early childhood (he was born in 1931) through to his departure from Bombay for Poona in 1974. Accordingly the biography includes his meetings with various spiritual traditions, his academic years in Jabalpur, his enlightenment and his train rides when he was traveling and lecturing all over India before he in 1970 settled in Bombay. The arrival of the first Westerners who were coming to be near him in the early seventies is also mentioned, and the main emphasis in this bio-bibliography will be on the very early days when his followers were Indians and Hindi the language of his lectures.

Introduction provides some insight into the study’s intentions and limitations, and presents the variety of information collected during the author’s journeys in India. Bibliography and References provide stepping stones for further studies into one of India’s most remarkable masters and mystics.

The undertaking of mapping Osho’s ocean of publications and their provenance would not have succeeded without extensive field work and meetings with a vast number of early sannyas informants who kindly offered to share their experiences and collections with me. They are all mentioned in the Notes and will not be listed here, but they can be assured of my deepest thankfulness for their contribution. Without their willingness and devotion to their master and his legacy, the study you are about to read could not have been completed.

This said, three key persons stand out, and they all have to be acknowledged with gratitude: Osho’s younger brother Nikalank Bharti, collector of Osho’s work from childhood days and his ‘first librarian’, Arvind Kumar Jain, Osho’s secretary in Jabalpur and preserver of many manuscripts and virgin publications, and Yog Chinmaya, Osho’s secretary and editor in Bombay who has carefully preserved Osho’s early published booklets and magazines. In their commitment they have all honored the very qualities so dear to this librarian and writer: to preserve and keep for the future of mankind material which we may not widely value right now, but which is worth its weight in gold. All of us are a bit like avatars of the Hindu God Vishnu, the Preserver; I might be tempted to add.

Swami Abhijat whom I met in the Press Office in Poona 1989, is warmly credited for turning me on to visit Osho Lao Tzu Library for the first time and giving me the initial push to go forward with this far-fetched inclination of mine. This has been an ongoing field survey and adventure ever since, extending over the past 25 years.

This digital version of OSHO Source BOOK is to some extent filling in the Indian gap before the lavishly illustrated publications covering Osho’s later phases where he increasingly became available to a Western audience: The Sound of Running Water. A Photobiography of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh and His Work 1974 – 1978 (1980 & 2010), and its continuation The Song of the Ocean. A Photobiography of Osho and His Work 1979 – 1990 (2010). The design and presentation of photos in these biographies are not to be surpassed, but many rare photos have been included in the digital OSHO Source BOOK supplemented with additional photos in the Appendix.

Quite a few potential editors have realized the magnitude of their task and desisted from carrying it through. I want to express my gratitude to anyone who have contributed and tried to enhance this gargantuan mountain of text and information. Rather than keep on waiting for the appropriate editor, who can cope with the Indian context as well as library science, we have decided to make the full text available to readers and researchers in digital format – ‘author’s uncut version’ – and leave it to the future to show if some abridged and edited paperback edition may eventually find its way to the Indian and international market.

The reader is hereby invited to embark on a journey which may lead to unknown territories within, as well as outside hidden wonders in the spiritual heritage of India.

Pierre Evald, May 2014
Skagen, Denmark

“Yes, I call India not a country, but an inner space.
I call India not something that exists there in geography,
on the maps. I call India that which exists hidden within you,
and that which you have not yet discovered.
India is your innermost space.
India is not a nation, it is a state of mind.”
Come Follow to You. Vol. 4 #10

 

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