Swami Vivekananda's The Frog In The Well Story ~ Swami Vivekananda Quotes

Swami Vivekananda, like his Master Ramakrishna, used to tell many stories in his lectures and discourses to explain religious and philosophical concepts and doctrines. The frog in the well or The story of two frogs is such a story. Most probably Swami Vivekananda was not the original author of the story, but he told this story several times in his lectures and discourses.

☞ In this article you'll find—

Swami Vivekananda original story "Frog in the well" and its versions.
Newspaper coverages and Swami Vivekananda's quotes related to the story.

Why we disagree?

Swami Vivekananda told this story at the Parliament of the World's Religions on 15 September 1893. It was his second lecture at the Parliament. He told—^[Source]

I will tell you a little story. You have heard the eloquent speaker who has just finished say, "Let us cease from 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?"
Image source: Wikimedia Commons

"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 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 your purpose.

[Note: You may download a copy of swami Vivekananda's lecture at the Parliament of the World's Religions from the "Books" page of this website]

Version 01

It is the same story, from The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda, Volume 7, Conversations And Dialogues—^[Source]

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?'

Nothing can be bigger than my well;
there can be nothing bigger than this;
this fellow is a liar, so turn him out
Image source: Wikimedia Commons

"`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."

Newspaper reports

Swami Vivekananda told this story in many of his lectures.

①

Des Moines, United States, November 1893

He told the story at Des Moines, United States in November 1893. The original lecture has not been found, but a newspaper report on the lecture was published in the Daily Iowa Capitol, on 28 November 1893. There it was reported—

The speaker was not favorably impressed with the efforts to make Hindu converts--perverts he calls them--to Christianity, nor the converse. All religions being true, such perversions serve no good end. The Hindu religion the speaker claimed is not disposed to antagonize any belief; it absorbs them. As for tolerating different beliefs, the language of the Hindu has no word corresponding with the English word "intolerance". That language had a word for religion and one for sect. The former embraced all beliefs. The conception of the latter the speaker illustrated by telling the story of the frog, who had no idea there was any world outside the well in which he had always lived.

②

Smith College, Northampton, Massachusetts, 15 April 1894

Swami Vivekananda's lecture delivered at Smith College, Northampton, Massachusetts on 15 April 1894, was reported in the Smith College Monthly in May (1894).

On Sunday, April 15, Swami Vivekananda, the Hindoo monk whose scholarly exposition of Brahmanism caused such favorable comment at the Congress of Religions, spoke at Vespers. --We say much of the brotherhood of man and the fatherhood of God, but few understand the meaning of these words. True brotherhood is possible only when the soul draws so near to the All Father that jealousies and petty claims of superiority must vanish because we are so much above them. We must take care lest we become like the frog of the well in the old Hindoo story, who, having lived for a long time in a small place, at last denied the existence of a larger space.

Swami Vivekananda's suggestion

In a letter written to Swami Ramakrishnananda (Shashi) in 1895, Swamiji suggested—^[Source]

Try to give up ceremonials. They are not meant for Sannyasins; and one must work only so long as one does not attain to illumination .... I have nothing to do with sectarianism. Or party-forming and playing the frog-in-the-well, whatever else I may do....