Difficult. But not impossible. This action of doing a work without expecting returns is known as " NISHKAMA KARMA".

The Sanskrit shloka is Karmanyevadhikaraste, Ma phaleshou kadachana, which literally means “You have the right to do your duty but are not entitled to the fruits thereof”. In the context of Gita, Krishna tells Arjuna that his duty is to fight irrespective of whether he wins or loses. It simply means “Do your duty without being attached to its result”. But outside Gita, it has several interpretations. The best interpretation is “Help others selflessly without expecting anything in return”. And the worst one is “Work, but do not ask for payment”. The former is possible, but the latter is impossible. 

 working for others without expecting returns is also difficult in the present scenario of " What's in it for me."?

But not impossible. There are many voluntary organizations rendering Selfless services. Especially Old age Homes run by retired Army personnel.

We do each and everything for a purpose. We help fellow human being for our peace of mind or for charity. Craving for a certain fruit or result is the onset of any work. 

Geeta says, there are certain works or duties assigned to a person are to be done. That's the Dharma which is expected from the person. So you are not doing anything extra or great by sticking to your work assigned to you. A parent brings up his child because the child was brought by the parents into this world. The child neither demanded or wanted to be brought into this world. Hence the parent is doing what he is supposed to do.

RAMAKRISHNAN. A wrote:

The Sanskrit shloka is Karmanyevadhikaraste, Ma phaleshou kadachana, which literally means “You have the right to do your duty but are not entitled to the fruits thereof”. In the context of Gita, Krishna tells Arjuna that his duty is to fight irrespective of whether he wins or loses. It simply means “Do your duty without being attached to its result”. But outside Gita, it has several interpretations. The best interpretation is “Help others selflessly without expecting anything in return”. And the worst one is “Work, but do not ask for payment”. The former is possible, but the latter is impossible. 

Ramakrishnanji, you have given a lovely and simple explanation. In the modern context we can applied it thus, according to my interpretation, work sincerely and dedicatedly, give our fullest efforts and expect suitable compensation in return for our honest efforts. This is with reference to our work we need to do for earning livelihood. Whereas , when we deal with others besides our work, be it friends, relatives, other components of the society, we need to do what is right and do not expect any gains from those interactions, just do what is right .

Geeta says that do the right and do your work without thinking the consequences. It is like Shri krishna said to Arjun to demolish the people who did wrong because it was required. Krishna wanted to tell actually that one should fulfill the duties not necessarily selflessly but without thinking the consequences. However, whatever we do in our life, we expect consequences whether good or bad, it is secondary. Therefore, we regret duehe expectations and hence, expectations leads us to be fragile in our lives and to build our strength we should try working without expecting. However, it is very difficult to do so.

Kalyani Nandurkar wrote:

RAMAKRISHNAN. A wrote:

The Sanskrit shloka is Karmanyevadhikaraste, Ma phaleshou kadachana, which literally means “You have the right to do your duty but are not entitled to the fruits thereof”. In the context of Gita, Krishna tells Arjuna that his duty is to fight irrespective of whether he wins or loses. It simply means “Do your duty without being attached to its result”. But outside Gita, it has several interpretations. The best interpretation is “Help others selflessly without expecting anything in return”. And the worst one is “Work, but do not ask for payment”. The former is possible, but the latter is impossible. 

Ramakrishnanji, you have given a lovely and simple explanation. In the modern context we can applied it thus, according to my interpretation, work sincerely and dedicatedly, give our fullest efforts and expect suitable compensation in return for our honest efforts. This is with reference to our work we need to do for earning livelihood. Whereas , when we deal with others besides our work, be it friends, relatives, other components of the society, we need to do what is right and do not expect any gains from those interactions, just do what is right .

Exactly. To earn our livelihood, we need compensation for our work, without which we cannot survive. Beyond that, in the personal and society level, we can do selfless service without expecting any gains.  And there are great souls who do such works just for work’s sake. They do not even think about the resulting peace of mind.

I agree. In this scenario of selfishness and hypocrisy, Doing selfless work looks like an uphill task. It's difficult. But not impossible.

I have total faith in Lord Krishna's teaching in this reference and keep doing my efforts. It will not be whole truth if I say I don't expect results but even if I don't get what I must, I will not give up but keep on with my efforts. After all the result is bound to come, no matter how small or big.