According to Osho, invoking “five thousand years” spotlights the tiny slice of human history we actually know; beyond that, we’re in ignorance. The number is illustrative, not exact—meant to humble certainty about our past. It urges us to question inherited narratives, acknowledge the vast unknown, and rely more on direct inquiry than on secondhand, limited records.
He means we only truly know a small bit of history, and most of it is still a big mystery.