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Spiritually Effective Work Depends on the Inner Attitude · Sri Aurobindo Studies

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  Whenever we act in the world, whether it is a job or any kind
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  of activity that involves the expression of energy in the
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  external world, whether physical, vital, mental,
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  etcetera, we generally do so with a particular ambition,
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  motivation, desire or need. It could be based on physical
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  needs for food, clothing and shelter.
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  It could be based on vital desires or some form of
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  ambition, A seeking for some physical, vital, emotional or
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  mental satisfaction. It could be a form of vanity or
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  a seeking after fame or glory, wealth or other forms of
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  recognition. We would be hard pressed if we
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  examine our actions closely to find any act that is not based
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  in some motive of the ego personality.
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  Even work that looks like it is charitable or without a personal
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  motive, if we scratch the surface, may have some kind of
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  ulterior motivation or ego satisfaction mechanism taking
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  place. For a work to advance the seeker
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  spiritually, it must be free of all these motivations.
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  The most obvious way is to have the psychic being come forward,
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  guiding and managing the action based on aspiration,
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  consecration and devotional surrender.
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  Even here, however, we frequently see a form of ego
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  presentation getting some satisfaction, so it is not
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  always as simple as we may believe.
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  In his book The Mother, Srioro Bindo advises that the effort
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  required of the spiritual seeker is 1 of aspiration, rejection,
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  surrender. This is a constant work both in
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  terms of the psychic aspiration leading but also the inward view
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  that spots the ego motives and rejects them, leading to a
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  surrender to the higher force. The Bhagavad Gita explores the
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  idea of work done without desire for the fruits done for the
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  benefit of all, without self seeking or self dealing.
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  Srioro Bindu explores the meaning of the Gita's
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  prescription for how to be a selfless worker in the world.
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  In his essays on the Gita. He provides A brief overview.
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  Here Srioro Bindu observes quote the spiritual eve activity of
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  work depends on the inner attitude.
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  The only work that spiritually purifies is that which is done
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  without personal motives, without desire for fame or
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  public recognition or worldly greatness, without insistence on
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  one's own mental motives or vital lusts and demands or
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  physical preferences, without vanity or crude self assertion
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  or claim for position or prestige.
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  All work done in an egoistic spirit, however good for people
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  in the world of the ignorance, is of no avail to the seeker of
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  the yoga. End Quote Reference Shrioro
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  Bindu and the Mother Looking from Within, Chapter 3, Actioned
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  and Work, pages 64 to 65.