Though for ages, human beings have been taught every kind of morality, the world is living proof that it has not worked. Morality was brought in as a substitute because we have not done anything to keep our humanity awake and alive all the time. If your humanity was alive, there would be no need for morality. If your humanity was in full force, would you need morality? No.
Morality is always different from society to society and person to person. Something that is perfectly okay in one society is dead wrong in another society. Morality is always subject to people’s convenience. But humanity is not a convenience, it is your essential nature. It is not something that you invented. Morality is invented. Humanity has to be discovered. You can only discover that which is already there, but you can invent anything.
Different times in history and different points of geography have had different moralities. Whatever your grandmother thought was absolutely immoral, is something you are doing shamelessly today. Morality always differs from person to person according to times and situations.
There is always a huge argument between one generation and another generation about what is moral or immoral. In every house, the fight is going on. But there has never been an argument about humanity. Wherever humanity found its expression, at any time in history or any point in geography, it is always the same.
On the surface, in our values, morals and ethics, each one of us may be different. But if you know how to poke a person deep enough to get this humanity out, every one of us will do things the same way.
To impose morality, you do not need any involvement with people. I just have to tell you things like, “speak kindly. If you speak angrily, you will burn in hell”. But if you want to bring forth humanity in a person, it takes much more involvement. You have to give yourself. But it is worthwhile, because morality may bring social order but it will cause inner havoc. Morality brings some sense of social order for some time but it destroys the human being.
Humanity will also bring social order, but in a loose way without any enforcement. It will make the human being beautiful. That is what is most important. If humanity flowers and overflows, divinity will be the next natural step. Only if you allow your humanity to overflow within you, divinity will flower. Without the richness of humanity, divinity cannot happen, no matter what you do.
Morality never brought divinity, but it has brought guilt, shame and fear, because nobody can fulfill the kind of morals which have been set.
Make a list of all the things that the major religions of the world call as sin. You will see, just to be alive is a sin. Anything that you do is a sin. Your very birth is a sin. Since the very process of life is supposed to be a sin, you always feel guilty and terrified.
Only because there are so many ways in which you suppress your humanity, you need morality to be good. If your humanity is in full swing you would not need morality. Sadhguru is a yogi, mystic, a bestselling author and poet. He was conferred the Padma Vibhushan in 2017. Isha.sadhguru.org