By your tiny effort you cannot see God. This is not possible. Just like in the midnight, darkness, it is not possible to see the sun. You can see sun when sun itself reveals to you

Expressions researched:
"By your tiny effort you cannot see God. This is not possible. Just like in the midnight, darkness, it is not possible to see the sun. You can see sun when sun itself reveals to you"

Sri Caitanya-caritamrta Lectures

You cannot see God. You... By your tiny effort you cannot see God. This is not possible. Just like in the midnight, darkness, it is not possible to see the sun. You can see sun when sun itself reveals to you.

Lecture on CC Madhya-lila 25.36-40 -- San Francisco, January 23, 1967:

This form... How one does see the supreme form of Kṛṣṇa? Simply by the method of service. Otherwise, there is no possibility. Sevonmukhe hi jihvādau (Brs. 1.2.234). If you be engaged in service attitude, then God will reveal Himself unto you. You cannot see God. You... By your tiny effort you cannot see God. This is not possible. Just like in the midnight, darkness, it is not possible to see the sun. You can see sun when sun itself reveals to you. Sun has got a time, say, 4:30 or 5:00 a.m. in the morning, at once reveals. And as soon as the sun reveals itself, you see yourself, you see the sun, and you see the world. And so long you do not see the sun, you are in darkness, the world is in darkness, and you cannot see. Similarly, without seeing the sun, or the Supreme Personality of Godhead, you cannot have actually the perfect knowledge of this manifestation of this world. The Vedānta-sūtra, or the Upaniṣad, confirms it: tasmin vijñāte sarvam evaṁ vijñātam bhavanti. One who has understood the Absolute Truth, for him, there is nothing unknowable. Everything becomes revealed to him automatically. He hasn't got to exert separately to understand or to study different departments of knowledge. But if he, by the process, if he is able to see, just like Brahmā has seen, then he knows everything. Dhyāne sma no daraśitaṁ ta upāsakānām tasmai namo bhagavate 'nuvidhema tubhyam: "The same Personality of Godhead whom I saw in my meditation, now I see face to face. I offer my respectful obeisances."