Texts 18-20]
Talks Between Nārada and King Prācīnabarhi
1391
night, month after month, year after year, the living entity becomes entangled in the chariot's progress. The chariot rests on two wheels, which are pious and impious activities. The living entity attains a certain position in life in a particular type of body according to his pious and impious activities, but his transmigration into different bodies should not be taken as progress. Real progress is explained in  Bhagavad-gītā .
janma karma ca me divyam evam yo vetti tattvataḥ tyaktvā deham punar janma naiti mām eti so 'rjuna
“One who knows the transcendental nature of My appearance and activities does not, upon leaving the body, take his birth again in this material world, but attains My eternal abode, O Arjuna.” (Bg. 4.9)
One makes real progress when he does not have to take on another material body. As stated in  Caitanya-caritāmṛta :
eita brahmāṇḍa bhari' ananta jīva-gaṇa caurāśī-lakṣa yonite karaye bhramaṇa (Cc. Madhya 19.138)
The living entity is wandering throughout the entire universe and taking birth in different species on different planets. Thus he moves up and down, but that is not real progress. Real progress is getting out of this material world altogether. As stated in  Bhagavad-gītā :
ābrahma-bhuvanāl lokāḥ punar āvartino 'rjuna mām upetya tu kaunteya punar janma na vidyate
“From the highest planet in the material world down to the lowest, all are places of misery wherein repeated birth and death take place. But one who attains to My abode, O son of Kuntī, never takes birth again.” (Bg. 8.16)
Even if one is promoted to Brahmaloka, the highest planet in the universe, he has to come down again to the lower planetary systems. Thus he is wandering up and down perpetually under the influence of the three modes of material nature. Being illusioned, he thinks he is making progress. He is like an airplane encircling the earth day and night, incapable of leaving the earth's gravitational field. Factually there is no progress because the airplane is conditioned by the earth's gravity.