‘Lord Jagannath is not an object of vision, Jagannath is the seer. When jiva souls give up the ego of a ‘seer’ and become completely established in the pure ego of being objects of Jagannath’s vision and enjoyment, then they will attain service mood and will be able to receive the darshan of Lord Jagannath with the eyes of divine love, filled with serving attitude.

‘For as long as we think, “I will see Jagannath,” we will not see Jagannath – instead, we will see only wood, stone, a formless figure from Buddhist literature or historical accounts, an enjoyable idol; and when we can wholeheartedly feel, “He will see me. We are objects meant for His enjoyment; there is no veil of our own enjoyment when it comes to His pleasure; He is free to act as He pleases without any constraints,” then Jagannath will manifest Himself before us.

‘However, whether the people of this world realise it or not, their minds are bewildered by the idea that “I will see Jagannath – I will survey His eternal, all-conscious, blissful holy Deity with my fleshy eyes and enjoy.” That is why even after the so-called “darshan” of Jagannath, their minds and hearts still run to see various ugly sights of this world.’

(Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati Thakur)

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