Common Sense and Observant
Rukmini Dasi: One night in his room in Vrindavan, Prabhupada told some stories about common sense intelligence and the ability to be observant. He said, "If a man is intelligent, when he is lying on his back he will naturally count the rafters." He said that when he was a child in Calcutta, during the rainy season a pipe dripped outside his window and he used the beat of the drips as a metronome to practice his mridanga beats, faster or slower according to the drips. He also told a story about a question on a job application that read, "Have you ever ridden the Punjab Mail train, the train that brings the mail to Punjab?" One applicant answered, "Yes, many times." And the next question was, "How many cars are there on the Punjab Mail?" The idea was that an intelligent person would notice such a thing.
Prabhupada told another similar story, about a man and his assistant who were interviewing two job applicants. One of the applicants came in, sat down, had his interview, had many qualifications for the job, and left without closing the door after him. Then the other man sat down, had his interview, had none of the qualifications for the job, but closed the door properly behind him when he was dismissed. The interviewer said to his assistant, "Who do you think will get the job?" The assistant said, "Of course, the man with all the qualifications." The interviewer said, "No, the man who has none of the qualifications will be given the job." "Why?" "Because he closed the door behind him. So we can train him, we will be able to work with him. The other man, although he has the qualifications, he was not observant enough to close the door properly. So we won't be able to work with him in our company."
Reference: Memories Anecdotes of a Modern Day Saint - Volume 3 by Siddhanta Dasa
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