Lord Chaitanya – The Divine Alchemist

Transcript

This is an AI-generated transcript and may contain some errors.
Hare Krishna Lord Chaitanya the divine alchemist alchemy is the lost art of converting iron into gold by some transformational process so the emotions of our heart can either be like iron or they can be like gold now if somebody is given 10 kg iron to carry that person may think such a big burden to carry and the same person is told you are given 10 kg gold to carry and it’s yours, as much load as you can carry that will be yours it will be jubilant now both are weights but there is a world of difference 10 kg iron will often be treated as a burden but 10 kg gold will be treated as a treasure, what is the difference? both weigh the same but their content is dramatically different so material emotions are like that 10 kg iron, they burden us down, they fill us with anxiety, they fill us with bondage, they fill us with suffering and most people still because they want and hope that they will get some pleasure through these emotions, so they keep holding on to these emotions and unfortunately all that they get is as Prahlad Maharaj says in his 7th canto 9th chapter prayers that it is a burden of illusion, now there are impersonalists who say that this iron, it’s a big weight why should I carry it around, I just throw it away and they want to reject all emotions and their idea is the perfection of life shanti, shanti shanti yogas chitta vritti nirodhah the perfection of samadhi is just stop all movement of consciousness and become silent, so they are just shedding away all the burden and this may seem good but then that person is penniless so like that this person who rejects all emotions, what is left to live for? nothing but if that iron could be converted into gold that means the selfish material emotions can be converted into selfless spiritual emotions the impure emotions can be converted into pure emotions, then those emotions rather than causing us anxiety will bring us ecstasy, rather than causing us misery they will bring us great happiness, rather than causing bondage they will bring about liberation, how can emotions do all that? because ultimately what causes bondage what causes suffering is not emotions, it is the object to which those emotions are directed if those emotions are directed to Krishna then those emotions they lift us up material, if I am here if I am here, then material emotions will drag me down but spiritual emotions emotions directed towards Krishna will lift me up so what bhakti does is, it lifts us up, gives us uplifting emotions and the greatest giver of such uplifting emotions is Shri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu Shri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu has come with the process of Harinam Sankirtan as we see here, Shri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu is dancing ecstatically with his devotees and he is teaching Sankirtan, what does Sankirtan do? Sankirtan converts the iron-like material emotions which burden the soul into gold-like spiritual emotions which are the treasure of the soul that is the magical alchemy that Shri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu does that transformation is extremely difficult to do otherwise alchemy is not easy to do otherwise everybody would become treasurers of gold but that doesn’t happen because alchemy is quite difficult actually that alchemy of the emotions is far far more difficult but Shri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu through the process of Harinam Sankirtan, through the chanting of the holy name through his personal special grace gives us the process by which our emotions can become transformed if we just absorb ourselves in the Sankirtan movement and offer our heart to Krishna as much as possible through chanting, through remembering through serving, then the result of that will be our life and our heart will be transformed miraculously there will be an alchemy of the heart and even when we are in this world, we will see this world as pregnant with possibilities for serving Krishna and by serving him in this way we will increase our love for him more and more and ultimately we will return back to him so Shri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu does not say Chitta Bhakti Nirodha He says, Anandambudhi Vardhanam Pratipadam Poornamrta Swadhanam So He says that Ananda, the emotion doesn’t have to be given up but it is an ocean and the ocean keeps expanding and not only is the ocean expanding at every step we are relishing newer and newer nectar in that ocean so this is the special Mercy of Shri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu Mahavadanyaya Avatar, the supremely merciful Avatar, what is He doing? That which has been a burden for us lifetime after lifetime after lifetime the selfish material emotions He is by the process of divine alchemy transforming that into the most precious treasure in all of existence pure spiritual emotions for Krishna and not just for Krishna in any other form, Krishna in the Vraja form and not just Krishna in Vraja form but Krishna in Vraja as Kishore Krishna in the mood of the Gopis, so that is the supreme treasure that Shri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu is offering us through the process of divine alchemy