Regress

Expressions researched:
"regress" |"regressing" |"regression" |"regressive"

BG Chapters 7 - 12

People jeer at Kṛṣṇa because they are envious of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Their destiny is certainly to take birth after birth in the species of atheistic and demoniac life. Perpetually, their real knowledge will remain under delusion, and gradually they will regress to the darkest region of creation.

BG 9.12, Purport:

It is a great offense, therefore, to consider Kṛṣṇa, the Supreme Personality of Godhead, to be an ordinary man. Those who do so are certainly deluded because they cannot understand the eternal form of Kṛṣṇa. The Bṛhad-viṣṇu-smṛti clearly states:

yo vetti bhautikaṁ dehaṁ

kṛṣṇasya paramātmanaḥ

sa sarvasmād bahiṣ-kāryaḥ

śrauta-smārta-vidhānataḥ

mukhaṁ tasyāvalokyāpi

sa-celaṁ snānam ācaret

"One who considers the body of Kṛṣṇa to be material should be driven out from all rituals and activities of the śruti and the smṛti. And if one by chance sees his face, one should at once take bath in the Ganges to rid himself of infection." People jeer at Kṛṣṇa because they are envious of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Their destiny is certainly to take birth after birth in the species of atheistic and demoniac life. Perpetually, their real knowledge will remain under delusion, and gradually they will regress to the darkest region of creation.

SB Cantos 10.14 to 12 (Translations Only)

SB 11.20.22, Translation:

Until one's mind is fixed in spiritual satisfaction, one should analytically study the temporary nature of all material objects, whether cosmic, earthly or atomic. One should constantly observe the process of creation through the natural progressive function and the process of annihilation through the regressive function.

Renunciation Through Wisdom

Those who strive to emulate the mahātmās never fall prey to passivity and regression. Their eagerness and determination to serve the Lord steadily increase.

Renunciation Through Wisdom 2.9:

Those who strive to emulate the mahātmās never fall prey to passivity and regression. Their eagerness and determination to serve the Lord steadily increase. Such followers observe spiritual occasions like Janmāṣṭamī and Ekādaśī for the pleasure of the Lord, in the way that the previous ācāryas and mahātmās have recommended. This is devotional service proper. Because the mahātmās are more humble than a blade of grass, they worship Lord Kṛṣṇa and everything in relation to Him. Atheists, however, exhibit a different mentality altogether: they want to flaunt their abilities and charitable disposition. They may pretend to serve Lord Kṛṣṇa, but their aim is "to sit on the Lord's head" once they attain perfection. In other words, they want to usurp His position. Therefore they do not really serve Lord Kṛṣṇa, nor is He their real object of worship. The mahātmās never associate with these demoniac people. They are fixed in their resolve to serve the Lord, and thus they always remain connected to Him through devotional service.

Bhagavad-gita As It Is Lectures

Sometimes he is given the down class. Sometimes he is degraded: "Go to the down class." Yes. That is quite natural.

Lecture on BG 2.14 -- Mexico, February 14, 1975:

Hṛdayānanda: (translating) He wants to know if our reincarnations are progressive or regressive.

Prabhupāda: Yes, it is progressive or degressive also.

Hṛdayānanda: (translating) Why would we take birth as an animal?

Prabhupāda: Because you act like animal.

Hṛdayānanda: (translating) He says that in school in the material world, if one behaves badly, he has to stay where he is; he cannot progress. But he does not go back. So why...?

Prabhupāda: No, sometimes he is given the down class. Sometimes he is degraded: "Go to the down class." Yes. That is quite natural. (laughter) Eh? Down? So any question?

Hṛdayānanda: (translating) He says he doesn't believe that one can go back.

Prabhupāda: He may not believe in the law, but law is law. If somebody says "I can commit some criminal act, but I don't believe in the court's judgement," will it be accepted? You believe or not believe; the law will act. Just like if you infect some disease, infectious disease, if you contaminate, then you must develop that disease. That is the law. So we are contaminating ourself with different laws of material nature, and according to that law, we have to accept the body. The material laws are not under your control; you are under the control of material laws.

Srimad-Bhagavatam Lectures

They are making material progress, but it is not progress. It is regress. But they do not know it.

Lecture on SB 5.5.5 -- Vrndavana, October 27, 1976:

So in the bondage state, whatever you are doing in so-called material progress, it is not progress. It is parābhavas, defeat. People are so busily engaged throughout day and night. They are making material progress, but it is not progress. It is regress. But they do not know it. Why? Abodha-jātaḥ, born rascal. Born rascal. If we say that "You are all born rascals," they'll fight. But actually that is the fact. Born rascals: abodha-jātaḥ. Yāvan na jijñāsata ātma-tattvam. That ātma-tattvam, brahma-jijñāsa. Where is that inquiry? Nobody inquires because they have no information. The cats and dogs, big, big professors, they are thinking so long this body is there, by chance, by accident, we have got this body, and as soon as the body is finished, everything is finished. That means they do not know ātma-tattvam. On this misconception of life they are inventing so many "isms."

By the direction of the scripture, you can understand what is the destination of a certain person. Therefore they say, śāstra-cakṣuṣaḥ. Whether I am progressing or regressing, that will be understood through the eyes of śāstra, not in ordinary eyes.

Lecture on SB 6.1.39-40 -- Surat, December 21, 1970:

Viṣṇudūta, representative of Lord Viṣṇu, challenged the Yamadūta that "If you are representative of Yamarāja, who is supposed to be one of the authorities of religion, then you must explain what is religion, dharma, and what is nonreligion, or adharma, because, according to this principle, one is punished or rewarded. If you become religious, then you are rewarded, and if you are irreligious, then you are punished." That is stated in the Bhagavad-gītā also:

ūrdhvaṁ gacchanti sattva-sthā

madhye tiṣṭhanti rājasāḥ

jaghanya-guṇa-vṛtti-sthā

adho gacchanti tāmasāḥ

(BG 14.18)

How a man is going to heaven or hell, one can understand from the direction of the scriptures, just like you can understand how a man is going to be punished or rewarded within this material world. If you see somebody is working very hard, doing nicely, you can conjecture that "This man will be happy." Say, for example, if a boy is studying very nicely, you can conjecture that "This boy will rise very highly in his future life." And similarly, if a boy is whiling away his time by playing, you can understand, "This boy is being spoiled." Similarly, by the direction of the scripture, you can understand what is the destination of a certain person. Therefore they say, śāstra-cakṣuṣaḥ. Whether I am progressing or regressing, that will be understood through the eyes of śāstra, not in ordinary eyes.

General Lectures

According to your mind at the time of your death, the position, the status of your mind will give you a next body. So if your mind is God conscious, then you get your body next like God. And if your mind is dog conscious, then you get your body, next body, a dog.

Lecture -- Seattle, October 11, 1968:

Young man (4): Is there a regression at all in your system of reincarnation? Can we... What I mean to say is, can a man regress to, if you call it a regression, I don't know... Can a man become, after his body dies, I mean, say, an animal or an insect of some sort?

Prabhupāda: Yes. There are 8,400,000 species of different kinds of life. So, so far my condition is concerned, I am not this body; I am spirit soul. Just I am changing my body even at the present moment. Just like when you were born from your mother's womb, your body was very small. Now it has grown. You were a boy; now you are young. Now you will become old man like me also. That means the changing body. It is simple fact. You are changing. From your childhood body, this body is different. Either you take it that it has grown or either you take it that the body has changed, the same thing. But actually it has changed. So the changing of body is accepted. Therefore it is concluded that when you change this body, you may get another body.

Young man (4): What is it that you take with you? What is the...

Prabhupāda: Just like... I will explain. Now, how this change of body is being done? That change of body is being done according to your mentality. Just like here you have got different dresses, different features, different modes of life, all these boys and girls and ladies and gentlemen who are sitting. Why? Due to different modes of mind. Somebody likes to keep hair, somebody like to cleanse hair. Why? This difference. Difference due to mind. So according to your mind at the time of your death, the position, the status of your mind will give you a next body. So if your mind is God conscious, then you get your body next like God. And if your mind is dog conscious, then you get your body, next body, a dog. So it is a question of training your mind so that at the point of death if you keep yourself Kṛṣṇa conscious mind, then you get as good a body like Kṛṣṇa. This is the whole philosophy.

Philosophy Discussions

That I was talking in the morning, that these boys, they are too much addicted to these water sports. Twenty-four hours they are indulging in this water sport. They are creating a mentality to become aquatic animal. So naturally, at the time of death, he will think of all these things and nature will give him a body.

Philosophy Discussion on Henri Bergson:

Hayagrīva: ...if it shoots, grows and ripens without ceasing, then why or how could the personality or the individual jīva soul return to a lower life-form? That is to say, how could a greater experience regress to a lesser experience?

Prabhupāda: The..., everything is calculated at the time of death. That is nature's process. That I was talking in the morning, that these boys, they are too much addicted to these water sports. Twenty-four hours they are indulging in this water sport. They are creating a mentality to become aquatic animal. So naturally, at the time of death, he will think of all these things and nature will give him a body. Yes. That you cannot check. After death you are completely under nature's control. You cannot dictate. That these rascal do not understand. Therefore they, "Finish this business. There is no life after death. That's all."

Up and down it is going on. So in order to keep yourself on the standard platform, one should engage himself in devotional service. One has to keep himself on the Brahman platform, then there are no difficulties.

Philosophy Discussion on Henri Bergson:

Hayagrīva: Now how was it that a great personality like Indra, with his mind, intelligence, and ego all intact, how is it he could become a toad?

Prabhupāda: Yes, you can become. So long you are materially existing, your thoughts are under the modes of material mature. So sometimes the thoughts are in the modes of goodness, sometimes the thoughts are in the modes of passion, and sometimes they are in the modes of ignorance and act accordingly. So up and down it is going on. So in order to keep yourself on the standard platform, one should engage himself in devotional service. That is confirmed in the Bhagavad-gītā:

māṁ ca avyabhicāreṇa

bhakti-yogena yaḥ sevate

sa guṇān samatītya etān

brahma-bhūyāya...

(aside:) Find out this verse. Māṁ ca avyabhicāreṇa bhakti-yogena yaḥ se... (pause)

Hari-śauri:

māṁ ca yo 'vyabhicāreṇa

bhakti-yogena sevate

sa guṇān samatītyaitān

brahma-bhūyāya kalpate

(BG 14.26)

"One who engages in full devotional service, and who does not fall down in any circumstance, at once transcends the modes of material nature and thus comes to the level of Brahman."

Prabhupāda: Yes. So one has to keep himself on the Brahman platform, then there is no difficulties.

Hayagrīva: No..., no karmic regression.

Prabhupāda: Therefore we are trying to keep everyone twenty-four hours engaged in Kṛṣṇa consciousness.

Hayagrīva: That, that would be what Bergson would call creative evolution.

Prabhupāda: Yes.

Hayagrīva: He saw, he saw change as maturation. He says, "We are seeking only the precise meaning that our consciousness gives to this word 'exist,' and we find that, for a conscious being, to exist is to change, to change is to mature, to mature is to go on creating oneself endlessly."

Prabhupāda: So, you want..., you are struggling, creating for the highest position, but Kṛṣṇa is giving you the idea. This is the highest position, sarva-dharmān parityajya mām ekaṁ śaraṇaṁ vraja (BG 18.66), that "You give up your so-called positions, you simply surrender unto Him..., Me, and I shall give you all protection." This is the idea.

1973 Conversations and Morning Walks

There is no devotee in India, real devotee, at the present moment.

Morning Walk -- December 31, 1973, Los Angeles:

Karandhara: Most economists, they realize that the economy is very faulty and superficial, but they say, "Well, that's the way it is. So I'm going to take advantage of it while I can."

Prabhupāda: Why not take advantage of this Kṛṣṇa consciousness movement and try it? As you are trying so many method, why not try this?

Viṣṇujana: They say, "We want to regress and become like India." If everyone becomes devotees, then they'll all walk around like us and regress.

Prabhupāda: There is no devotee in India, real devotee, at the present moment.

Viṣṇujana: So they classify us like that. They say, "You Hare Kṛṣṇa people, you want to take us back to cholera and dysentery and everything."

Prabhupāda: But you are already suffering from cancer. What you have done? (laughter) Instead of cholera, you have got cancer. Is that very good exchange?

1975 Conversations and Morning Walks

That progress means still rascals.

Morning Walk -- December 16, 1975, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: As soon as you say "progressing," that means they are rascals. Unless one is rascal, what is the meaning of progress? Hm? Rascal requires progress.

Dr. Patel: Whether they do progress or regress we don't know, but...

Prabhupāda: No, that progress means still rascals. After ten years they'll make no... This is progress. So they have no standard knowledge, and that is very much palatable, modern progress. Mūḍha.

1977 Conversations and Morning Walks

In '68 I was alone. And I had to struggle very, very hard, alone. Therefore I got heart attack in 1967. Then that heart attack and regress continued for two years.

Room Conversation about Harijanas -- April 10, 1977, Bombay:

Prabhupāda: In '68 I was alone. And I had to struggle very, very hard, alone. Therefore I got heart attack in 1967. Then that heart attack and regress continued for two years. Whatever is done, it is done from 1969. Before that, I was simply alone struggling to start this mission. (pause) Before that, I came to Bombay.

Indian: In '69?

Prabhupāda: No, no.

Indian: '70?

Prabhupāda: '64. I stayed at Morarji's Andheri...

Indian: Andheri House.

Prabhupāda: ...Colony for his employees.

Indian: Scindia Steamship.

Prabhupāda: Yes, colony. I stayed there. Sometimes I stayed with one gentleman in Churchgate. He is a banker, Sindhi gentleman. In '65, Sumati Morarji gave me that ticket.

I do not feel so very weak.

Room Conversation -- November 4, 1977, Vrndavana:

Tamāla Kṛṣṇa: One thing I feel, that while there hasn't been any great improvement, on the other hand, I do not find that there has been any negative reaction or any regression since the time the kavirāja's treatment began. Of course, Your Divine Grace says that you feel weaker now than you did a week ago. If that's a fact, then...

Prabhupāda: Not so very weak.