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The Spiritual Aspirant Marches to the Beat of a Different Drummer Than Those Who Focus on the External Life · Sri Aurobindo Studies

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  The spiritual aspirant necessarily has to change the
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  way things have been historically and habitually done
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  in the world if he is to make progress and move beyond the
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  limitations imposed by the body, life, mind, complex and all the
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  traditions, rituals, habits, fixed ideas and vital emotional
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  responses that make up the current state of human life and
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  society. While much of what he
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  experiences, thinks and expresses may not seem
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  threatening to others, there is no doubt that at some point the
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  world will respond, and to the extent humanity tries to
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  maintain the status quo, it will pass negative judgement on him.
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  Thus we see the long history of visionary leaders around the
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  world subjected to torture, death, crucifixion,
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  excommunication, and ostracism. Rare are those individuals or
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  those societies that embrace the vision and support the changes
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  that are required. Many such visionaries are
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  appreciated and honored only after they are long gone and the
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  changes for which they were advocates have begun to seep
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  into the wider mind and heart of humanity.
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  On a more personal level, the spiritual aspirant frequently
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  finds that his friends, family, peers simply do not understand
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  the experience that is moving him in a direction other than
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  their expected and anticipated. 1 He may shun the normal career
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  paths, the normal relationship paths, as he follows the deeper
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  aspiration that has awakened in him.
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  They may treat him as psychologically unhinged and
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  suggest he get counselling from a psychiatrist.
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  They may try to exert peer pressure and let him know with
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  all their tried and true arguments and emotional bonds
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  that he is making a mistake, throwing away his life, wasting
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  his time. It is said that day for those
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  living the ordinary life is night for the Yogi and vice
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  versa. Thus, those who are not actively
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  pursuing spiritual practice do not have either the knowledge or
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  the experience to judge or comment on the experience of the
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  yogic aspirant. Uninformed opinion is generally
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  not a reliable basis upon which to make decisions.
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  It must also be noted that the goals and objectives of the
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  ordinary external life are necessarily focused on short
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  term results, success, fame, wealth, pleasure and enjoyment,
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  while the goals and objectives of the spiritual secret
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  transcend these short term aims. And thus the opinions of those
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  who live for near term results are not likely to have much, if
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  any relevance for the spiritual aspirant.
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  The spiritual aspirant can see and understand, if he even
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  chooses to attend to them, the ways of the world.
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  He recognizes that these ways are based in a very limited
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  understanding of the deeper significance of existence and
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  are mainly developed through the habitual, vital and mental
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  habits, instincts and native reactions that have created the
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  current stage of development. He need not be too concerned
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  about any particular set of circumstances or events as he
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  sets his sights on the spiritual evolutionary movement that will
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  inevitably carry himself and humanity beyond the limitations
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  of the present mode of existence.
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  The Mother notes Quote For one who aspires to the divine life,
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  what can the actions of a blind and ignorant humanity matter to
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  him? End Quote Reference Sri Orobindo
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  and the Mother Looking from Within, Chapter 4, Ordeals and
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  Difficulties, page 76.