Work without hope...

Long back, while in college, I read this blurb at the beginning of a course reading 'Nectar In A Sieve', a novel by Kamala Markandeya on the travails of a farmer family in India:

'Work without hope draws nectar in a sieve,

And hope without an object cannot live'

I was reminded of this while reading a passage in the 'Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda':

But isn't that the very thing that's a lifelong struggle for a householder, at least those driven by an overriding sense of duty and responsibility - the unrequited striving, in all arenas of life?  To keep doing one's duties without any (or commensurate) appreciation, not to talk of return, for big and small things?

Seems Karm Yog suggests a way to rise above the often resulting frustration, to wash away not only the physiological but also the Karmic consequences of the negative feelings generated: offer (उत्सर्ग) everything to God, the work as well as both good and bad 'returns', and live in this ephemeral world like a water lily...

{From 'Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda', Vol. I, Karma-Yoga}