Osho's First Forays in Publishing

Preserved is also the inventory of books from his first library 1943-52. This too is handwritten, and contains 1106 entries according to title, author, price and subject.

So here we have one founding stone for his book collecting later to flourish in the libraries of his residences in Jabalpur and Woodlands. Arriving in Pune, Lao Tzu House was over the years totally transformed into a corridor-library, ranking it among the largest private libraries worldwide.

‘Mere Vichar’ (My Thoughts) — an article written by Rajneesh in Mukul, 1953. The letters to the editor in the same issue were written and answered entirely by Osho himself. Even here, the young voice challenged received ideas with unusual force and clarity.

'Path Ke Pradeep' was on 24 pages, with Osho's photo on the cover and published by the Digambara sect of Jainism. When Osho was speaking, it was distributed in the audience.

In 1969 a new and larger edition in book form and containing more short teachings was published from Chatarpur under the same title.

Twenty-four pages, Osho's photograph on the cover, published by the Digambara sect of Jainism and distributed in the audience as he spoke.

In 1969 a new and larger edition in book form and containing more short teachings was published from Chatarpur under the same title.

Osho in conversation amid the shelves of his Jabalpur personal library. Books lined every wall — a world built volume by volume, title by title, since childhood.

This library, and the one that would follow at Woodlands in Bombay, were the physical manifestation of a lifelong hunger for knowledge that began in the small public library of Gadarwara.

From its founding in 1964-65, the Jeevan Jagruti Kendra (Life Awakening Movement) was publishing his books and organizing his tours throughout India, soon to be complemented in this by Lala Sundarlal Jain from Motilal Banarsidass.

And two magazines now began to disseminate the essence of his teachings: 'Youti Shikka' (Lamplight, Bombay 1966-74) and 'Yukrand' (Youth Revolution, Jabalpur 1969-75).

Two years after the Hindi original, Sadhana Path crossed into English as 'The Path of Self-Realization' (Delhi, 1966) — the first of his works to be translated.

From 1964 onwards, books began appearing in rapid succession — first in Hindi, then in English. Sadhana Path (1964), Jeevan Kranti Ka Vigyan, Kranti Beej (1965), Sinhnaad, Ahinsa Darshan, Mitti Ke Diye (1966), and the first English titles — The Earthen Lamps, Who Am I (1968) and Seeds of Revolutionary Thought (1969).

Each cover bears his face or his signature. A voice finding its form in print, spreading from Bombay and Jabalpur across India and beyond.

The second magazine, rooted in Jabalpur where it had all begun. His portrait fills the cover alongside his words on what life is — a sacred offering, a divine opportunity, a great awakening.

The voice that once wrote alone in a boyhood magazine now spoke to a generation.

That Osho's discourses were spontaneous and presented in a most fluent and poetic Hindi, we know from experience. But in his days in Jabalpur he was carefully writing manuscripts for his talks, like his numerous handwritten letters.

When preparing his lectures and articles, he was at that time occasionally using his 1960-Olympia typewriter with its Hindi keyboard. Or his manuscripts were passed on to his secretary Arvind Jain, who did the typing and prepared his manuscripts for publication.

His writing of manuscripts finally ended in 1968, and from then on only brief notes on sutras, jokes and the like were to be found on his clipboard. Now all publishing had to be based on transcriptions from his live lectures.

Arriving in Pune, Lao Tzu House was over the years totally transformed into a corridor-library, ranking it among the largest private libraries worldwide.

Shelves reaching floor to ceiling, books flowing through every room — the one founding stone laid in 1943 with that first handwritten inventory had become a monument.