People who trust themselves can trust others. People who don’t trust themselves cannot trust anybody. Out of self-trust, trust arises. If you are distrustful about yourself, then you cannot trust me –you cannot trust anybody. Because if you don’t trust yourself, how can you trust your trust –you trust in me and you don’t trust yourself. So it is not a question about me, it is a deep question about yourself.

And who are these people who cannot trust themselves? Something has gone wrong somewhere.

First, these are the people who do not have a very good self-image: they are condemnatory towards themselves. They always feel guilty and always feel wrong. They are always defensive and always trying to prove that they are not wrong, but they feel deep down that they are wrong. These are the people who have missed, somehow, a loving atmosphere.

Psychologists say that the person who cannot trust himself is bound to have some deep-rooted problem with the mother. The mother-child relationship somewhere did not happen as it should. Because the mother is the first person in the child’s experience; if the mother trusts the child, if the mother loves the child, the child starts loving the mother and trusting the mother. Through the mother the child becomes aware of the world. The mother is the window from where he enters existence. And by and by, if there exists a beautiful relationship between the child and the mother, a response, a deep sensitivity, a deep transfer of energies, a flowering... then the child starts trusting others also. Because he knows the first experience was beautiful, there is no reason to think that second is going to be beautiful. There is every reason to believe that the world is good.

If in your childhood there was a deep milieu of love around you, you will become religious, trust will arise. You will trust, trust will become your natural quality. Ordinarily, you will not disturb anybody unless somebody tries hard to create distrust in you –only then will you distrust. But distrust will be exceptional. One man deceives you and tries hard to destroy your trust. Maybe trust in that man is destroyed, but you will not start distrusting the whole humanity. You will say, “This is one man, and there are millions of men. Just for one man, why distrust all?” But if the basic trust is lacking, and something has gone wrong between you and your mother, then distrust becomes your basic quality. Then ordinarily, naturally, you distrust. There is no need for anybody to prove. You distrust man, and then if somebody wants you to trust him he will have to work hard. And even then, you will trust him conditionally. And even then, that trust will not be comprehensive. It will be narrow; it will be arrowed at one person. That is the problem. In the old times people were very trusting. SHRADDHA, trust, was a simple quality. There was no need to cultivate it. In fact, if somebody wanted to become a great skeptic, doubting, then great training was needed, great conditioning was needed. People were simply trustful because love relationships were very, very deep. In the modern world has disappeared, and trust is nothing but the climax of love, the cream of love. Love has disappeared. Children are born into families where the father and the mother are not in love. Children are born –the mother does not care, is not bothered about what happens to them. In fact, she is annoyed because they are a disturbance, and they are disturbing her life. Women are avoiding children, and if they happen it seems like an accident. And there is a deep negative attitude; he is poisoned from the very beginning. He cannot trust the mother.