Why we disagree? - Vivekananda

N. Ganesan naga_ganesan at HOTMAIL.COM
Fri Sep 1 17:18:25 UTC 2000


I read Vivekananda's story about frogs in http://www.tamil.net.
The same story is told in the 7th century TEvAram poem.
The only change is that the conversation is between
turtles, not between sea- and well- frogs.

kUval Amai kuraikaTal Amaiyai
"kUvalOTu okkumO, kaTal?" en2Ral pOl,
pAvakArikaL pArppu aritu en2parAl -
tEvatEvan2 civan2 peruntan2maiyE.

Does this story also appear in Sankrit and Buddhist sources?
Or, did he hear it in Madras, at Bhaskara Sethupati's court,
from his friends like J.M. Nallasamy Pillai?

Thanks,
N. Ganesan


-----------------------------------

Why We Disagree - Swami Vivekanada 15th September 1893.

I will tell you a little story. You have heard the eloquent speaker
who has just finished say, 'Let us cease fro abusing each other,' and
he was very sorry that there should be always so much variance.

But I think I should tell you a story which would illustrate the cause
of this variance. A frog lived in a well. It had lived there for a
long time. It was born there and brought up there, and yet was a
little, small frog. Of course, the evolutionists were not there then
to tell us whether the frog lost its eyes or not, but, for our story's
sake, we must take it for granted that it had its eyes, and that it
every day cleansed the water of all the worms and bacilli that lived
in it with an energy that would do credit to our modern
bacteriologists. In this way it went on and became a little sleek
and fat. Well, one day another frog that lived in the sea came and
fell into the well.

'Where are you from?' 'I am from the sea.' 'The sea! How big is that?
Is it as big as my well?' and he took a leap from one side of the well
to the other. 'My friend,' said the frog of the sea, 'how do you
compare the sea with your little well?' Then the frog took another
leap and asked, 'Is your sea so big?' 'What nonsense you speak, to
compare the sea with your well!' 'Well then,' said the frog of the
well, 'nothing can be bigger than my well; there can be nothing bigger
than this; this fellow is a liar, so turn him out.'

That has been the difficulty all the while.

I am a Hindu, I am sitting in my own little well and thinking that
the whole world is my little well. The Christian sits in his little
well and thinks the whole world is his well. The Mohammedan sits in
his little well and thinks that is the whole world. I have to thank
you of America for this great attempt you are making to break down
the barriers of this little world of ours, and hope that, in the
future, the Lord will help you to accomplish your purpose.

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