One should learn how to associate with the devotees of the Lord by gathering with them to chant the glories of the Lord. This process is most purifying. As devotees thus develop their loving friendship, they feel mutual happiness and satisfaction and by thus encouraging one another they are able to give up material sense grantification, which is the cause of all suffering. — Srimad Bhagavatam, 11.03.30.
With sword in hand, intelligent men cut through the binding knots of reactionary work (karma) by remembering the Supreme Personality of Godhead.
One can purify the mind by the chanting process, just as one can purify gold by putting it in a fire and fanning it with a bellows.
Srimad Bhagavatam 3.28.10,
Srila Prabhupada
We spirit soul, we have been encaged within this body, so our natural aspiration is to get freedom from this encagement as much as the bird is struggling to get freedom from this cage.
Lecture, Bhagavad Gita 2.25,
London, August 28, 1973,
Srila Prabhupada
Whatever devotional service we may have, we do it for seeking the shelter of the Lord, not for our mental or physical enjoyment.