My Pilgrimage to the Spirit

Work

###August 28, 1931

If you feel strongly that this is the thing needed for your sadhana and if that is your considered resolution, the Mother can make no objection to your retirement for a time.

In view of this request of yours, I need not write about the work. I intended merely to emphasize this very point that the work here is not intended for showing one's capacity or having a position or as a means of physical nearness to the Mother but as a field and an opportunity for the Karmayoga, part of the integral Yoga—for learning to work in the true Yogic way—dedication through service, practical selflessness, obedience, scrupulousness, discipline, setting the Divine and the Divine's work first and oneself last; harmony, patience, forbearance, etc. When the worker will learn these and cease to be ego-centric, as most of you are now, then will come the time for work in which capacity can really be shown—though even then the showing of capacity will be an incident and can never be the main consideration or the object of Divine Work.

Sri Aurobindo