The Exploding Frog

There was once a frog that lived in a pond. One day, her son happened to see an elephant near a tank. The baby frog returned to it’s mother and enthusiastically told her, “Mother, today I saw a huge animal!”

The mother frog asked, “Really? How big was the animal?”

The baby frog replied, “Oh, it was much bigger than you are.”

The frog puffed up her body and asked, “This much bigger?”

The baby replied, “Oh no, much bigger.”

The mother puffed up her body more and asked, “Even this much bigger?”

Her child replied, “No, no mother, much bigger than that.”

In this way the mother frog gradually puffed up her body more and more and each time the baby-frog would continue to tell her, “much bigger, much bigger”.

Finally, while trying to puff up her body beyond limit, the frog’s belly exploded with a big bang.

PURPORT

The insignificant living entities who consider themselves as “para-brahma” (para = supreme, brahma = Absolute Being), or as  if nothing is equal to or greater than themselves in spite of the fact that they’re simply misconceived insignificant entities constitutionally engaged in devotional service, take a fancy to be equal in perfection with a liberated soul. They are usually destroyed like a puffed-up frog due to their false ego.

Shri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu has said :

jnani jivanmukta dasa painu kari mane /

vastutah buddhi suddha nahe krishna-bhakti vine //

mayadhisa mayavasa, isvare jive bhed /

hena jive isvara-sah kaha ta’ abhed //

prabhu kahe-visnu visnu iha na kahiva /

jivahame ‘krishna’-jnan kobhu na koriva //

sannyasi - cit-kana jiva, kirana-kana-sama /

sadoisvaryapuna krishna hoy suyopama //

jiva, isvara-tattva-kobhu nahe ‘sama’ /

jvaladagnirasi  jaiche sphulingera ‘kana’ //

jei mudha kahe, -jiva isvara hoy ‘sama’ /

sei ta’ ‘pasandi’ hoy, dande tare yama //

“There are many philosophical speculators ( jnanis) belonging to the Mayavada school who consider themselves liberated and call themselves Narayana.  However their intelligence is not purified unless they engage in Krishna’s devotional service.” (Chaitanya -charitamrita - Madhya Lila 24.29)

“The Lord is the master of the potencies, and the living entity is the servant of them. That is the difference between the Lord and the living entity.  However, you declare that the Lord and the living entities are one and the same.” (Cc - Madhya Lila 6.162)

Shri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu immediately exclaimed, “Vishnu! Vishnu! Do not call Me the Supreme Personality of Godhead. A jiva cannot become Krishna at any time. Do not even say such a thing!”

“A sannyasi in the renounced order is certainly part and parcel of the complete whole, just as a shining molecular particle of sunshine is part and parcel of the sun itself. Krishna is like the sun, full of six opulences, but the living entity is only a fragment of the complete whole.”

“”A living entity and the Absolute Personality of Godhead are never to be considered equal, just as a fragmental spark can never be considered the original flame.” ( Cc - Madhya Lila 18.111-113)

“A foolish person who says that the Supreme Personality of Godhead is the same as the living entity is an atheist, and he becomes subject to punishment by the superintendent of death, Yamaraja.” (Cc - Madhya Lila 18.115)

N.B.

By narrating this fable of the exploding frog, Shrila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati Gosvami Prabhupada used to instruct that it is better to be a good man than to be a big one. “I am Brahaman,” “I am siddha” , “I am Vaishnava” , “I am pandita” , “I am self - realized” - this sort of false ego is the root cause of the fallen entities’ bondage. One who is enlightened with pure devotion for Shri Hari, never conceives himself to be the lord of this material nature or the enjoyer of this material world, as a great worker, a great preacher, and the like. Such a person should realize himself as insignificant as eternal dust-particles under the feet of his spiritual master and of all the Vaishnavas. He possesses a very candid humility all the time in his heart. A living entity can never be para-brahma, just as Ravana can never be Lord Shri Ramachandra.