Five thousand words per day

The last question:

It is from Yatri.

For the record…. Osho, two days ago, for reasons clearly spiritual, you admitted to speaking only a modest five thousand words per day. From a purely scientific viewpoint, this statement would seem to contain certain inaccuracies. The actual figure – and this any transcriber, editor or tape operator will independently verify – is approximately three times the amount, counting both the morning discourse and the evening darshan. This means that one hundred and five thousand words are spoken each week, and a handsome total of five million five hundred thousand words are given to us in one year. In three short years a chain of such words would indeed girdle the earth. Is this a record for an enlightened voice?

We are sure the master needs the opportunity to verify or refute such extravagant claims.

They are not extravagant, and I absolutely agree with you, Yatri. But, a Master always has his ways to escape; you cannot catch him so easily. And he can always bring some esoteric thing into it.

Yes, fifteen thousand words are spoken: remember, I am not saying I am speaking…. Fifteen thousand words per day are spoken: five thousand from the body, five thousand from the mind, five thousand from me!

Let me tell you one anecdote:

A jaguar persuaded a cat to teach him how to pounce. After a few successful experiments with bugs and insects, the jaguar, his appetite whetted, decided to try out this new technique on the cat itself. The cat, however, jumped out of danger like a flash, and the jaguar landed in a heap.

“That is not fair!” whined the jaguar. “You did not teach me that trick.”

“A smart teacher,” the cat reminded him, “never teaches a pupil all his tricks.”

Remember that.

And Yatri is right: my mathematics are poor. It has always been so. So whenever it comes to mathematics I will always agree with you. But metaphysics has its own ways to get out of any entanglement. That’s why I can so easily contradict myself.

I speak only five thousand words a day.

Osho, The Discipline of Transcendence, Vol 4, Ch 2, Q 4 – 1 November 1976