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| The following story is one which he related recently regarding the practice of fault - finding among creeds: "A frog lived in a well. It had lived there for a long time. . . .
—Swami Vivekananda
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- Ay! says the Vedanta, it is not the fault of God that this partiality exists, that this competition exists. Who makes it? We ourselves. There is a cloud shedding its rain on all fields alike. But it is only the field that is well cultivated, which gets the advantage of the shower; another field, which has not been tilled or taken care of cannot get that advantage. It is not the fault of the cloud.[Source]
- It is not God's fault. It is our fault that we suffer. Whatever we sow we reap.[Source]
- Never forget that a man is made great and perfect as much by his faults as by his virtues. So we must not seek to rob a nation of its character, even if it could be proved that the character was all faults.[Source]
- Never talk about the faults of others, no matter how bad they may be. Nothing is ever gained by that. You never help one by talking about his fault; you do him an injury, and injure yourself as well.[Source]
- Nobody has a right now to say that the Hindus are not liberal to a fault.[Source]
- Religion is not in fault.[Source]
- The fire that warms us can also consume us; it is not the fault of the fire.[Source]
- The same fire that cooks a meal for us may burn a child, and it is no fault of the fire if it does so; the difference lies in the way in which it is used.[Source]
- The same fire that cooks your meal burns the child. Is it the fault of the fire?[Source]
- The wind is blowing; those vessels whose sails are unfurled catch it, and go forward on their way, but those which have their sails furled do not catch the wind. Is that the fault of the wind? Is it the fault of the merciful Father, whose wind of mercy is blowing without ceasing, day and night, whose mercy knows no decay, is it His fault that some of us are happy and some unhappy? We make our own destiny. His sun shines for the weak as well as for the strong. His wind blows for saint and sinner alike. He is the Lord of all, the Father of all, merciful, and impartial.[Source]
- We are suffering from our own Karma. It is not the fault of God. What we do is our own fault, nothing else. Why should God be blamed?. . .[Source]
- We do not look at our own faults; the eyes do not see themselves, they see the eyes of everybody else. We human beings are very slow to recognise our own weakness, our own faults, so long as we can lay the blame upon somebody else.[Source]
A story
From Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda, Volume VII—[Source]Note: Swamiji told the same story at the Parliament of the World's Religions, Chicago on 15 September 1894
The following story is one which he related recently regarding the practice of fault - finding among creeds: "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 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 eyes, and that it every day cleansed the waters of all the worms and bacilli that lived in it, with an energy that would give credit to our modern bacteriologists. In this way it went on and became a little sleek and fat -- perhaps as much so as myself. Well, one day another frog that lived in the sea, came and fell into the well. "`Whence 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,' says 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 world is my well. The Christian sits in his little well and the whole world is his well. The Mohammedan sits in his well and thinks the whole world that. I have to thank you of America for the 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 that purpose."
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