Question: What is the spiritual way to approach our job?

Sri Chinmoy: It depends on the job you are doing. If you are working at a particular place only to maintain your livelihood, to defray the costs of your earthly existence, then do your work the way you are supposed to do it. You have to please your boss, you have to be regular, punctual and so forth.

But if your job is directly connected with our Mission, let us say you work in a Divine Enterprise, at every moment you have to feel that God Himself is in front of you. Between the customer and the one who is serving, there should be a brief connection, an inner connection. It is an exchange of goodwill. You are serving and the customer is eating or buying a book or something else. The person who is serving has to do it more carefully, more sincerely and more soulfully. He is consciously following the spiritual life, whereas the other person may be a good person by nature and that is why he is receiving something from you.

If you are working in an ordinary job, you have to be regular, you have to be willing to create harmony in the section, not to create any problems and so forth, but there you do not have a higher goal. There is only one goal: to go there regularly and to get the salary at the end of the week. Again, in order to live on earth, you need a salary, so it may be necessary for you to stay in that job and do your spiritual work in the evening or on the weekend.

But if you are working at a Divine Enterprise, then you are getting much more opportunity to be spiritual. You may not get a proper salary, but at every moment you are getting a tremendous opportunity to become more spiritual because the goal is right in front of your nose. At every moment you are reminded that you have a goal, you have a goal. Each Divine Enterprise has a very special message to offer, not only to the disciples but also to humanity. Please try to keep that message right in front of you at every moment.