I've come to give you a brain. Your society is headless.

Rabindra Svarup : We'd all come to greet Prabhupada in the airport, and there was a big press conference in the passenger lounge. A reporter asked Prabhupada, "Why have you come to America?" He said, "I've come to give you a brain. Your society is headless." He liked to provoke reporters. Then when the press conference was over, Prabhupada was walking back along the long concourse, and I was about twelve or fifteen feet behind him. Coming at us was a weird sight as a television reporter was running, and linked to him was a guy with a mini-cam on his shoulder. In those days, the mini-cams were not so mini. They came up to Prabhupada. Prabhupada stopped, and they got themselves together while Prabhupada watched. Finally, one guy stuck a microphone into Prabhupada's face and said, "How does your group differ from other Buddhists?" Prabhupada was so cool. He looked at this reporter, and without a moment's hesitation said, "We have nothing to do with Hinduism or Buddhism. We are teaching the truth, and if you are truthful, you will accept it." The guy was utterly speechless. There were two things going on in that conversation. One, which always happened with reporters, was that the reporter was playing his little role as a reporter, and Prabhupada was supposed to play his little role as an interviewee. But Prabhupada didn't buy into that structure at all. He was talking to this jiva about his life and the meaning of it. That's what got to the reporter. Second, when Prabhupada answered like that, it destroyed the mental platform on which the question was asked. It got the guy right down to the truth. So when I think of Prabhupada's teachings and how he taught, this incident stays in mind as an example of how we should be and how we should preach. Prabhupada managed to do it in just a few words.