There are people who think they can be moral without being religious. Morality is only a shadow that follows the religious man, not vice versa.
It is not that you have to be moral first and then you can become religious — that's what the priests have been teaching you — first be moral! They are putting the cart before the bullocks. And if you have not moved anywhere — no evolution — there is nothing to be surprised about. Morality is only a very small thing.
If your consciousness rises to the height of religion, morality will come on its own. Morality grows like leaves on the trees; you simply water the trees. You take care of the roots. You need not pull the leaves out of the tree — you will destroy them; they will come when the time is ripe. You don't have to be worried about them. But all your so-called priests are teaching morality, and that's why people have become hypocrites. I
have never come across a moral man who is not a hypocrite. Only a religious man has an authentic morality.
He who wears his morality but as his best garment… People are using morality as a decoration for their respectability. Kahlil Gibran is right when he says, "It was better he was naked." At least in his nakedness he would be natural, not a hypocrite. And out of being natural one can move towards being religious, but from hypocrisy you cannot move anywhere; it is a dead-end street, it goes nowhere.
The moral person is never joyful; he is always sad. It is a natural consequence of standing on your head. If existence wanted you to stand on your head, it would have grown legs on your head. But there are idiots who are trying to improve upon nature.
I have never seen a single yogi in the whole country who shows any intelligence, because standing on your head you disturb the whole system, the whole wisdom of the body; too much blood rushes towards the head because of gravitation. That much blood is not needed; it floods…. If the mind is flooded with blood its very delicate tissues, which create intelligence, are destroyed. Animals have not been able to create intelligence for the simple reason that they are horizontal beings; their whole body gets the blood in the same proportion.
Never be a hypocrite; whatsoever the price you have to pay, it is better to pay it. Hypocrisy is cheap — you don't have to pay anything for it — but you are destroying your very soul and your very possibility of growth.
OSHO