VIVEKANANDA - Famous Speech

Sisters and Brothers of America,

You have given us a warm and cordial welcome. It fills
my heart with great joy to rise in response to your kind words. I
thank you in the name of the most ancient order of monks in the
world.

I am proud to belong to a land which has taught the
world both tolerance and universal acceptance. We believe in
universal toleration. We accept all religions as true.

I will quote to you, brethren, a few lines from a hymn. I
remember to have repeated it from my earliest boyhood. It is
repeated everyday by millions of people: “As the different
streams mingle their water in the sea, so, Lord, the different
paths which men take, all lead to Thee”.

You have heard the speaker who has just finished say,
”Let us cease from abusing each other.” He was very sorry that
there should always be so many differences among us. But I
think I should tell you a story now. It would illustrate the cause
of these differences.

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 frog.
It cleaned the water everyday of all the worms that lived in it. 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. We sit in our
well thinking that the whole world is the little well.