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Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam
[Canto 7, Ch. 15]
“Those who are not faithful on the path of devotional service cannot attain Me, O conqueror of foes, but return to birth and death in this material world.” (Bg. 9.3) The Supreme Personality of Godhead, Kṛṣṇa, personally gives instructions on how one can return home, back to Godhead, but if one does not care to listen to His instructions, the result will be that one will never go back to Godhead, but will continue life in this miserable condition of repeated birth and death in material existence ( mṛtyu-saṁsāra-vartmani ).
The advice of experienced transcendentalists, therefore, is that the body be fully engaged for achieving the ultimate goal of life ( svārthagatim ). The real interest or goal of life is to return home, back to Godhead. To enable one to fulfill this purpose, there are so many Vedic literatures, including  Vedānta-sūtra , the  Upaniṣads ,  Bhagavad-gūtā ,  Mahābhārata  and the  Rāmāyaṇa . One should take lessons from these Vedic literatures and learn how to practice  nivṛtti-mārga . Then one’s life will be perfect. The body is important as long as it has consciousness. Without consciousness, the body is merely a lump of matter. Therefore, to return home, back to Godhead, one must change his consciousness from material consciousness to Kṛṣṇa consciousness. One’s consciousness is the cause of material bondage, but if this consciousness is purified by  bhakti-yoga , one can then understand the falsity of his  upādhi , his designations as Indian, American, Hindu, Muslim, Christian and so on.  Sarvopādhi-vinirmuktaṁ tat-paratvena nirmalam . One must forget these designations and use this consciousness only for the service of Kṛṣṇa. Therefore if one takes advantage of the Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement, his life is certainly successful.
TEXT 42
अक्षं रशप्राणमधर्मधर्मौ चक्रेऽमिमानं रथिनं च जीवम् । धनुर्हि तस्य प्रणवं पठन्ति शरं तु जीवं परमेव लक्ष्यम् ॥४२॥
akṣaṁ daśa-prāṇam adharma-dharmau cakre 'bhimānaṁ rathinaṁ ca jivam