Story about Sir Isaac Newton

Satsvarupa Dasa Goswami: Once on Ekadasi I brought him his medicine mixed with rice water, even though he had told me previously not to bring the medicine on Ekadasi because we fast from all grains on that day. One day, seeing one of my discrepancies, he told me a story about Sir Isaac Newton. He said Sir Isaac Newton's friend had made two holes in his door and a friend asked what they were for. "These holes, said Sir Isaac, are for my two cats so they can pass in and out of the room." Sir Isaac Newton's friend asked, "Why make two holes? Why can't the cats just go out of one hole?" The learned scientist replied, "I have made them in two sizes because one of my cats is small and one is big."

On hearing this, Sir Isaac's friend laughed at the foolishness. Obviously, both cats could have gone, one at a time, through a single large-sized hole. It was double work unthinkingly done. I think Prabhupada told me this story to point out that I was like an absent-minded professor. At first I flattered myself that at least it was a very learned man, Sir Isaac Newton, who had done something foolish. Perhaps Sir Isaac had been thinking of higher things and not attending to ordinary details. But this couldn't apply to me, because all my "Ordinary details" were important phases of personal service to Srila Prabhupada. Thinking over the Isaac Newton story, I further concluded that while Prabhupada saw I was well-intentioned and hard-working, I was sometimes impractical. For example, there was no good reason not to ask some of the temple devotees to assist me.