Tao Upanishad #55

Lao Tzu has called realization the stealing of light. Let us understand two points about theft. Stealing is an art. And, if we do not wander into moral reflections, a very difficult art. To steal means: to do something in such a way that nowhere in the world does anyone come to know. If it becomes known, the thief is not adept. A thief even enters your house. The very things you find hard to locate in broad daylight, that same thief, in the night’s darkness, in an unfamiliar house, without so much as a sound, finds them all. You do not even come to know. If a thief leaves his marks behind, it means he is not yet skillful; he must still be learning—has not yet become a thief. Lao Tzu calls the attainment of truth, of light, too, a theft—for this very reason. If it becomes known to anyone that you are seeking truth, that very being known will become a hindrance. Jesus has said: let not your left hand know what your right hand does. Let your prayer be so silent that none but Paramatma can hear it. But whether our prayers reach Paramatma or not, the whole neighborhood hears them. Perhaps we have little concern with Paramatma; that the neighbors should hear—this is more important, of immediate utility. So man does religion beating the drum. It is a great irony: adharma we do stealthily, hiding, and dharma we do very publicly. Lao Tzu, Jesus, or Buddha are people of another kind; they say: just as you commit sin on the sly, in the same way do virtue. They are very contrary people. They say: if you must commit sin, do it openly; and if you would do virtue, do it in secret. Because if someone tries to commit sin openly, he cannot do it. Understand this a little. If someone tries to commit sin openly, he cannot do it. Sin has to be hidden, because sin is contrary to the ego. And if someone does virtue openly, he still cannot do it; because once made public, virtue becomes food for the ego. Virtue can only be done secretly; sin too can only be done secretly. What is not to be done should be done openly; what is to be done should be done on the sly. If you do not want to commit sin, then do it in public—then sin will not happen. And if you do not want to do virtue, only to deceive by the doing, then do it publicly—virtue will not happen. But people know that sin they are going to do in any case, so they do it secretly. And people know that with virtue it is enough if only the announcement be made that it has been done; no one really wants to do it. Therefore people do virtue publicly.