As you know that the principle of Guru resides in the Void. This is the principle which gives you balance, which gives you a gravity. The gravity that we have in the Mother Earth is expressed through your Guru Principle.

The first point of gravity is that you should have a personality, a character, and a temperament—that people would see that you are a personality who doesn’t get dissolved into worldly things. Is a personality which doesn’t get ruined by the skirmishes of life. Is the personality of a guru which sits down deep into his being and is not easily disturbed or dissolved by any solvent whatsoever. This is the first principle of the Guru: is the gravity.

As I told you, it is something which cannot be dissolved into anything. It settles very deep down into a personality. So it doesn’t float in the water.

Now, you see in the countries which are developed very much, we think that we have a very great power of individual attainment; that individually we are absolutely free. We can do whatever we like. And that’s why individual freedom becomes the goal of all democratic countries, neglecting the collective.

Of course, individual is important, and it has to become all right to nourish the collective. But, if the individual does not have the gravity, then they float on the surface and anything can impress them. That’s why we find today people get impressed by fashions. By fashions which by no logical reason are good for your health, for your wisdom.

No fashion is good for your health, nor for your development as a personality. Sometimes you look so odd with it, so funny, so stupid. Then they ask you a question: “What’s wrong in becoming stupid? What’s wrong in becoming foolish?” The reason is, you have an individual freedom, but your personality has not grown, your personality is zero. You have no personality left. You cannot decide anything for yourself. Whatever is the fashion you just run after it. Is the situation of the Western countries. But in the countries like India, now they are also in some sort of a craze. Because they have to still pass through the so-called affluence that you have, so they’ll take to the crazes. Like supposing somebody sees a very beautiful carpet with someone, then all rush to buy that carpet. They’ll do anything for getting things to themselves. So they turn towards materialism also, in the same way as you people turn to fashions.

The individuality is all right up to a point, but then it becomes a madness. Especially in the West the personality is so low, is so missing, that any entrepreneur can develop any craze, any name, and everybody runs after that and is impressed. Like a stupid fellow can call himself by some name. Say, he can call himself by some funny name. Now, say, Poison, as he says. Now to everyone, to buy Poison is a very great thing, because it is by some stupid man who has taken a name and so everybody must buy that. It is nothing special about it. It is nothing special. It is nothing remarkable. It is nothing that will make you something great. But people will buy that particular make, because it has a brand which everybody will accept: “Oh, it’s from that particular brand.” And it’s such a madness about it.

Then comes to anything from hair style, up to your foot style, to your neck style, to your nail style, to your eyebrow style. I mean, anything, any stupid thing that you could do to your body is available and people take to it because they have no gravity in them. The persons who have gravity do not take to such changes. First, logically, they’ll try to know if this change is good or not. But only because it’s a change, it’s a craze, it’s a fashion, they do not take to it.

This is one of the signs of gravity in a person, that he doesn’t float on the ground like straws, but he stays like a beautiful pearl in the deep shores of understanding.