Advancement of material vision or material civilization is a great stumbling block for spiritual advancement. Such material advancement entangles the living being in the bondage of a material body followed by all sorts of material miseries. Such material advancement is called anartha, or things not wanted.
(Srimad Bhagavatam-----1:8:27-----purport).

Anarthas, unwanted things, come down from one bodily life to another. To get out of this entanglement, one has to take to the devotional service of Lord Vāsudeva, Kṛṣṇa, the Supreme Personality of Godhead.
(Srimad Bhagavatam-----4:29:36-37-----purport).

People are suffering because of ignorance and are following a wrong path for happiness. This is called anartha. These material activities will never make them happy, and therefore Nārada instructed Vyāsadeva to record the instructions of Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam. Vyāsadeva actually followed Nārada and did this. Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam is the supreme instruction of the Vedas. Galitaṁ phalam: the ripened fruit of the Vedas is Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam.
(Srimad Bhagavatam-----6:5:30-----purport).

Becoming Kṛṣṇa conscious brings about anartha-apagamaḥ, the disappearance of all anarthas, the miserable conditions we have unnecessarily accepted. The material body is the basic principle of these unwanted miserable conditions. The entire Vedic civilization is meant to relieve one from these unwanted miseries, but persons bound by the laws of nature do not know the destination of life. As described in the previous verse, īśa-tantryām uru-dāmni baddhāḥ: they are conditioned by the three strong modes of material nature. The education that keeps the conditioned soul bound life after life is called materialistic education. Śrīla Bhaktivinoda Ṭhākura has explained that materialistic education expands the influence of māyā. Such an education induces the conditioned soul to be increasingly attracted to materialistic life and to stray further and further away from liberation from unwanted miseries.
(Srimad Bhagavatam-----7:5:32-----purport).

Anartha means unnecessary. We are creating unnecessary necessities of life and becoming entangled. This is material life.
(Lecture on Srimad Bhagavatam------1:5:12-13).

Manute anartham, tat-kṛtaṁ cābhipadyate. And by that designation, he is thinking, "I am Indian, I must act as Indian," "I am European, I must act as European." Tat-kṛtaṁ ca abhipadyate. This is called anartha: unnecessarily. The spirit soul is originally part and parcel of Kṛṣṇa. He should develop his Kṛṣṇa consciousness and go back to home, back to Godhead. That is his real business. But on account of this anartha, created designation, he is suffering. And he is trying to adjust things materially. That will never be possible.
(Lecture on Srimad Bhagavatam------1:7:2-4).

When your anarthas will be finished and you will see every living entity as part and parcel of Kṛṣṇa, that is called real Brahman realization. Part and parcel of Kṛṣṇa every one of us. So we shall not only engage ourself as part and parcel of Kṛṣṇa in His service, but also we shall try to engage others because they are also part and parcel of Kṛṣṇa.
(Lecture on Srimad Bhagavatam------1:7:6).

Anartha means things which are not required. That is called anartha. Artha means things which we require, positive. And anartha means things which we do not require but unnecessarily imposed upon us. So that is suffering.
(Lecture on Srimad Bhagavatam------1:7:6).

But because we are surrounded by so many unwanted things, anartha, we are becoming entangled in the cycle of birth and death and old age and disease in different forms. So we do not know it. Most people, they do not know it.
(Lecture on Srimad Bhagavatam------1:7:7).

Anartha means things we do not require. Anartha. Artha, anartha. Artha means which is essentially required, and anartha means which is not required, artificially we have requisitioned. So when one grows his Kṛṣṇa consciousness, immediately his artificial life becomes finished.
(Lecture on Srimad Bhagavatam------2:3:23).