Dr. Frog’s Thesis

Dr. Frog’s Thesis

Not far from the ocean there lived a frog in a well. The frog was, in fact, born and
brought up within the said well and never went outside it. Nevertheless it was still
a puffed up creature.
The frog used to think that it was the sole proprietor of the well — it even
surmised that the well was tantamount to the world and as such, the frog
considered itself the lord of the whole world!
One day another big frog from the seaside came across the well and by chance it
fell inside. The resident frog took the seaside frog to be new prey and as such it
jumped upon it, but realized soon that it was another frog that was just a little
different.
So the resident frog asked the newcomer, “Where do you come from>”
The seaside frog answered, “From the seaside.”
Hearing this the well-resident enquired, “How small is the sea compared to my
well~”
The seaside frog laughed, “The sea is beyond any comparison with this well.”
The well-frog was surprised. “Is it this large>” Saying thus he gave a long leap.
Seaside frog: “How long a jump can you attempt>! The sea is far bigger than
your well.”
Then the well-frog jumped from one end to the other end of the well and
shouted, “Impossible! Nothing larger than this can exist.”
At this the seaside frog said, “Please make an effort to look above this well and
see how large the ocean actually is!”
The well-frog scoffed, “You appear to be extremely fanatical. I am sure that the
ocean may very well be as large as this well. I am not so narrow-minded that I am
going to declare my well the biggest place of all. Your ocean must be as big as my
well, because water is there in both the places. This is my strong conviction. You
must be simply boasting about your ocean like a fanatic for your own satisfaction.”

PURPORT

In the material world as well, there are so many pedantic compromising pandits
who insist their own viewpoints are the best ones but ultimately fail to support
their own hypotheses. They finally try to equate devotional service with other
types of services. They behave just like highly learned “Dr. Frogs”, but in fact their
perception about devotional services is far from satisfactory.