Consecrating Oneself Entirely to the Divine Life Represents the Way Forward for the Seeker Against All Doubt, Opposition and Negativity

The spiritual path tends to breed considerable opposition from friends, family and associates because it takes the seeker along an entirely different line of development that does not necessarily meet the expectations of those people. It is a “path less travelled”. It is not infrequent that appeals are made to the seeker to accept the normal mode of life of the society, get a career, earn money, start a family, relate to friends and family on the normal superficial level that focuses on entertainment, distraction, socializing, gossip and comparing oneself on exte
al factors to others. With appeals to following the family traditions and supporting the family, the seeker is berated for declining in favor of spiritual development. In many cases, they are treated as mentally imbalanced and subjected to pressure for psychological review and counseling.

In the more general society, spiritual seekers are frequently treated as odd, out of sync with the society and its objectives and maligned for the life choices they make. There can be instances of bullying, social shaming, etc. for their failure to ‘make something of themselves’.

If the seeker pays attention to all of this negativity, they may continually experience episodes of self-doubt, depression or conce
that somehow they are not doing what they should be doing. The seeker’s vital nature, seeking for excuses to obtain positive affirmation from the social world around them, or for gratification of various desires, may accentuate these doubts to disrupt the continuity, focus and intensity of the efforts.

When a seeker is called to the spiritual path, he needs therefore to become impervious to the negative comments and pressure and remain focused and fixed on the spiritual objective. Mixing spirituality with any other mental, vital or physical motive or purpose creates the opening for these doubts and distractions to take hold.

The Dhammapada states: “As the elephant on the battlefield endures the arrow shot from the bow, so also shall I patiently bear insult, for truly there are many of evil mind in the world.”

The Mother notes: “The… verse gives some very wise advice: the war elephant who has been well trained does not start running away as soon as he receives an arrow. He continues to advance and bears the pain, with no change in his attitude of heroic resistance. Those who wish to follow the true path will naturally be exposed to the attacks of all forms of bad will, which not only do not understand, but generally hate what they do not understand.”

“If you are worried, grieved or even discouraged by the malicious stupidities that men say about you, you will not advance far on the way. And such things come to you, not because you are unlucky or because your lot is not a happy one, but because, on the contrary, the divine Consciousness and the divine Grace take your resolution seriously and allow the circumstances to become a touchstone on your way, to see whether your resolution is sincere and whether you are strong enough to face the difficulties.”

“Therefore, if anyone sneers at you or says something that is not very charitable, the first thing you should do is to look within yourself for whatever weakness or imperfection has allowed such a thing to happen and not to be disconsolate, indignant or aggrieved, because people do not appreciate you at what you think to be your true value; on the contrary, you must be thankful to the divine Grace for having pointed out to you the weakness or imperfection or deformation that you must correct.”

“Therefore, instead of being unhappy, you can be fully satisfied and derive advantage, a great advantage from the harm that was intended against you.”

“Besides, if you truly want to follow the path and practice yoga, you must not do it for appreciation or honour, you must do it because it is an imperative need of your being, because you cannot be happy in any other way. Whether people appreciate you or do not appreciate you, it is of absolutely no importance. You may tell yourself beforehand that the further you are from ordinary men, foreign to the ordinary mode of being, the less people will appreciate you, quite naturally, because they will not understand you. And I repeat, it has absolutely no importance.”

“True sincerity consists in advancing on the way because you cannot do otherwise, to consecrate yourself to the divine life because you cannot do otherwise, to seek to transform your being and come out into the light because you cannot do otherwise, because it is the purpose of your life.”

“When it is like that you may be sure that you are on the right path.”

Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, Looking from Within, Chapter 5, Attitudes on the Path, pp. 170-172